I am going to be in and travelling in the New England Area from 13-21 June
and should be grateful to hear of any calling, teaching or dancing
opportunities whilst I am there or en route to/from DC. My only fixed
points are that I need to be in northern Vermont on Sun 14 (aft) and Sat 20
(mid-morning).
I can provide lectures, calling workshops, English Country Dance Workshops
(all levels), English ceilidh workshops, contra workshops and call for
dances of all these types.
Please contact me off-list with any information about places to dance or
calling/teaching opportunities.
Michael Barraclough
http://www.michaelbarraclough.com
Jack Mitchell wrote: "I've gotten to the point in my calling that calling for a
weekend in the next few years is something that I'd like to set as a goal for
myself, but don't have a good idea of how to go about it."
Lynn Ackerson followed with many excellent suggestions. I'd like to add one
other: Diversify.
Many years ago, I was in the position that Jack is in. I looked around at folks
being hired for prestigious dance camps and wondered, "Why not me?" I took a
harder look-- I remember sitting down and drawing up a list of every caller I
could see listed at a camp advertised in the CDSS news. I soon realized that
just about everybody on that list could offer more than simply calling contra
dances. Some taught tango, or waltz, or swing. Some had honed their ability to
teach a special dance that would appeal to avid dancers; "Dutch Crossing" is one
popular example. Some were crackerjack square dance callers. Some had lots of
experience leading caller workshops, or had written many themselves and had led
sessions on how to write dances. Some had lots of experience teaching children
or novice dancers. Virtually everyone had something to offer a programmer in
addition to their ability to call contras.
I already had lots of experience with kids-- decades as an elementary school
teacher, including teaching longsword, morris, and country dance, and I had lots
of family dances on my resume. But I decided that I would hone my skills as an
English country dance caller; I already enjoyed dancing ECD and was eager to
share that dance form with others. Looking around, these seemed to be relatively
few callers who taught both American and English. (That's still the case, though
the numbers have grown in the past 15 years.)
Today, my gigs are pretty evenly split, with about one third of my jobs being
English country dance, one third contras and squares for the hard-core dance
crowd, and one third family dances. I've also developed presentations on dance
history, something that relatively few others offer. Each of these items have
been helpful at special dance events, whether weekends or weeklong camps.
Good luck!
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
If there are a lot of children, and no other contra dancers, for the
first workshop, don't start with a contra.
Start with something that breaks the ice and is easy and gets them
facing each other in long lines.
For my "one night stands", weddings, etc., I start with a dance
sometimes called "The Hat Dance" - except I use a large stuffed
animal gorilla, so people call it the "gorilla dance' - you know,
three chairs at the top of the set, two lines on either side, one
person sits in middle with gorilla on lap, one head of each line sit
on the side, band starts up and plays like a house afire, mid person
gives gorilla to one of the seated people, dances down set with the
other in a sashay or polka or whatever they choose, gorilla receiver
moves to mid seat, next two sit down. I don't know why this is so
successful, but people love this dance. They love watching other
people get or give the gorilla. I gave up on the hat idea because w.
kids there may be head lice. Really. The gorilla is cuter anyway.
This gets people moving, touching, laughing, and standing in two
lines and learning top of set and bottom of set.
Then follow perhaps with a reel, like Virginia reel. This gives a
vague concept of progression and doing something different at
different positions in the dance. There are some other simpler reels
than Virginia reel as well, without the strip the willow but with the
follow around and arch and under.
I think the one of the easiest contras is Ellen's Green Jig. I don't
have time to put it up here, maybe someone else could if you don't
know it, but it's one where everyone pretty much is in contact all
the time so it's hard to screw up, has just balance and swing, do-si-
do and circles pretty much, and the progression is oh-so-obvious, and
it doesn't matter if the genders get all screwed up as long as ones
are ones and twos are twos.
Oh, I called for a dance where 15 foreign exchange students showed up
with limited English. I'd keep the calls in English as you are a
beginning caller and it would be too much to think of to do it in
Japanese as well. But just pick the way you are going to call the
figure, e.g. Ladie's Chain - and NEVER vary it. It will always be
Ladie's Chain, not "Chain the women", not "women chain" not "chain
across" just flat out plain "Ladies Chain". People will catch on.
