Dancers Moving Up

Many dancers lack self-awareness with respect to their current ability to dance their highest level.  If they are wise, they will ask their tape group leader (or live caller) how they are doing and if they should attend a specific dance weekend.

Challenge dancing is full of people moving up the levels.  A C2 floor at a large convention should expect to have its share of newer, inexperienced dancers. However, consider the difference between:

 A) A C2 weekend with C3A star tips, and

 B) A multi-level convention with a C2 hall and a C3A hall

In the first case, the C2 floor has higher-level dancers which will add strength.  The caller may be able to call harder and/or faster and/or cue less.  A newer dancer can be more successful.

In the second case, the C2 hall will contain only (mostly) C2 dancers.  The stronger dancers who know C3A or more are generally in other halls. The caller is hard put to even call "medium" C2. A newer dancer could find this to be a less successful style dance to attempt.

Consider two other cases:

A) A large C2 hall with 8 or more squares, or

B) A small hall with 1 to 3 squares of C2

In the first case, human nature will have the better dancers square up in the front and the newer or weak dancers end up in the back.  The caller will keep 5 to 6 squares going and a newer dancer could find themselves always in back squares with little success and lots of frustration all around. Now, in the old days, a tape group leader would set up a strong square for the new couple and have that square be up front.  Sometimes that is what it takes to launch a new couple.

I have one other situation to mention. Consider the dancers who workshop and really work to master their dance level. Say they are great at C2 and they travel to a large convention (like AACE) or a weekend (say Cherry Ridge) to dance C2. Should they generally expect to have dancers who worked just as hard as they did and are just as competent at the level as they are in the most of their squares? They came to dance C2, not to pull newer or weak dancers through the material. Do such weekends need to have hours labeled "for competent dancers only"?
 

And this gets to a final point.  What about the perpetual weak dancers?  The ones who have been dancing C2 for a long time, have never been good at it, and aren't getting any better.  Worse, they break down all the squares at C1 and Advanced. Where should they fit in?  Is it their right to travel and dance at any C2 weekend or convention?

I am always willing to have a group, new to the level, bring their workshop square, square up in the back, and give it a try.  I think this happened a lot in the old days when we had basement workshop groups who worked together, traveled together, etc.

The most important asset a newer dancer can have is a leader (tape group or caller) who knows the pitfalls, has danced at the various weekends, is stronger and more experienced than others in the group, and can use his (or her) judgment to prevent hurt feelings and frustration by attending certain dances and weekends before you are ready.

Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker@tiac.net