CHAT ROOM

Hi Andrew, I guess the answer to your question is to not get into this predicament in the first-place ;o)

A teacher has to plan their lesson in advance (well they should plan it; those that don't might be suprised at how obvious it is when they don't). Part of that planning has to be having different options and variations to the routine so that the difficulty can be adjusted up or down accordingly.

While it may be a drop-in lesson a significant number of the class will be regulars so the lesson should allow for revision of a technique (eg scoop turns) taught the previous week but employed/set in a different move. Have a technique theme running over say 3 weeks reenforces the technique in the students even if you don't explicitly point-out that the same technique is being used in the 3 different patterns/routines.

I'm waffling..... ok in the scenario described in your question I'd;

(1) quietly ditch the shine - women don't get injured by incorrect shines but they do by poor leading in partnerwork

(2) as for the partnerwork, it depends on how many people were getting each of the two patterns, as to whether to

(a) drop one turn pattern (telling them we'd start with it next-lesson); big chunk of humble-pie there

(b) allowing people to concentrate on the turn pattern they had made most progress-on and splitting my time between essentially two groupings (this only really works if they have got some ability at one of the patterns sufficient to dance to music and if you can move from a teaching-role towards a coaching-role)

(3) tell everyone I'd be available during the social dance afterwards for further questions and advice on the routines

(4) learn from the experience and adjust my plans for future lessons appropriately.

Thankfully I haven't seen Andrew at any of my lessons, so in this case I'm not the guilty-party! ;o)

PS: actually number (3) is s.o.p for me