Martha
On Oct 2, 2007, at 4:00 PM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote:
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
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>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Japan dance and self intro/update
> (sharedweight.99.kyoto(a)spamgourmet.com)
> 2. Re: Japan dance and self intro/update (Lindsay Morris)
> 3. Re: Japan dance and self intro/update (Greg McKenzie)
> 4. Re: Japan dance and self intro/update
> (Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing)
> 5. Re: Japan dance and self intro/update (Lisa Sieverts)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 11:59:28 -0700 (PDT)
> From: sharedweight.99.kyoto(a)spamgourmet.com
> Subject: [Callers] Japan dance and self intro/update
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Message-ID: <74363.4139.qm(a)web38705.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> [n.b. this has been 'cross posted' to the yahoo traditional callers
> list, in case anyone is on
> both lists...]
>
> This post from a llooonnnngg time dancer and first time caller who is
> requesting some advice for an unusual situation...but as it is my
> first post, I will explain a little about myself, and along the way
> that will explain the unusual situation and help guide and refine any
> replies.
>
> My name is david crespo, a name some of you no doubt fear -- I mean
> recognize -- or would (recognize, that is) (if you saw my ugly
> mug) (well, maybe fear...) from my 20 odd (quite odd) years of
> dancing and involvement in the dance community in New England, mostly
> Vermont (Etna, Norwich, Thetford, to Northern Spy etc.) and Maine
> (SMFA (Yarmouth), Falmouth, Bates, Bowdoinham...). As some of you
> thus know, about 3 years ago, at a Wake the Neighbors Bates dance I
> was met by a cute and not very frightening Japanese exchange student,
> Yukie, who with a very little gentle nudging at Deffa a week later,
> eventually (rapidly, that is) was able to parlay that happenstance
> circumstance into what is now a beautiful and happy marriage. She
> returned to Japan shortly after we completed our courtship and about
> a year later I followed. We're living in Kyoto.
>
> Alas, there is one tragic note attending this otherwise joyous and
> perfect scenario. Japan, you see, is a land thouroughly devoid of one
> essential nutrient: contradancing. You can imagine my dismay, tears,
> and lamentations. Sadly, then, since my arrival, I have been quietly
> (well not so quietly) teaching english while secretly incubating evil
> plans to conquer Japan, then Asia, then the world in 64 (drastic)
> measures (hmmm--- good name for a dance). This month, my long patient
> agony of waiting has begun to pay off. I have been given the
> opportunity to indoctrinate a few trusting and innocent souls into
> the sublime mysteries of la dance du contra and create an army of
> swiftfooted robots, ready and willing to do my bidding at every call.
> SOON I WILL CONQUER THE WORLD!!!
>
> ahem.
>
> please excuse me while my medicine kicks in. Ah, yes, thank you. OK,
> where was I? The fact is, my wife and I have been invited to lead a
> contradance workshop at a local festival on October 20. When we found
> out, we began doing as much research as we could on calling and so
> on. We found a few basic dances, like Baby Rose and Diane's Visit and
> Atonement Reel that we like and figured would be suitable and we have
> been practicing calling them. But I really welcome any suggestions...
>
> Actually, above and beyond some decades of doing things proper and
> improper, I took a caller workshop or two from Rick Mohr (thanks
> Rick) so I have a rough idea of what's involved. And I've learned a
> bit from practicing calling and writing a few ad hoc dances on my
> own. For example, I learned that being a dancer has habituated me to
> act ON the beat, but as a caller I need to act BEFORE the beat,
> eh....this flustered me at first. Are there any other typical first
> caller pointers we should be on the lookout for?
>
> In addition, there are a few other associated circumstances in this
> project that create the aforementioned unique situation. In brief
> (HA! fooled you), since I've rattled on too long, here is what I mean:
>
> I don't speak more than the rudiments of Japanese. My wife is still a
> beginner dancer, to wit, she isn't a strong enough one to call on her
> own. Between us we are trying to teach each other what the other
> lacks and hopefully make one good caller out of the two of us. One
> question that has come up is is it better to keep the standard names
> for the figures, or to Japanify them. (We are leaning to the
> former...Japanese has a very high percentage of english loan words,
> and they learn english (poooooorly) in school.) Still, has anyone
> ever tried to call across a language barrier?
>
> Japanese are touch sensitve. They don't touch, they don't give eye
> contact. They don't give weight. (They give wait). They don't hug.
