Blog Archives

Other Ways to Mix It Up

6/29/2011

Seth Tepfer from the Atlanta, Georgia area wrote a couple of contras that were designed for a 12-bar blues tune rather than a 32-beat contra tune (links take you to his site).

I've seen blues choreography worked into contras (especially swings) before, and I've danced contras and ECD and Sicilian circles in waltz time, but I hadn't seen this before, so I thought I would share.

Bonus Post: History of Crossover Contra

6/24/2011

Alex Krogh-Grabbe did some investigating into the history of techno contras for the Country Dance and Song Society Blog entitled "Crossover Contra Dancing: A Recent History." Go take a look!

Friday Flourish: Backwards Swing with Lasso

6/24/2011

This week's Friday Flourish comes from another one of Steve's YouTube searches. This is another lead you might not want to break out on people who aren't your regular partners, and another where you want to be sure you have enough time in the music to finish off the flourish and still be on time for the next figure. Enjoy!

Your flourishes could be on this blog, too! Upload them to YouTube and let me know it's there via the Contact form. It might get featured on this blog!

Happy Friday!

CS

Calling to Hip-Hop (and Other Alternative Music): Chrissy Fowler

6/22/2011

When I read about the “Hip-Hop Contra” that had taken place at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine a couple of years back, I was intrigued. Many of the crossover contras I had read about to this point had been using pop or techno music rather exclusively. How would the vibe change if you changed up the music genre and used hip-hop as well? Fortunately, caller Chrissy Fowler had some of the answers for me when I contacted her.

Contra Dancer vs. Contra Dance Caller

6/20/2011

I saw this on Birds and Music originally (Andrew VanNorstrand's blog) and I laughed so hard I just had to share it with you all. Enjoy!

Friday Flourish: Around the Barn Lead-In to a High Ceilidh Swing

6/17/2011

When I go [s]trolling around the Internet, it usually results in a flurry of emails from a random blonde based at Glen Echo to various fellow syncretists, saying hi and asking if they'd like to be interviewed for this blog. (The good news is that most of them say yes. :) )

When Steve goes poking around, however, it tends to result in the pursuit of YouTube videos and more flourishes! For this week's installment, he figured out how to lead a really neat lead-in to a high ceilidh swing from a video taken at the Scout House in Concord, Massachusetts. Again, this particular move is one you may want to reserve for your usual partners as opposed to busting it out on a newbie; if you aren't careful it can be rather expansive and disruptive if you aren't especially careful to be aware of your own -- and your partner's -- dance space. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Carry on Dancing,

Ryan

Glen Loper and The Henry Road Bandits

6/15/2011

A few weeks after Contra Syncretist launched, a friend of mine came up to me at a contra dance. She’d just gotten back from Whitefield, Maine, where The Henry Road Bandits had incorporated various other genres of music and vocals, bass, drums, and electric guitar into contra dance sets. They started with a fiddle tune and then would shift to more contemporary covers like Van Halen’s “Jump,” the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” and some reggae songs. She said I just had to go talk to Glen, who had kindly passed along his contact information when she went up to him after the set. So I did.

Friday Flourish: High Ceilidh Swing

6/10/2011

Ladies, gents, leads, follows, a quick announcement from your friendly local modern urban contra blogger (hi there!): I'm working on trying to sync updates to this blog with a Contra Syncretist Facebook page, but I haven't got it totally set up just yet. I am hoping this will be helpful once it's up and running! (Watch this space, I'll let you know when it's functional....)

Anyway, on to the Friday Flourish! This week on the Contra Syncretist YouTube Channel, Steve and I show you how to go from a balance into a high ceilidh swing -- the simpler ways.

As you can see, there are a few easy ways to get there -- some more elegant than others, but all effective.

You, too, could shoot a flourish video that gets featured on this blog! Shoot it, upload it to YouTube, and then use the Contact form to let me know it's there.

Happy Friday!

CS

Serving the Community: Anna Rain

6/7/2011

I sat down a few weeks ago with caller Anna Rain as she supped with the band Morning Star (incidentally, also the source of Brendan Taaffe's sound bite from the earlier blog post) and talked to her about the experience of calling Contra Sonic in February, held in the historic Glen Echo Park Spanish Ballroom. She has been active in the DC-area folk community for many years and while I knew she called, I also know that she's more active in the morris/rapper and English Country Dance traditions than contra dancing, traditional or otherwise. What, then, brought her to try her hand at calling for the local techno contra series?

Passion and Experience and Nothing Less: Jordy Williams

6/6/2011

Jordy Williams’s name is one that has become synonymous with techno contras down in the Asheville contra community in North Carolina, as well as up and down the East Coast. His particular brand of techno contras are noted for including some of the sex appeal of the nightclub culture, rather than merely evoking that scene with the music and lighting as in a few other communities where these have taken root.

“I started organizing the first one in the spring of 2009,” he says. The first techno contra event he organized was on June 10, 2009 at the Asheville Contemporary Dance Studio. “It's a little hole in the wall in Downtown Asheville. We had about 70-80 people and it was completely stuffed. It was cool though cuz [sic] it was in a basement so it had low ceilings (which gave it a cool underground feeling) and mirrors lining one wall.”

“The first one was inspired by a small handful of poorly executed techno contras that left me wanting it done right.”

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