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by Allan Hurst - allanh[at]myrealbox.com – Last updated 12/19/1998
Converted to HTML with minor
revisions 8/4/03
In square dance clubs all
over the world, it’s a familiar refrain:
“Where
are all our angels?”
There have been excellent
articles on how to angel, and on appropriate behavior for both angels and
students in a square dance class.
Rather than discuss how to angel, let’s examine why it’s
important for dancers to angel.
I’ve heard a number of
frequent complaints from experienced dancers who hate angelling.
“Students
aren’t worth my time, because they don’t know anything yet.”
This argument doesn’t hold
up logically; every experienced dancer started off as a student at some
point. Students can’t be expected to
know how to square dance yet; that’s why they’re in the class!
A square containing
experienced angels (especially if circumstances afford the luxury of a
“balanced” square with a 50% angel, 50% student ratio) can dramatically enhance
and speed up the learning experience.
WHEN YOU ANGEL ... it’s a club investment and a personal
investment.
Students in square dancing
(or any activity) can be easily discouraged.
If made to feel “shunned” by experienced dancers, students will probably
leave a class because they won’t feel welcome.
If you want to build up your club’s membership (and, therefore, the local
pool of possible dance partners), it’s your duty as an experienced dancer to
make students feel welcome, so they’ll stay not only through the end of the
class series, but also join the club as ongoing, active members. And they’ll be active members that you can
dance with at full level.
“Class
dancing doesn’t give me floor time as good as dancing at full level.”
This is another argument
I’ve heard frequently, and one which also doesn’t hold water.
WHEN YOU ANGEL ... floor time is floor time.
Dancers who complain that
they can’t get enough floor time at a given level, but who won’t angel for that
level’s current class, aren’t working in their own best interest.
For example, let’s say you
want to improve your A2 dancing. You
can practice A2 just as effectively in class as you can on a dance floor.
However, you’ll get better feedback and supervision in a class. The dancing may not be the flowing, graceful
extended patter tips you prefer, but it’s still good practice which will help
polish your technique.
Another advantage of dancing
in class as as an angel: if you’re feeling weak on a particular call, there’s
no stigma attached in asking the caller “Could you review _____ again, please?”
Learning and review is precisely what classes are designed for.
“Students
are too rough.”
Unfortunately, this is often
true. Many new dancers use very rough
and/or painful hand holds, or push/pull dancers very hard. Part of the responsibility lies with
each club’s caller/instructor, who should talk about handholds and body
motion. But an even larger part of this
responsibility lies with the class angels.
WHEN
YOU ANGEL ... It’s a feedback mechanism for the student.
If a specific student is too
rough, it’s perfectly OK for the angel to quietly and politely inform them that
they’re being too rough, and show them a gentler hand hold or more subtle body
language. If an isolated student is
having problems with a specific call, an angel (or group of angels) can tutor
the student on the call between tips.
WHEN
YOU ANGEL ... you can “train” students to dance the way YOU want.
Does your club have favorite
“fluff” or sound effects? When it’s
appropriate for your class’s students to learn such things, you can help them
pick up those techniques faster by personal demonstration and tutorial. This is an opportunity to help create a new
dance partner for yourself that you’ll enjoy dancing with!
WHEN
YOU ANGEL ... It’s a feedback mechanism for the caller.
In most cases, callers/instructors
don’t dance during teaching tips. While
bodies may be moving into the right positions, there’s no way for the caller to
know that a given student is using a bone-crushing grip.
In such a situation, an
angel can easily let a caller know that students are treating other dancers too
roughly. This gives the caller a chance
to correct the problem immediately, before it becomes an ingrained habit in the
students.
“Dancing
at [whatever] level is boring for me; I already know these calls.”
There are many articles
available on the web and in back issues of square dance magazines that
illustrate, quite eloquently, the continuing need for higher level dancers to
master and practice lower level calls.
(More than one Advanced & Challenge caller I’ve met seems to
specifically enjoy calling “Dive Thru” during A&C squares, just to see who
can’t remember their Basic calls.)
WHEN
YOU ANGEL...you might learn something new.
If you angel at different
clubs with different callers, you’ll pick up a different set of information
about dancing the same level from each individual caller.
You might find yourself
surprised (and delighted) to learn some background information or specific
technique about a given call that’s new to you. Even if you angel with the same club from year to year, most
callers - as with any good teacher- will vary the “information filter” they use
to teach the class from year to year, adding new information and dropping
outdated information. This could be
something as trivial as the history of a call -- but it could also be something
as important as a new or different application of an existing call from a
formation you’re unfamiliar with.
More importantly, call lists
change over time, and it’s helpful to angel in order to “retrain” yourself to
know what the current call list looks like, and to learn (or review) any new
calls added to the list since you took your first class at that dance level.
WHEN
YOU ANGEL ... It’s a terrific way to meet new people.
Traveling to a strange
city? Want to make new friends
easily? Call ahead for schedules, and
arrange to drop in on a local club during their class night, and offer to angel
for them. “New face” phenomenon aside,
angelling for another club is an easy and fun way to “break the ice” with local
residents in a strange city. It’s also
possible that you’ll pick up or pass on new dance techniques, sound effects, or
call mnemonics. In all cases, you’ll probably
have more fun than you originally thought.
WHEN
YOU ANGEL ... It strengthens our sense of community.
Interclub angelling fosters
a sense of mutual support. It’s not
unusual for members of a given club to reciprocate during a trip to another
area after receiving a visiting angel at their local club from that area.
Does your club host a
regular fly-in? Your angelling at other
clubs is a terrific long-term method to build fly-in attendance by increasing
your club’s visibility, and spreading the word about your event to new dancers,
as well as building goodwill with that club’s experienced dancers.
Even if you don’t travel to
other cities, angelling for other clubs in your local area helps build a sense
of community, interclub cooperation and trust, and that helps all of square
dancing.
Choosing to participate in
your club’s classes as an angel means you’re directly supporting your club and
your community.
[end]
Allan Hurst lives, dances,
and calls in the San Francisco Bay Area, with semi regular visits to Chicago.
He is a member of El Camino Reelers, Foggy City Dancers, Midnight Squares,
Squares Across the Border, and Chi-Town Squares. He can be contacted via email at “allanh [at] supportnet.com”