From: takoosma@utkvx1.utk.edu (Toby Koosman)
Subject: Dance demos (was Re: Scottish Country Demo Dancing)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 20:53:00 GMT

In article <HIS8N8F@netmbx.netmbx.de>, (Jonathan Robie) writes...
> 
>I keep getting requests for contra demos.  I have so far resisted on
>the grounds that contras aren't a spectator sport--lots of fun to do,
>not too interesting to watch.
> 
>Any opinions on this?
Naturally.  

Dance demos can be interesting to an audience if you can get together a
performance set that is willing to rehearse, with a director who is conscious
of the requirements of performance.  Just doing a dance as you would for 
recreation can too easily be a bad advertisement for dancing.  

I've been involved for many years with both social and performing dance
groups, including an English Country dance group that tries to do both, so
I can offer some tips based on my experience.

First, you should think about having costumes of some sort.  Not uniforms, 
but something with color and interest that has a consistent appearance and
isn't just street clothes.  The only contra dance demo I can recall seeing
was done in Revolutionary era costumes, which is a good way to get gigs but
possibly not what you want to emphasize if you're advertising modern contra
dancing.  If you wanted an honest contemporary dance outfit I suppose it would
have to feature ladies wearing t-shirts, skirts and tennis shoes, but I'm
not sure how that would play.  It's something to think about.   

Second, you want to emphasize the patterns of the dance--lines, circles, stars.
If you watch unselfconscious contra dancers you can hardly make these patterns
out in the chaos.  And you need to make people pay attention to the phrasing.
If you're so fortunate as to be able to select the people who will do your
demo, look for good phrasing; otherwise, you'll need to emphasize it in 
rehearsal, even to the point of (shudder) making people count.

On the topic of dance selection, I think you should avoid dances that are
either insufficiently or overly challenging.  The point is well made that
an easy dance done well looks better than an "interesting" dance that's
botched, but at the same time, if the dancers think a dance is dumb and
boring and they're not into it you won't get a very good performance out of
them.  Strike a balance.  

I've found that dances in which the number of people in action varies 
throughout the dance are more interesting to watch than dances where everyone 
moves all the time.  

All contra dances, all morris dances, all Scottish country dances, all fill
in the blank dances look alike to the uninitiated.  I'd venture to say that
if you did one of each without changing costumes it would look the same to
most people.  Vary the dances as much as you can by using different formations
and figures, but more importantly keep the length of your demo down as much
as is in your control.  Alternatively, perform in a place where the audience
turns over frequently (the favorite gimmick of morris dancers).

Audiences notice eye contact and other kinds of dancer interaction more than
you might think.  A little clowning and hamming won't hurt your performance
if you get the right people to do it (another thing to consider when 
recruiting).  

The bottom line is that performing is not, per se, dancing.  You don't want to 
overly exaggerate or cutsify your dance, but you need to work on presentation
and think about lots of considerations that don't apply to recreational dance.
I see nothing wrong with refusing to do demos if you don't want to do the work
and you feel it's got nothing to do with what you took up dancing for.

Toby Koosman
University of Tennessee   Knoxville, Tennessee  USA
Internet: koosman@utkvx.utk.edu     Bitnet: koosman@utkvx
Newsgroups: rec.folk-dancing