In my very little spare time, after
procrastinating for years (I first broached the subject
of CDSS supporting community barn dancing with Brad
Foster quite a number of years ago), I am quickly going
to try to get the ball rolling.
In this letter, I am choosing to call this
type of dancing “community barn dancing”, since contra
and other dancing that CDSS has supported for
generations is also in the category of ”community
dancing"
Because my life is so busy (family dance
series this afternoon, community dance series this
Friday, etc, etc), I am going to give you a VERY BRIEF
synopsis of what I hope will become a future of support
by CDSS to community barn and family dancing.
(Just for a bit of background about me, my
contra calling career included many nights of
challenging dances, and I loved that repertoire. I also
created and was director of the Dance Flurry Festival
from 1988 to 2005. But I also have always loved to call
family and community dances since the beginning of my
calling career in 1986. A few memories as a dancer
during the early years of “zesty contras” in the
mid-1980s included being VERY UPSET on certain dance
evenings when, for example, one caller ended a fun
contra evening with the Virginia Reel, not a zesty
contra; and also, one night when Dudley Laufman came to
call at our local zesty contra series, and I found his
dances to be too easy! And boy did I complain to my
dancing friends!!! Now, I am in Dudley’s “camp”.
Several years ago, as I found the contra community did
not want to do circle dance mixers, squares, or easy
contras anytime during a dance evening, I decided to
retire as a contra caller and call only community barn
and family dances. However, just so you know, I still
occasionally show up at a contra series dance and
usually have a great time dancing.)
I do realize that CDSS is showing more
support than ever before to community barn dancing, and
has supported family dancing for a long time.. THANK
YOU! I would like to now take this to the next level.
In the contra and English dance community,
community barn dancing is often perceived as one of two
ideas: an entry level/gateway to the “real” dances, or
the “minor leagues” of contra and English, and of lower
status. I know, because I was one of those folks!
My goal is to convince CDSS to bring
community dancing up to the same status as contra and
English.
There is a huge potential for increasing
participation in dancing if CDSS can garner the
population who likes to dance, but who do not care to
become experts or to engage in the endorphin rush of the
constant swirling and twirling and fast pace of many
dances now. This also could be a great way to increase
membership and support for CDSS.
One idea I had, based on a recent Eblast
tidbit from Lynn asking for ideas for CDSS News
articles, is to have one or two regular columns focusing
on Community barn dancing, and also Family Dancing. At
this point, I think the most important column to add is
about community barn dancing. Many of my colleagues
and friends tend to think of community barn dancing as
family dancing. The differentiation that I and my
colleagues see, however, is that family dancing is
geared to families with young children, and community
barn dancing is open to all ages, including
children/families, but dances are not geared to
youngsters. They are just easier dances with an
emphasis on community rather than an emphasis on
becoming a great dancer or getting into a zone with the
newest zestiest dances and hottest dance bands.
My experience calling community barn dances
over the last 30 years reminds me that with all the
trends toward more and more complex dances in the contra
and English world, the roots of dancing of the barn
dance variety will always be there, especially in places
where real communities exist, where neighbors or common
communities like to gather. These include birthdays,
weddings, anniversaries, events for food coops, outing
clubs, churches, environmental groups, synagogues,
office picnics, etc..
Dances like Spiral, Galopede, Virginia Reel,
Circassian Circle, Heel and Toe Polka, Bridge of
Athlone, Buffalo Gals, Duck for the Oyster, Listen to
the Mockingbird, and many many others like this have
been popular for 75 to 300 years for community barn
dancing. With these types of dances, we are connecting
to the same passion as our ancestors many generations
back. Along with the dance repertoire, there is also a
great repertoire of music which is no longer being
played. Bands that love to play the old classics like
Rose Tree, Golden Slippers, St Annes Reel, Soldiers Joy,
Devils Dream, Road to Boston, Over the Waterfall,
Angeline the Baker, etc, are rarely seen at most contra
evenings. But they still play at, you guessed it, the
Community Barn dance!
Anyway, I could go on and on, but need to
get ready for today’s dance! Gosh, even the briefest of
letters has gotten out of hand.. Sorry!
This is just to get the conversation
rolling, hopefully the start of a new era for CDSS!
Swinging away
Paul
Rosenberg
Albany,
NY