
Tonight was a good energy night with the Wilde Bunch, starting with the C1 at 6, and continuing through the Mainstream Class, Plus and Advanced from 7 to 9.
In C1, we have a 60ish guy who is now totally blind from macular degeneration; his wife brings him every week faithfully to both the C1 on Mondays and Kris' C2 on Wednesday's when that happens. This year, it's been quite challenging to keep him pointed in the right direction when he dances, which is nearly every tip. His wife is still a competent dancer. But the group is understanding and we work through this. They both leave before the hoo-haw of the regular club dancing, though.
The teaching tips at Mainstream soared tonight. It was one of those nights when every new call teach flowed seamlessly, and they danced it all smoothly and with energy. This is such a rush when that happens. Of course, it was offset by the trans crowd stumbling through Plus calls they've learned over and over and can't get. I don't know how many times I can show the centers part of Load the Boat to our Santa Fe trans, without me coming unglued. Is there something in the hormone treatments that draws them to square dancing, without any ability to do even an allemande left successfully?
I've been playing a LOT of my alternative patter to great success. And with the singing calls, I hear the dancers singing along or singing afterwards, which is always a good sign. Tonight's only 'theme' song was "Bradley the Brown Nose Raindeer," which is such a GOOFY song, that it had some of the dancers chuckling for a long time.
I hope this energy carries over into the Spring. I don't really have much hope that any recruiting efforts will be done for a January class, but I'll keep plugging away. We're going to start a C1 class the 2nd Monday of January.