> They don't even say I love you. They are very shy. For example, I am
> told that this is to the point that standing in a line of men facing
> a line of women is likely be uncomfortable, even for the younger
> generation, so Yukie feels we should use mixed couples with armbands
> to distinguish "gender"--I mean position. As we build a community of
> experienced dancers, it would be expected that some of this
> inhibition might wear off...). You can see why they need to dance. On
> the other hand, they are good followers. Any advice for working with
> a shy crowd?
>
> Some or many of the attendees at this workshop, we just found out,
> are likely to be children. Depending on the percentage, it may be
> necessary to do a kids dance, or at least a dance kids could enjoy. I
> am good at working with kids in general, but I would love any advice
> for doing a dance with young people. I don't know or haven't been
> able to find any children's dances, though I assume the Family Dance
> in Yarmouth is still up and I plan to contact Jeff Raymond about it,
> because I can't remember the caller's name (Nancy....) (though we
> have danced and chatted about dancing and calling several times at
> the May Day Festival...gads! say hi if you're listening..).
> So, children's dances are one thing I am looking for.
>
> We are working in a small space...maybe two lines of six couples
> each. Advice for small spaces???　
>
> We are doing three workshops. If the same people return, we may do
> more advanced things, or we may just repeat teh workshop...but I
> would like to try different dances each time, for my practice.
>
> The room will be full of beginners, so no experienced dancers to rely
> on. Ballroom dancing had a certain following here (and in Kyoto there
> is a small set dancing group that we visited...small 14 or so... and
> a square dancing group that we plan to visit. ) but not enough to be
> helpful, in the sense that there are few cultural supports for
> learning (i.e. in the US most everyone knows (even if they don't
> admit it) how to at least fake a waltz or ballroom position...not
> here.) Think martian territory...
>
> I should add that we are seriously working towards starting a regular
> dance here (we've found an available and very suitable space, a
> church hall in a nearby church, for example) and this is for us a
> tryout and possible stepping stone. We want to whet people's
> appetite, and leave them wanting more. We have a half hour to do it...
>
> OK...apologies for the verbose and windy post. Fond regards to all of
> you I know, hajimemashite ("nice to meet you" in japanese, literally
> "beginning") to the rest and many thanks in advance for your time and
> help...cheers...david
>
> nothing rhymes with nostril...
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ______________
> Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with
> Yahoo! Autos.
> http://autos.yahoo.com/index.html
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:23:07 -0400
> From: Lindsay Morris <lindsay(a)tsmworks.com>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Japan dance and self intro/update
> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Message-ID: <47029A9B.1020203(a)tsmworks.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Wow, you're biting off too much.
> Teach them community-dance stuff first - circle mixers, easy
> things to
> get them used to touching, allemanding, and giving weight.
> If they refuse to take hands and circle left, then I suggest you
> fake a
> heart attack and get out.
> Lindsay Morris
> Principal
> TSMworks
> [1]www.tsmworks.com
> 859-539-9900
>
>
> [2]sharedweight.99.kyoto(a)spamgourmet.com wrote:
>
> [n.b. this has been 'cross posted' to the yahoo traditional callers
> list, in cas
> e anyone is on
> both lists...]
>
> This post from a llooonnnngg time dancer and first time caller who is
> requesting some advice for an unusual situation...but as it is my
> first post, I will explain a little about myself, and along the way
> that will explain the unusual situation and help guide and refine any
> replies.
>
> My name is david crespo, a name some of you no doubt fear -- I mean
> recognize -- or would (recognize, that is) (if you saw my ugly
> mug) (well, maybe fear...) from my 20 odd (quite odd) years of
> dancing and involvement in the dance community in New England, mostly
> Vermont (Etna, Norwich, Thetford, to Northern Spy etc.) and Maine
> (SMFA (Yarmouth), Falmouth, Bates, Bowdoinham...). As some of you
> thus know, about 3 years ago, at a Wake the Neighbors Bates dance I
> was met by a cute and not very frightening Japanese exchange student,
> Yukie, who with a very little gentle nudging at Deffa a week later,
> eventually (rapidly, that is) was able to parlay that happenstance
> circumstance into what is now a beautiful and happy marriage. She
> returned to Japan shortly after we completed our courtship and about
> a year later I followed. We're living in Kyoto.
