This week's flourish is a switch move that can be done while you and a partner are in a star (right- or left-handed). We first saw this one done by Mel Novner (formerly of Glenside, PA's community but now in Boston, MA), but there are a few other dancers we've seen pull this off as well. The important thing is that to do this flourish the way we have pictured, make sure you're in the lead and your partner is behind you (although it is possible to do it the other way, but you have to move to get ahead of your partner). The other heads-up on this is that it tends to confuse brand-new dancers, so use some discretion if you have them in your star. Dancers are Valerie Young, Alex Dennis, Ryan Holman, and Steven Roth (Special thanks to Alex & Valerie!). You, too, can have your flourishes featured! Drop us a line! Also, for those going to FootFall next weekend (September 7-9): Steve and I will be teaching a flourish workshop from 4:40-5:40 in the Gym on Saturday. We're excited and we hope to see you there! There will also be a techno contra called by Brian Hamshar and spun by dJ improper! Happy Friday, CS
I've been running across various alt-contra events lined up for the fall, but they're not necessarily recurring so they all aren't going on my Resources page. (Apologies to the non-East-coast folks that this is almost all East-coast events; if you know of some elsewhere, please do let me know, it's just that this is what I've gotten wind of so far in DC.) Kentucky  Friday, August 31, 2012, 8 to 11 P.M.
Kentucky Techno Contra, sponsored by the
Louisville Country Dancers
Music: DJ B-Ham
Callers: Brian Hamshar & Janet Bertog
Where: Church of the Advent, 901 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY
Maryland  Saturday, September 15, 2012, 8 to 11 P.M.Contra Sonic, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington Music: dJ improper Caller: Valerie Young Where: Spanish Ballroom Annex Glen Echo Park Glen Echo, MD Saturday, October 20, 2012, 8 to 11 P.M. Contra Sonic, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington Music: dJ improper Caller: Valerie Helbert Where: Spanish Ballroom Annex Glen Echo Park Glen Echo, MD Saturday, November 17, 2012, 8 to 11 P.M. Contra Sonic, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington Music: dJ improper Caller: Janine "J9" Smith Where: Spanish Ballroom Annex Glen Echo Park Glen Echo, MD
Massachusetts  Wednesday, September 26, 2012,7:30-10:30 P.M.Techno Contra Music: dJ improper Caller: Dave Eisenstadter Where: Masonic Lodge, 99 Main Street, Amherst, MA Sunday, October 14, 2012, 2-11 P.M.
Contra Evolution 2 Music: Giant Robot Dance, Perpetual e-Motion, Firecloud, dJ improper Callers: Lisa Greenleaf, Steve Zakon-Anderson, Dave Eisenstadter, & Hannah Otten Where: Guiding Star Grange, Greenfield, Massachusetts
North Carolina  Saturday, November 3, 2012, 7:30-10:30 P.M.Electric Camel ContraMusic: Phase X Where: Guilford Grange, 4909 Guilford School Rd, Greensboro, NC Part of Phase X's NC tour, 11/1-11/5; check christopherjacoby.com for details
Pennsylvania  Friday, September 21, 2012, 8-11 P.M.Techno FridayMusic: DJ B-Ham Caller: Perry Shafran Where: YWCA Camp Reily, near Harrisburg, PA
South Carolina  Saturday, September 29, 2012, 8 P.M.Technophoria Music: DJ Shel D Caller: Brian Hamshar Where: Landmark Hall, 156 Landmark Drive, Taylors, SC
Virginia  Sunday, September 2, 2012, 8-11 P.M.Club ContrasMusic: DJ B-Ham Caller: Diane Silver Where: Greenwood Community Center, near Charlottesville, VA
If any of you happen to know of any more happening in your neck of the woods, please let me know (either through the contact form or in the comments) & I'll pass it along!
'We're going to be doing a style and flourish workshop for FootFall (September 7-9, 2012, Timber Ridge Camp, High View, WV, with Atlantic Crossing, London Porter, the Latter Day Lizards, Will Mentor, and Beth Molaro (with an alt contra on Saturday night called by Brian Hamshar and spun by dJ improper); we're on Saturday, 4:40-5:40 PM, in the Gym). We're really excited to teach some of the things from the YouTube channel, and a couple of other things as well. The description we sent to the organizers follows: Flourishes are Fun! (Steven Roth & Ryan Holman)
The beauty and brains (respectively) of the Contra Syncretist YouTube series and blog (www.contrasyncretist.com) bring you fun flourishes that are enhancements to the dance as it is called and won't get you labeled as a jerk by other dancers. Specifically, we'll teach you some flourishes and style points that can actually increase the connections between you, your partner, and the rest of the set.
