Please change my email address from peghesley(a)cox.net to peghesley(a)peghesley.com
Thanks!
Peg Hesley
www.peghesley.com
Sent from my iPhone using voice recognition
A quick reminder that this resource is available for you to review and update - a listing of ECD events and Weekends: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y6q3Ff6bp3iUYG8ZQM1kv1rK7EvIf-TykX4…
Time to add in events happening in early 2024!
Seth Tepfer, MBA, CSM, PMP (he, him, his)
Senior IT Manager, Emory Primate Center
I acknowledge that there are many ways to teach and value the tradition
of contra dancing.
I'm pushing the edges a touch here, but felt, given the recent
discussion re large % of beginners
and how do you pull in and keep younger dancers, that these two data
points may be helpful.
Back in 2019 I was asked to run sound, provide canned music, and call
contras at a wedding.
The bride had gone to a nearby college and was part of a cohort of
students who came to my dance for awhile.
At the wedding reception I had an hour to teach and call contra dances
to some 45-50 dancers, 85% of whom had never danced contra.
I set the rule for myself of almost no "teaching" and lots of dancing to
music.
I came up with a 16 count dance, a 24 count dance, a 32 count dance on
up to the full 64.
The dances built on one another. They all progressed. I had a small
rectangular space so
two tight lines. I don't recall if I used improper or Beckett as the
basic alignment.
I had several "contemporary/hot" contra music tunes lined up, e.g.
Perpetual eMotion's Flying Tent.
So a few minutes to explain line and progression then a simple dance
with music that progressed.
(e.g. ??? if I used improper maybe circle left 4 places, balance, pass
through for 16 count dance, add in do-si-do for a 24, ...
this probably isn't what I did but you get the idea)
It worked well. The *high energy music* was enjoyed by the wedding crowd
and
*they never stood still for more than a few minutes* before dancing to
some juicy music.
A local women's university had studied integration in the south and how
simple dances,
such as the Virginia Reel, were used to socialize the northern white
folks into
the Southern African American integration movement community leaders.
I was asked to teach and call the Virginia Reel, outdoors, to some 800
college students.
While the students were assembling, which took awhile, I played
Perpetual eMotion over the sound system.
That juiced the students. You could see it in how they walked with a
bounce in their step,
in how animated their faces were, etc. But when it came time for me to
actually teach and
call the Virginia Reel I was told to pull back to old time string band
music.
I did as I was told and the music shift from high energy to old time sucked
the energy completely out of the students. I called, and they
reluctantly danced,
the Virginia Reel and then went back to their classes.
___
This Sunday the Neverland Ramblers are playing in my town with two out
of town callers.
The Neverland Ramblers are composed of a keyboard player,
a classically trained violinist, and a been-playing-in-rock-bands-forever
lead (and follow, but easily throws out riffs based on the chord
structure) guitarist.
The violinist plays in numerous symphonies, has about 50 students that
she teaches,
and, besides the contra dance band, is in two cover bands, one easy
listening and the
other raucous. I enjoy her and the guitarist launching into Psycho Killer.
I just got permission to call a 12 bar blues contra (several are out
there and I've
adapted a few AABB contras over to 12 bar blues format). ... This will
be good.
CAUTION most contra bands can't play 12 bar blues without rocketing past
120 BPM
because they're used to playing so many notes in a bar. So this
paragraph is about
pulling in pop/blues music but also I want to flag that a 12 bar contra
is easier to
remember than a 16 bar contra so easier to dance by a beginner.
Related, I'm thinking of how top weekend bands often have fun
pop/other-genre inserts.
Perpetual eMotion's Eleanor Rigby
Playing with Fyre's Sweet Dreams
Giant Robot's Hall of the Mountain King
or everything Emily Rush plays when calling RushFest.
etc.
Heitzso
Gainesville, Georgia
I have to unsubscribe from this list because each post triggers painful
memories of my story in Asheville.
