Join the Commonwealth (People ’ s) Ceilidh A Different Approach to Teaching Beginners

Campbell Tyler of Cape Town explains his original, and highly successful, approach to teaching new dancers.

Photo by Andrew Hodgson

Elaine Wilde of London Branch and Iain Hutchison of Glasgow Branch recently visited Cape Town and conducted a number of teaching sessions. During one of these I spoke to Elaine about the introductory class I was teaching. She suggested that I write up my approach and send it to Scottish CountryDancer.After I protested that I was not a certificated SCD teacher, and in fact had not even registered for Unit 1, she persuaded me by saying that the magazine needed alternative articles. Hopefully I can stir a bit of debate. When asked by the Cape Town Branch to teach an introductory class last year I asked for, and got, carte blanche to do it ‘ my way ’ . There were three aspects of the standard approach, as I perceive it, which I did not wish to follow: ● Teaching quick time first and strathspey later; ● Teaching formations which are hardly ever danced these days, using dances that are hardly ever danced these days; ● Not including as a major element of the curriculum handling the various progressions (two, three, and four couple progressions as well as those in the newer three-couple dances). The first issue I tackled was to start immediately with the strathspey travelling step. Aside from a couple of ceilidh-type dances (Flying Scotsman and Reel for Jeannie), the first two classes were all done to strathspey time. I only introduced the skip change in class 3 and the pas de basque in class 5. From class 3 onwards I did strathspey for the first half and then reel/jig for the second. Consequently the dancers met every formation for the first time in strathspey time. I am convinced that doing the strathspey steps first helped the class with the reel steps later. The standard of their strathspey dancing is extremely good (our Branch Chairman commented that they do the Swirl better than many experienced dancers in our clubs). I felt that they enjoyed the strathspey dancing because they felt more in control of what they were doing, they could improve their technique, they could practise hands and eye contact because there was time for those elements. They carried that over into their reel/jig time dancing. It is interesting to me that of the fifty dances in the Graded Dances books, only one is a strathspey. The second issue I tackled was the formations taught and the dances used for that purpose. The dances I used were firstly 12 Coates Crescent, then From the Broomielaw, then Dream Catcher and

finally Byron Strathspey. I followed these with the quicktime dances StAndrewsFair, On the Quarterdeck, Joie de Vivre, Catch the Wind and Cranberry Tart. All these

dances, with the exception of From the Broomielaw, are regular features on Cape Town socials. But only one is on the RSCDS Core Dance Introductory list. At points during the thirteen weeks I used ‘ practice dances ’ which just helped to cement a particular formation, but the class knew these were temporary and not to be confused with ‘ real’ dances. It is interesting to me that of the 35 dances listed in the beginners ’ grid of dances as supporting level 1 formations, only one (Piper and the Penguin, at 45) appears in

the top 100 dances appearing most frequently in programmes world-wide. The next most frequent is Royal Deeside Railway at 110. In other words, we are encouraged to teach our beginners dances they will hardly ever come across outside class. The concept of grading formations as simple to difficult is also interesting. Are they really difficult or just uncommon? I think with the exception of the tournée and possibly the all-round poussette, I could teach a beginners ’ class any formation in the book in one session (they learnt the Swirl with ease).To illustrate that point, one of my beginners went to a club class during the course and was taught Gypsy Dreams. In reply to my rather anxious question afterwards, he told me he had no problem with the gypsy poussette nor the gypsy turn. The third issue was that of the different progressions. I spent considerable time getting the dancers to step through the sequence for each couple firstly in a fourcouple progression, then in a three-couple progression, then a two-couple progression and finally a three-couple dance, using the dances above. I emphasised this because it seems most inexperienced dancers (and even some experienced ones) in our clubs battle with knowing when to step down, when not to dance (false starts and nonstarts are common) and where in the set they are. We completed the thirteen weeks with an Introductory Social hosted by the class with all Cape Town dancers invited. Of the fourteen dances on the programme, the course participants could dance twelve, having been told to sit out Best Set in the Hall and Montgomeries ’ Rant (because I hadn ’t taught them corners yet). The high point of the social for me was the first dance after the break, when I asked the class to demonstrate The Dream Catcher. They danced it on their own, with no recap or walk-through, and the other dancers gave them a standing ovation at the end. They had done it flawlessly. They were SO chuffed! Let me conclude with a note written by one of the participants at the end of the course: The dream was to take agroup ofabsolute beginners who didn ’t know eachother and may have never danced much, if ever, beforeandgetthemdancing. Mostofthem will have had a hectic day at work and arrive tired. Then make them concentrate andworktogetherasateam. You ’ vegotsix weeks to convince them that they will enjoy it, then another eight(ifthey choose tostay)topreparethemtoperforminfront ofagroupofexperienceddancers. Tosome this may have sounded like a nightmare. However Campbell managed to stay positive and keep us allgoing. At the end, we were able to perform Dream Catcher and have a wonderful evening of dancing withpeople we hadnever met. Campbellexplainedto us thatwe were the guinea pigs of a new idea to change the order of whatgets taught when. As far as I’ m concerned, we wentthrougha natural progression of dancing, learning thoroughly each step which then was applied to a dance. To me it made sense learning the slower steps first. It enabled us to concentrate on our hands as well as our feet. It has been wonderful to be guineapigs andhave lots offun along the way! I now look forward to our next course in March!