>
> Alas, there is one tragic note attending this otherwise joyous and
> perfect scenario. Japan, you see, is a land thouroughly devoid of one
> essential nutrient: contradancing. You can imagine my dismay, tears,
> and lamentations. Sadly, then, since my arrival, I have been quietly
> (well not so quietly) teaching english while secretly incubating evil
> plans to conquer Japan, then Asia, then the world in 64 (drastic)
> measures (hmmm--- good name for a dance). This month, my long patient
> agony of waiting has begun to pay off. I have been given the
> opportunity to indoctrinate a few trusting and innocent souls into
> the sublime mysteries of la dance du contra and create an army of
> swiftfooted robots, ready and willing to do my bidding at every call.
> SOON I WILL CONQUER THE WORLD!!!
>
> ahem.
>
> please excuse me while my medicine kicks in. Ah, yes, thank you. OK,
> where was I? The fact is, my wife and I have been invited to lead a
> contradance workshop at a local festival on October 20. When we found
> out, we began doing as much research as we could on calling and so
> on. We found a few basic dances, like Baby Rose and Diane's Visit and
> Atonement Reel that we like and figured would be suitable and we have
> been practicing calling them. But I really welcome any suggestions...
>
> Actually, above and beyond some decades of doing things proper and
> improper, I took a caller workshop or two from Rick Mohr (thanks
> Rick) so I have a rough idea of what's involved. And I've learned a
> bit from practicing calling and writing a few ad hoc dances on my
> own. For example, I learned that being a dancer has habituated me to
> act ON the beat, but as a caller I need to act BEFORE the beat,
> eh....this flustered me at first. Are there any other typical first
> caller pointers we should be on the lookout for?
>
> In addition, there are a few other associated circumstances in this
> project that create the aforementioned unique situation. In brief
> (HA! fooled you), since I've rattled on too long, here is what I mean:
>
> I don't speak more than the rudiments of Japanese. My wife is still a
> beginner dancer, to wit, she isn't a strong enough one to call on her
> own. Between us we are trying to teach each other what the other
> lacks and hopefully make one good caller out of the two of us. One
> question that has come up is is it better to keep the standard names
> for the figures, or to Japanify them. (We are leaning to the
> former...Japanese has a very high percentage of english loan words,
> and they learn english (poooooorly) in school.) Still, has anyone
> ever tried to call across a language barrier?
>
> Japanese are touch sensitve. They don't touch, they don't give eye
> contact. They don't give weight. (They give wait). They don't hug.
> They don't even say I love you. They are very shy. For example, I am
> told that this is to the point that standing in a line of men facing
> a line of women is likely be uncomfortable, even for the younger
> generation, so Yukie feels we should use mixed couples with armbands
> to distinguish "gender"--I mean position. As we build a community of
> experienced dancers, it would be expected that some of this
> inhibition might wear off...). You can see why they need to dance. On
> the other hand, they are good followers. Any advice for working with
> a shy crowd?
>
> Some or many of the attendees at this workshop, we just found out,
> are likely to be children. Depending on the percentage, it may be
> necessary to do a kids dance, or at least a dance kids could enjoy. I
> am good at working with kids in general, but I would love any advice
> for doing a dance with young people. I don't know or haven't been
> able to find any children's dances, though I assume the Family Dance
> in Yarmouth is still up and I plan to contact Jeff Raymond about it,
> because I can't remember the caller's name (Nancy....) (though we
> have danced and chatted about dancing and calling several times at
> the May Day Festival...gads! say hi if you're listening..).
> So, children's dances are one thing I am looking for.
>
> We are working in a small space...maybe two lines of six couples
> each. Advice for small spaces???　
>
> We are doing three workshops. If the same people return, we may do
> more advanced things, or we may just repeat teh workshop...but I
> would like to try different dances each time, for my practice.
>
> The room will be full of beginners, so no experienced dancers to rely
> on. Ballroom dancing had a certain following here (and in Kyoto there
> is a small set dancing group that we visited...small 14 or so... and
> a square dancing group that we plan to visit. ) but not enough to be
> helpful, in the sense that there are few cultural supports for
> learning (i.e. in the US most everyone knows (even if they don't
> admit it) how to at least fake a waltz or ballroom position...not
> here.) Think martian territory...
>
> I should add that we are seriously working towards starting a regular
> dance here (we've found an available and very suitable space, a
> church hall in a nearby church, for example) and this is for us a
> tryout and possible stepping stone. We want to whet people's
> appetite, and leave them wanting more. We have a half hour to do it...