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aSw4Ntjv_DrPJrhV4NvHyLdln7Pa7ilOpJGSKwL…>
But I retain a strong affection for this scene. So, as I leave, I offer
this perspective:
Waves of woke social violence happen more and more often lately. But it is
not the angry social-media-driven mob that ruins someone’s life. That’s
just high-school, mean-girl behavior.
What ruins someone’s life, and exacerbates conflict, is being formally
banned by an organizing committee that does not have the ability to stand
up to the mob and say, “No, this is wrong.“ You, as an organizer, will be
in this situation. You too may find it difficult to stand up and say No.
You might instead say, as your policy:
“We only do three things here:
- We book the hall.
- We hire the talent.
- We count the money.
That’s it. If there’s conflict on the floor, we don’t care. We’re not your
mommy. It is your job to be kind to each other. It’s not our job to
enforce that. We’re not your mommy. “
So that’s my idea. Who knows if that would work. But a volunteer board that
takes on the responsibility of managing the behavior of 300 people will
probably do more harm than good.
I will add that *you* will be the next target of this. *You*, the good
hearted, enthusiastic, believer in dance community, whose years of work
have given you high status. There’s no fun in cancelling a nobody. *You* will
be targeted. You will watch with stunned amazement as your community
evaporates around you.
I know you’re all doing your best, and I wish you good luck in these
increasingly difficult times.
Feel free to reconnect with me off-list if you wish.
Goodbye.
Hey Organizers,
My home town, Columbia, MO, is building a welcome/community center for
multiple uses. Our contra group has asked them to consider something other
than smooth concrete for the floor.
The City parks and rec people were initially resistant, but since a lot of
the funding for the building will be coming directly from the community,
they seem to be softening their stance, but not to the point of approving a
hardwood floor. So the architect has done some research on alternative
flooring options that might be comfortable and safe to dance on, but also
have many of the conveniences of concrete floor for multiple uses and
maintenance.
Two products are listed in the attachments below. Unfortunately, the only
known installations are 300-450 miles from us in Indiana and Kansas.
Have any of you out there in dance land run across either of these kinds of
floorings, or maybe know of other alternatives to hardwood that would meet
low maintenance requirements of the City?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Jim Thaxter
Columbia, MO
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Robbie Price
Date: Tue, May 9, 2023 at 9:12 AM
Subject: RE: Community building floor
To: Jim Thaxter <jathaxter47(a)gmail.com>
Dear Jim:
With a pure dance floor out of the question (too much friction for your
purposes and too expensive), I am looking for floor which gives you the
cushion you need and the durability to resist table and chair scratches,
dropped equipment, and food spills. My rep from Tarkett, one of the largest
flooring companies in the U.S. have a sports/recreation flooring division,
Zoche, which may work. He recommends their Omnisports system “Multi-use” or
the Lumaflex without the wood subfloor. Please find the spec sheets on
these two products attached.
I am also interested in an industrial wood flooring product which may prove
to be a possible solution – end grain wood blocks. It traditionally is used
in industrial applications with 3” – 5” thick,creosote impregnated wood
blocks which take all manner of abuse. Today they do away with the harmful
chemicals and hazardous materials and use oils and some polyurethanes to
finish them. It could be a beautiful floor and stand up to any abuse if
only it is acceptable to the dance community. Here are websites for your
review: Old Wood LLC. - End Grain Flooring <https://www.oldwood.us/endgrain>
, END GRAIN | Kaswell Flooring Systems <https://www.kaswell.com/end-grain/>
I need to do so more research on this. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you for any input you can provide.
Cordially,
Robbie
*Robbie Price AIA, LEED AP +*
*573.443.1407*
Architect / Associate
*soa*
*Architecture Interior Design Planning Sustainability*
*P* Please consider the environment before printing this email.
*From:* Jim Thaxter <jathaxter47(a)gmail.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, May 6, 2023 4:02 PM
*To:* Robbie Price <price(a)soa-inc.com>
*Subject:* Community building floor
Hi Robbie,
Thanks for being willing to consider a floor of something other than smooth
concrete. Keep us up to date on what you’re looking at.
