Redwood Empire Swing Dance Club

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RESDC Swing Demonstration Team

 

Goals:  

  • Have fun
  • Learn some new patterns and moves
  • Improve leading and following
  • Experience being on a dance team
  • Perform to demonstrate our dance to people who have not seen it to encourage them to try it
  • Perform to promote the club and the joy of dancing
  • Meet and get to know other dancers better
  • Gain experience performing in front of a crowd
  • Bring enjoyment to the spectators.

Expectations:

The Choreographers will use their professional judgment to determine the sequence and moves in the routine. Team members can express opinions however 98% of the time the choreographers have final say.The team Captain is in charge of making other decisions for the team and collecting money to pay for our expenses. Booking shows will be handled also with assistance from the club. Opinions on team questions will usually be solicited but do not have to be followed by the captain. This is an unpaid but high workload position. Decisions will be made with the intent of following the best interests of the team and the club we will represent. The captain will also run the practices when the choreographer is not there.

The song for the routine will be selected by the captain and choreographers.

Team members must be current members of RESDC

Set up:

Time: Monday night, time to be determined- options 5:30, 7:00, 7:30

Location at the moment is Ellington Hall

Cost: Pay at the start of the month to cover costs of floor rental and choreographer based on number of participants. Intent will be a zero balance but I will also round to the nearest dollar. Dancer cost for the month will be the same whether one practice or all of them are attended. Reason: Folks who attend most sessions get the most out of the program so missing practice is discouraged. This scheme gives no financial incentive to miss a class and a strong one to attend them.

Schedule: Choreographer will attend one or two meetings a month to give material and work on technique. Other meetings will be to get together and practice individual moves and patterns and the routine in sequence. The first month may have all sessions with the teacher to teach the proposed moves.

Choreographers : Kelly Casanova

Song: To be determined

Other notes:

Communications to the whole group will be mostly by e-mail. Practice times and information, special practice times, asking questions, changes, opinions, and performance scheduling are included. (It takes much less time to e-mail a group than call everyone in a group.) Your feedback for times and attendance will be solicited. The phone may get used for urgent communications.

This routine program will start without having assigned partners unless couples sign up together and want to stay together. We will rotate partners frequently to help everyone learn the material and level out the field. If you have or end up with a partner assigned, be sure you have their contact information so you can coordinate and communicate on team and couple issues. Couple communication and coordination should not require major captain involvement.

This routine will try to emphasize changing formations and partner exchanges more than the first routine which ended up with several couples doing the same routine at the same time.

Be flexible about choreography changes. It is part of what we are learning. Moves will be moved, deleted, or adjusted as needed to fit the music better, and allow everyone to do the routine, and to look their best.

Team members main responsibilities are:

  • Learn the routine including the basic moves and the more advanced subtleties.
  • Be able to perform with the team in front of an audience for most performances. There will be conflicts and no one is required to do all performances but you should be able to do most.

The more practices attended, the better members will be able to do the moves and the routine. Be aware that it can be frustrating to wait while the coordinator reviews a move or sequence for someone who doesn’t know it because they missed the last practice or several practices.

It may be highly beneficial to take a private lesson from the choreographer if you are having trouble. Whether you split a lesson with a partner or do it solo will depend on the problem or concern. The cost of the private lesson is your responsibility.

Initial dress rehearsals will probably be in front of Kelly’s Wednesday class. If we go to twice-a-week practices, the second will likely be after Kelly’s class, 9:30 to 10:00. Performances will happen as requested and locations found.

 

Updated: 3/22/07