>
> OK...apologies for the verbose and windy post. Fond regards to all of
> you I know, hajimemashite ("nice to meet you" in japanese, literally
> "beginning") to the rest and many thanks in advance for your time and
> help...cheers...david
>
> nothing rhymes with nostril...
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ____
> __________
> Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with
> Yahoo! Autos.
> [3]http://autos.yahoo.com/index.html
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> [4]Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> [5]http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
> References
>
> 1. http://www.tsmworks.com/
> 2. mailto:sharedweight.99.kyoto@spamgourmet.com
> 3. http://autos.yahoo.com/index.html
> 4. mailto:Callers@sharedweight.net
> 5. http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
I was hired for my first dance weekend partially due to serendipity. On the Wednesday before camp, Lisa Greenleaf, the scheduled caller, contacted the programmer to let him know that she had laryngitis and possibly other throat ailments, and wouldn't be able to make it. The programmer called several other "big name" callers on the east coast trying to get them to fill in at the last minute, to no avail. So then he asked me, Wednesday while I was at work. This camp was in my home community. It was good that I only had two days to experience high adrenaline surges (i.e., stressing out) before the camp. Thanks go to Lisa for getting sick (only kidding), Charlie Fenton for having faith in me, and the Latter Day Lizards for being so supportive and so much fun to work with.
My next dance weekend invitation came from programmers who happened to be at the first camp I called. Other weekends I've been hired for since then have mostly come about by word of mouth. Someone who's heard me call somewhere recommended me when asked.
I've programmed some dance weekends, and recommended other callers for camps. With that hat on, let me tell you the things I think about when hiring or recommending a caller for a weekend. First, of course, they need to be a good caller: have all the technical aspects down, have good judgement and flexibility, and good taste in choosing the dances they call. Almost equally important is that they're a "good camper". They make an effort to meet the campers, get to know them, enjoy them, dance with them (when not calling). They don't just hang out with their friends and/or the other staff all weekend, and only show up when they have to call. I love callers who can build community from the stage, whose first priority is to make sure the campers have a great time, not to be the center of attention. A word George Marshall used once was "transparency". Qualities of this include being visible when needed to teach the dance clearly and concisely, calling until
most people have the dance, and then getting out of the way to let the band and the dancers make their magical connection. No prima donnas please.
My first recommendation would be to call, call, call, and continue to learn and improve your skills and judgement. I'd also recommend that you attend camps as a camper. And when there, be a "good camper". Dance with other campers of all experience levels. Meet people and enjoy them. Volunteer to help with set-up, clean-up. And just be yourself.
Good luck,
Lynn
--- On Mon, 4/20/09, Jack Mitchell <jamitch3(a)mindspring.com> wrote:
From: Jack Mitchell <jamitch3(a)mindspring.com>
Subject: [Callers] First Dance Weekend
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 10:03 AM
For those of you who have called for a dance weekend: How did you get
your first weekend gig? Did you go out looking for it? Did a weekend
approach you having heard your calling? Any suggestions? I've gotten
to the point in my calling that calling for a weekend in the next few
years is something that I'd like to set as a goal for myself, but
don't
have a good idea of how to go about it. My current plan has been
booking some multi-gig tours with bands that I work well with to
increase my exposure, but I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas that
others might have.
Thanks,
Jack Mitchell
Durham, NC
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
Dear dance friends,
In my business, I do database development, especially for non-profits and
particularly for community arts organizations ( http://studioschoolpro.com )
so it's probably natural that I started thinking about creating a database
for collecting dances, when I first started calling many years ago.
Starting with my original database and pulling in ideas from Russ Owen's old
FileMaker template, other people¹s homegrown systems and feedback from some
experience callers, I've built something completely new in FileMaker 9/10.
It's one of those projects that is both fun to do and hopefully will be of
practical use to others. The software Callers Companion - is primarily
geared towards contra but I¹m open to modifications that would enhance its
use for squares and ECD.
It is self-running - both Mac and Win - and will not require users to have
FileMaker Pro or any other software other than a relatively recent operating
system (Mac OS 10.4.8+ or 10.5.x, or Windows XP with SP2 or Vista). I¹m
assuming to release it as some form of shareware¹ license, meaning download
it and if you find it useful, pay something to support it¹s continued
development.