So, dear readers who are going, or who aren't but would like to help: what that we've done (or haven't done) would you like to see? I'm not making promises that we'll do them all, but we'll happily take them into consideration as we prepare in the next week-and-change. (Also, attention single ladies: the weekend is gender-balanced and apparently they especially need a few more women to register and save the guys on the waiting list... it's not too late to late-register!)
This week's flourish is a neat move we borrow from swing dancing. It resembles a roll-away with a half sashay, but both partners end up turning on this variant that we turn into a swing:
"Even inside the music itself there's a little moral code, I think, that's kind of built into it, kind of an artistic kind of morality we call it, or set of codes or what have you. It's like knowing the line between what's authentic and sincere, and what's manipulative and...what's not authentic. I mean, both for yourself in terms of something that's sincerely felt, and I think music being felt is probably the main thing, and that it be sincerely felt. Because, you can almost play anything if it's really true for you, you know? I'm probably long past being authentically East Clare...but being authentically East Clare at this point in my life is not as important as it was when I was 25. So being authentically musical, inside the tradition, is probably where I'm at now, and that encompasses a lot more than it did when I was starting out...." -- transcribed from Martin Hayes, "Sincerely Felt" track on Gerry Diver's The Speech Project albumI was listening to The Speech Project one day last week and my brain stuck on this passage from the track. (As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, The Speech Project is an album where Irish musicians were interviewed and the musical qualities of the recordings of their voices were used to arrange orchestral pieces.) While Hayes is speaking here about playing traditional Irish music, I think to some degree it holds true for other traditional genres as well. I'm specifically thinking of contra here, and the ways in which the newer infusions are in their own ways authentic to the time in which we live, and yet still fall under the umbrella of the Tradition -- or at least, ostensibly they do, and this is what has created some interesting tensions within the community. Fellow syncretists would argue that the new iterations do in fact fall under the "authentically musical, inside the tradition" idea. Detractors, on the other hand, would claim that pandering to modern tastes falls into the "manipulative and...not authentic" camp. But that implies, to me, that the purists think that syncretists are out to intentionally destroy the tradition for some as-yet-unarticulated reason. (For any purists out there, I would be genuinely interested to have a civil discussion about theories, started with the understanding that we are likely to agree to disagree at the end.)
This week's flourish is one that is good for when you've got good connection with your partner, neither of you is feeling super-spinny, and your next neighbors are short enough that you won't clothesline them if you form an arch and let them go under it (possibly twice). It's very simple; when you go to do your do-si-do, keep your partner's hand and have the joined hands go over your neighbors' heads. If you want to be fancy about it (and have a little more control), you can do a variant that a gentleman in Atlanta by the name of Joseph (I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your last name!) suggested to us and switch your own hand so that you can see where you're going on the return trip. :) There is a danger here of potentially clothes-lining the people who are going under the arches; be certain to keep your hand-grip with your partner loose enough that if you miscalculate, you'll let go of your partner's hand rather than beaning someone in the face/back of the head. Dancers this week are Valerie "The Queen" Young, Alex Dennis, Steven Roth, and Ryan Holman. Particular thanks to Alex and Valerie for helping us out!
When I'm surfing around the Internet, I sometimes stumble across fun things and things that are thought-provoking. It's particularly fun when those fun and thought-provoking things happen to revolve around DJ culture or social dance or music or just fun folkie things. Here are a few I've found lately, in no particular order: - Wolf's Head and Vixen: This is a border morris side in the U.K. that's decided to embrace its collective inner Goth.
- Etiquette Hell's Feel Good Friday: It's always good to see Perpetual e-Motion get mentioned in places that aren't strictly devoted to contra.
- The Dubstep Blog: Just what it says; expanding one's musical horizons is fun!