Jim Thaxter
Just want to flag that the following dances in GA, NC, SC are doing
quite well:
Sautee (hour and a half above Atlanta, not quite middle of nowhere)
https://snca.org/contra/home.php
seem to be averaging 130-140 dancers at their monthly dances
last dance I attended the beginners' class completely encircled the
large gym
lots of family energy (very wide range of ages)
Old Farmers Ball, OFB, at Warren Wilson outside of Asheville
https://oldfarmersball.com/
at their peak they had over 200 dancers every Thursday evening
I don't know if they've gotten back up to that peak
but I've heard it's a strong, solid dance
River Falls Lodge, SC
https://www.facebook.com/groups/harvestmoonfolk/
this really is in the middle of nowhere
I'm _guessing _150 dancers would be packed.
I'm hearing that it's often packed now.
Charlotte, NC
https://www.charlottecontradance.org/
I first encountered this dance several years ago and loved that their
peak demographic was the 30-40 year old crowd that often
disappears to raise a family. They've had to move a couple of
times over the past few years and their numbers had dipped (down to
80??).
I was around for a few of their early post-covid dances with ok
numbers (70??).
I gather the dance has gathered steam and is now quite solid,
though I don't know demographics/numbers ... just that it's doing
great.
A lot of the above is hear say and may have changed since the last hearsay!
I apologize if I'm speaking out of turn.
Organizers are welcome to correct me.
Thought some positive numbers would be a nice thing ...
Heitzso
How many use twitter to promote your dance? Do you feel it is effective?
What hashtags do you use?
Thanks from Queen City Contra in Buffalo NY
Mary Collins
Hi Folks,
Since our organizers contact list was launched last week, we've had about
25 people add themselves to the list! It's so awesome to see folks' faces
and find out what you're organizing. :)
I won't post about the contact list regularly but every six months or so,
I'll remind you that it exists and that you can update your information if
you want.
If you haven't yet added yourself but would like to, you can do so at any
time.
brief google form <https://forms.gle/kpdaDNkscU6cFVZs7>
Details on the why of the list are below.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa
============================================================
The contact list is meant to support our online community in a few
different ways:
1.
Help us put a face to a name —> That way we can have a stronger
connection, and even recognize each other at events when we travel.
2.
Have a bit of context for the type of events folks organize.
3.
Know where each other are located.
4.
Be able to contact each other directly.
Hi fellow organizers,
Thanks to those who have added their information to the content collector!
It's only been up for one day and we already have info for 15 organizers.
:) :) :)
I've just sent the google doc to those who have participated already. It
will be interesting to know what others think but it actually brought me a
lot of joy to see your faces and get a feel for where folks are and what
they are organizing.
*Re the question about folks from other countries participating:*
Totally - we'd love to have folks from other places. I thought about adding
'country' as I know a few people are not in Canada or the US. However, I
didn't want the Canadian and Americans to be putting their countries as
that would be too much info. Short answer - yes, please participate! :)
*Re question about keeping the doc updated:*
My plan is to make the google document editable (suggestions/comments) by
all those who contribute their info. I'll send out a reminder once every 6
months or so in case people forget it exists & that they can update their
info. (This is no more work than approving new members to a listserv which
I already do for two other SW lists). My hope is that through this
process, the list will stay fairly updated.
Thanks :)
Emily in Ottawa
On Fri, Apr 21, 2023 at 9:48 AM John Sweeney via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hi Emily,
>
> I assume from the “State/Province” in the form that this is
> only for North Americans.
>
>
>
> Keeping it up-to-date may be a challenge.
>
>
>
> Maybe it would be better for people to sign their posts. My
> e-mails all have the signature below. People can provide a link to their
> Web page or Facebook page to show their faces and what they organise.
> Hopefully those pages will be up-to-date.
>
>
>
> Happy dancing,
>
> John
>
>
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
> 940 574
>
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
>
> _______________________________________________
> Organizers mailing list -- organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>