What I¹m looking for are a few intrepid folks (3-6) who are interested in
beta testing. I¹ve been testing and using it myself for a while and it¹s
pretty solid. If you would like to be a beta tester, please contact me off
list. I¹m interested in feedback from both experienced and new callers. If
you¹ve used Russ Owens old FileMaker template I may be able to import your
old data. Other systems may or may not be doable. If you¹re starting from
paper, know that the ³Insert Call² buttons make entry very fast and you can
customize the phrasing to your liking verbose or not as you choose.
Here ( http://callerscompanion.com ) are some screen shots to give you an
idea of it¹s current shape. The last one is specifically designed for
'on-screen' calling for folks like Linda Leslie who likes to call directly
from her iBook. (And thanks to Linda for her feedback so far!) Features
include:
Dances
* Rapid dance entry using customizable buttons - enter figures in your
preferred format/phrasing with a single button click.
* Print dances in multiple formats (index cards, one/page, two/page, etc)
* Search Dances by specific figures, e.g. ³Petronella² in B2
* Track dance elements¹ in a particular dance automatically and manually
* Link to online video clips of dances such as YouTube or Google video
* Link to authors website or other online posting/source for the dance
* Printed date and ³Print all unprinted² function
* Support for dance formats beyond 32-bar A1->B2
* ³Related Dances² - link dances to each other
* Copy Dance notes to clipboard so you can paste them into an email
* Duplicate Dance
Sets
* Create ³Sets² of dances for a particular event (date and location)
* Save those sets for future reference and with Notes and Dancer Level
* Duplicate a Set
* View all Sets in which a dance has been used (from Dance view)
* Filter dances by multiple criteria when creating a Set including name,
author, level, formation, etc.
* Large text screen for calling directly from the a laptop
Authors
* Author view showing all dances for that author
Other ideas not yet implemented:
* Automated import from Russ Owen¹s database (partially complete)
* Email a dance or set to someone as a PDF or a format that can be imported
directly into another copy of the database
Will Loving
--
William M. Loving
Dedication Technologies, Inc.
7 Coach Lane
Amherst, MA 01002-3304 USA
will(a)dedicationtechnologies.com
Tel: +1 413 253-7223 (GMT 5)
Fax: +1 206 202-0476
On Sunday evening, April 19, New Mexico Caller Donna Howell and contra dance musicians Karina Wilson, Della O'Keeffe and Will McDonald will be featured on "Gotta Dance" . This Santa Fe New Mexico Public Radio program runs from 7-8 pm mountain time. . Great tunes from Rodney Miller and other artists will also be played. Tune in and join the fun. This program is geared to recruiting new folks to contra dance, so invite your wanna-be dancer friends to find out what contra dancing is all about. "Gotta Dance" can be heard in northern and central New Mexico at 90.7 FM and 101.1 FM, or world-wide via live stream broadcast at www.ksfr.org
Just go to this site and hit the "Listen Live" feature.
Hello all,
I'm posting on behalf of southern California musician Ned Boyer, who plays in several French Canadian-oriented bands. Ned is looking for the dance figures that traditionally have accompanied the tune "La Cardeuse." He's tracked down a book that has two versions of the dance, but hasn't been able to get his hands on the book itself (La Danse Traditionelle Dans L'Est du Canada, Simonne Voyer, Presses de l'Universite Laval, 1986). Can anyone help with figures for La Cardeuse, whether from the Simonne Voyer book or otherwise?
Thanks,
Jeremy Korr (Rancho Cucamonga, CA)
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Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync.
http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_allup_1a_explore_042009
Dear dance friends,
The results are tabulated, the video links are in place, participants have
posted their comments, and the results of the (First Annual?) International
Money Musk Moment have been neatly packaged, ready for your enjoyment:
http://www.davidsmukler.syracusecountrydancers.org/bring_back_mm.html
Executive summary: more than 20 locations and callers, 88 musicians, and nearly
1,400 dancers participated.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
P.S. Dancers at in the Northeast will have an another Money Musk opportunity at
the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) at the end of this month. Hope to see you
there!
As a dancer from Virginia, I've visited the Lambertvlle contra dance on two occasions while in NJ, both in the summer ('05 and '06, I think). They have an active contra community, and I remember being pleasantly surprised at the number of dancers. I'd say it was at least in the 50-60 range. I'm thinking of going there again this summer.
Brian