- A Young Person's Thoughts on the Americana Movement: A lot of what Alex Hatch writes here resonates with some of what I've heard in the contra community as we talk about where we go from here.
- Do You Really Listen?: A reflection on the people behind the music; this is from the Celtic music scene, but I think some of it applies to the contra scene too.
- Why We Contra Dance Video: Recently featured on the CDSS blog; it seems like a neat way to market the dance form we all know and love.
- On Social Dancing and the Creeps that Spoil It for Everyone: This is slightly older than the other links (from this past spring) and I thought this was an interesting post; the blogger dances swing and hip-hop out in California, but I think some of the attitudes do inform the contra dance movement as well. I feel fortunate that so far I haven't had the displeasure of having this particular unfortunate (and unwanted) bit of the club experience come over to the alt-contra scene, and I really hope I can still say that down the line.
What have you all been looking at lately? Share in the comments!
 Giant Robot Dance (Andrew Marcus, Aaron Marcus, Noah Van Norstrand, Andrew Van Norstrand, Michael Ferguson, and Alex Ferguson) has made their mark with quirky sets that combine traditional tunes with pop tunes and other covers to create a distinct and unique band personality. Their first live album, Live at the Butterball, featured caller Beth Molaro's voice over their sets; this album, also live and recorded at Contrastock I in Maryland in May 2011 and Summer Soiree in North Carolina in June 2012, omits the calls but preserves the band's music at these two events. They did not, however, edit themselves out and you can occasionally hear the band's comments akin to "One more time!" and some of the more distinctive audience reactions in the background when the band really gets going, and these sounds remind listeners that this is a live album. The first track, which per the liner notes combines the traditional tune "Sheepskin & Beeswax" with an original creation, starts out frankly sounding like any other high-energy contra dance band...and then when it switches to the second tune (written by band member Andrew Marcus), it kind of explodes into high energy distortion-pedaled accordion and a fiery fiddle with a kickin' drum solo thrown in for good measure. The next track, which combines Tchaikovsky's theme from Swan Lake and Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King," is part of where Giant Robot gets its reputation for having a really varied repertoire. It underscores that alternative contra is not just about pulling from one genre of music -- or even exclusively about pulling from things more modern than the folk Tradition usually encompasses: it can pull from many other genres. What is really interesting about this is that it is handled with aplomb to be deftly made into a set of contra tunes, with the look and feel of contra even as dancers and listeners pick up on the tune from another context entirely. "Other Andrew's Favorite" very heavily features the trombones and the guitar and achieves a sound that is rather uniquely Giant Robot. The "Frank's Reel/Firework" track highlights the neat and unexpected quality of GRD's combinations; the former is a spirited lively tune that doesn't seem to share much with a cover of Katy Perry's "Firework," until you listen to the pattern of the backing chords in the climb of the latter song. This seemingly subtle link works to blend the songs into a very fun mash-up. The album then changes gears; "Fly Around" highlights that Giant Robot Dance is not just a gimmick band, and that they have chops on traditional tunes as well. I am particularly fond of the final track for its variety, between Andrew Marcus's composition "Meridian Hill," U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with the melody carried on the trombone and the guitar, and Elton John's "Circle of Life," all tied together with the keyboard in a really neat way to finish off the album with a bang...and perhaps a cycle back to the first track for another listen-through. Spontaneous Animation is available both as a CD and a digital download from CD Baby. More information about the band can be found on Giant Robot Dance's web site at www.giantrobotdance.com.
Update, 8/23/2012, 11:46 P.M.: I heard from Andrew Marcus and he pointed out that the tune they had called "Other Andrew's Favorite" on their first album was not, in fact, the same piece called "Other Andrew's Favorite" on this album. Mea culpa. That sentence has been edited; the rest remains as originally posted. -REH
This week's flourish is a move we've seen pulled out from time to time, and generate a lot of centrifugal force -- just make sure that your swing partner isn't having wrist issues before you go for this one full-tilt: You, too, could have your flourish featured! Drop us a line!Stay tuned for Monday; there is more syncretistic goodness to come! Happy Friday, CS
So as some of you might know, my musical tastes are eclectic and run outside of the folk community as well as within it. I was driving around near Baltimore listening to the local hard rock format station, heard this, and actually did a double take, at which point I turned it up to make sure that I'd heard what I thought I heard:
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