Thanks, that's a lot of good info! (Heaves huge sigh of relief.)

I also got to thinking today that I wanted to make up something short for the holiday hafla katy is having at the school.
Then I remembered my lack of transitioning skills and started to rethink it. But now I'm thinking that thinking something out and choreographing it will be a hell of a lot easier than making up something on the spot.

Any other suggestions in addition to Mellie's are welcome too! Give me all the stuff you know!

Yes, it's true. LOVE to cue. You do not want me to take the cue; you will never get it back! But yeah, it took me lots of practice and the terror of cueing my first layered improv to feel this comfortable. EVERYONE has min-meltdown moments where they forget every move they've ever learned except for the one they're doing at that moment. You'll know I can't think of anything when you see me do hip ups into 4-point turns and then I bail.

Mellie's hit the nail on the head: practice moves that flow! That's why Katy has us do the group "pick a theme" exercise. But you don't have to just do all hip downs or Arabic moves because that's how you started. I agree with Mel's practice exercise: pick 3 or 4 moves that you're most comfortable with and then think about the basics of each. What are your arms doing? Are you facing straight forward or angled to the left? Is it a twist, hip up, shoulder, hip down, or Arabic move? Do your 3 or 4 moves have any of these qualities in common? If they do, it's going to be easier to link them together and obvious enough for the rest of your dancers to follow.

For example: the first moves I started to combine into smooth transitions were Casbah and Algerian Shimmy. I felt like a dance genius the first time I cued this. You finish Casbah with 4 hip downs while you're turning to face the front. All you have to do is move your arms down to your sides on that last 4 count, because you're already doing a hip down and facing straight forward, and then start the Algerian Shimmy 1. And then move into the rest of the Algerian Shimmy sequence if you wanna. The sequence ends with your body facing front, doing hip downs, and your arms up high. Your arms are already up and you're facing forward, so we usually go right into Egyptian Basic after this. But you don't HAVE to. It's just really easy.

And then once you've got it figured out, pick some other moves. The more you practice at it, the easier it will be to see which moves work and which ones don't. And you will develop your own Go-To Sequence that will become obvious the more you cue with the same group of people. Which is ok. Kind of awesome, really.

To agree with Melanie again, BE DELIBERATE. Don't panic and change from one move to another that's drastically different! A slow smooth transition is much easier to follow. And even if it's not the smoothest and not exactly on beat, just go with it anyway. If the cuer hesitates, then there's nothing for the rest of the dancers to follow. And that's a big ole awkward mess. Chances are, the rest of your dancers will be on beat even when you're not and sort of force you to adapt to the rhythm (at least this works in class where there's a mirror).

Cueing gives everyone lots to think about, so don't forget that more experienced dancers are trying not to cue moves that the rest of the group may not know. And it's difficult! :o)

Ok, end of ramble. And Amanda, you did great last night. Keep up whatever work you're doing and soon cueing will be a breeze.