Dance Games :.

(Or anything that makes a break from the normal dancing).

Chapters:



1: Why Have Dance Games?

Besides the fact that they are fun, dance games are great to get people of different levels interacting with each other and will hopefully influence a great atmosphere within your dance scene.

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2: How To Lead Dance Games! (Important)

A lot of people try to have a dance game and fail and believe that it is a bad idea. Here are some tips to make them enjoyable for everyone:

• Give a short description of the game for the new people in the room even if there are only a few. You want to make everyone feel included and nothing makes someone feel like an outsider more than not knowing what is going on.
  
• If the game might seem too complicated for a beginner (i.e. steal dancing, contact lindy) then show them a quick example of an easy thing they can do.
  
• If there are some rules or etiquette that make the game better then explain them quickly. If there are a lot of rules, explain the most important 1 and each time you play the game explain one extra rule.
  
• Keep the entire explanation of the game to less than 2 minutes or 1 minute if possible. People want to dance, not hear a lecture. (exceptions for games that will be played through the entire dance night)

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3: Dance Games That Can Be Organized In Less Than 2 Minutes

• Steal Dance
• Improv Big Apple
• Call Out Dances - think contra dancing - freeze, swing out...
• Charleston Line
• Line dances - Shim Sham, Big Apple, Jitterbug Stroll, Fuji Apple, Madison
• Snowball
• Slow Jam � these are great for new scenes that can�t dance very fast yet
• Jam Circles � be careful, don�t throw a jam circle unless you are certain people will want to do it
• Follows Choice or Ladies choice & vice versa
• Dance with someone you don't know
• DJ Challenge � play a song that you wouldn�t regularly dance to but is still fun to dance to
• Restriction dances � have a caller call out restrictions - no left hand, blind, 1 foot, etc
• Taxi dance - follow takes their lead to their next follow partner or vice versa
• Booby trap - new dancers in middle, advanced dancers ask new dancers to dance
• Man Jam - bluesy songs are good for this, only men dance with each other
• Rock,Paper, Scissors - Bear, Crane, Snake
• Contact Lindy � this one might take a little longer to explain?
• Lindy Tag - tagbacks are allowed so when you tag another couple, quickly thread your way thru the crowded dance floor to the far side of the room. Great for learning to navigate the dance floor.

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4: Contests (Take a little time out of the night)

• Instructors Auctions (silent or not)
• Heel slide contest � who slides the farthest
• Mystery Bin (Omaha � Christy & Billy) � people win random things from a mystery bin
• Whose foot is it anyway? You can only watch their feet behind a curtain as they dance. Curtain raises slowly.
• Cool move contest � who has the coolest move
• Balloon around the ankle � couples try to pop each others balloons while dancing, last couple standing wins
• Limes under the arm, no dropping them

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5: Dance Games Created From Non-Dance Game Concepts

(I know these games probably need explanations for them to make sense, but instead of copying my rules, create your own rules for the games. Think of a game you play in non-dance situations and then see how you can change it up so it works for dancing.)

• Heads up, seven up
• Marco Polo
• Musical Chairs with bottles (or shots)
• Copycat battles
• Speed Swing
• Simon Says - keep everyone involved
• Telephone - memory game
• Cakewalk
• Props dancing
• Scavenger hunt
• Chain dance
• Horse (Lindy)

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