While MacKenzie has not taught Irish dance since 2019, her greatest skill was in the description and teaching of figures. An excellent caller, she usually taught at the intermediate level. A teaching fixture at the Alameda Ceili, MacKenzie taught the weekly intermediate class there for about two years. She has also taught classes at East Bay Waltz and the San Francisco Free Folk Festival. She has experience with classes ranging from 4 to over 70 students. Here are some of her specialties:
Polka Sets
Often considered a staple of advanced dancing, polka sets are fun called numbers that give dancers the opportunity to think and respond on the fly. Designed for folks fresh out of beginner, this three-week series in polka sets will walk dancers through the basics of a polka set, all the way through how to call one! These lessons are designed for three 60 minute lesson blocks, but 90 minutes is ideal.
Basic Polka Sets: Dancers will learn how to dance a basic polka set, using figures from the Four-Hand Reel to learn the basic mechanics of the dance and positions within the set, such as heads/sides, first/other sides, corners, and contracorners.
Grand Polka Set Figures: Dancers will expand their abilities beyond four-person figures, learning how to dance (and call) crisp and clean grand figures, such as rights and lefts, slow squares, quick squares, mixed squares, angle-saxon squares, reverses, and quick ways back.
Calling Polka Sets: Dancers will have the opportunity to understand the nuances of a polka set from the caller's prospective. Emphasis will be placed on understanding who is in your set, what to do when you're out of ideas, being heard, calling grands, what to do when everything goes to hell, and polka set etiquette. Each person in the lesson will have the opportunity to call at least two figures.
Core Dances
Over the years, some dances have become core to the Bay Area Irish dancer's repertoire. While she can teach any dance in Terry's dancebook, MacKenzie feels confident teaching a particular core collection of dances without a reference or notes, and can answer any question about any figure from any position. Each of these lessons are designed to take about 60 minutes, though all benefit from a 90 minute class with mixed level dancers.
MacKenzie has extensive practice in teaching the second two dances in the reel-a-thon, The Iron Hand's Fancy and Jocelyn Bronnwyn's Fancy. The jig-a-thon, consisting of The Humours of Bandon and Jocelyn's Chutney, is another familiar favorite. During a lesson for any of these dances, dancers will have the opportunity to practice not only the transitions between the figures of the dance itself, but also the transition from the end of one dance to the beginning of the next in the a-thon, even if that other dance is not on the lesson plan for the evening.
MacKenzie somehow ended up with a knack for the precision that comes with jigtime, and is exceedingly comfortable teaching Trip to the Cottage and The Hallucination Jig. She was the unofficial caller of the Haymaker's Jig at the Alameda Ceili for a number of years and has found that 6/8 time really makes her heart sing.
Of course, if another dance takes your fancy, let her know, and she'd be happy to bring her dance notes along for the right lesson for your students.