• Home
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Resources
  • Workshops
  • Street Team
  • Code of Ethics
  • Friday Flourishes
  • Contact
  Contra Syncretist
Connect with Contra Syncretist!

Context is Everything

6/25/2013

 
Earlier this year I got a permanent job that has me in the car an hour each way to get to work. (Fortunately, it's against traffic.) As such, I've gotten to listen to many hours of local radio morning shows on my commute in.

Anna Kendrick's song "Cups" came on the radio sometime this spring (not just the one-minute version she did in Pitch Perfect and several talk shows to promote the same, a full-length radio edit).
In a surprisingly intelligent comment made on one of the morning shows, one of the hosts mentioned that the song was not in fact "new," per se, but was an update of a song that originated in the first part of the 20th century.

Oh really? think I. I'll have to go look that up.

So I did, and discovered that yes, in fact, Kendrick's version is in fact a remake of Lulu and the Lampshades (now apparently known as Landshapes)' single from 2009, which was adapted a song from earlier last century (c. 1931) by the Carter Family.
When I got home, I mentioned this to Steve. He was promptly rather perturbed -- apparently he had been thinking about working up the Lulu and the Lampshades version as a song to lead at song circles, but now felt that he couldn't because it was a song that was popular on the radio. When I asked him why it makes a difference, he said that "No one goes to a song circle wanting to hear something that they can already listen to ten times a day on some pop station. One of the big thrills of a circle is getting to hear songs you enjoy that you would otherwise never hear anywhere else."

Honestly, I suspect that a fair lot of the popularity of the Kendrick version revolves around the fact that she was in the Twilight movies and her career is continuing from that basis.

But, somewhat cynical blogger opinion aside, it’s really rather interesting that the song has come into the mainstream vogue in that way, and that because of that it could end up out of favor in some song circles. Because it’s on the radio, and as a result is now everywhere, it’s no longer one of the things that folkies are looking for in the song circles and such that are more away from the mainstream.

There is this odd sense of “Othering” that I’ve found comes to and from the contra community (and perhaps the folkie community in general), and while sometimes they can reflect various community values (e.g.,: most contra events are alcohol-free; most contra events try to make a point of using local talent as well as getting some touring folks, when they’re available), sometimes they can feel a bit arbitrary (e.g., if one finds it in “mainstream” culture and therefore it is inherently inferior and has nothing to offer the Tradition).  Adding a conventionally pretty, known face to an old song and making a radio edit that is then played on pop stations a lot can both make a song relevant to a new audience and doom it in the folkie circles for being, in some ways, “not Other enough” to make it acceptable. (As posited before, to me this seems to be more of an aesthetic issue than anything else, but that’s a tangent here.)

At the same time, part of the reason that contra dancing isn’t more popular is because of this “Otherness.” It is, for good or for ill, associated with other forms of folk dance in the public imagination and as such is not appealing to several potential audiences out there. At the same time, suggestions that contra events could or should be advertised “to the gen pop” is met with a somewhat unfavorable reaction. So there is a tension...how to keep an event “Other” enough that it is appealing to the current folks (who like it as something “Other”) and how to keep an event accessible enough that you get new people in and keep the community sustainable.

In marketing we talk about finding your target audience and getting your information into the streams where they get their information. But, while the community knows it needs to do it, is that something that they really want to stretch themselves to do? Are they willing to sacrifice a little “Otherness” to gain some of the mainstream attention? Whether or not they can or wish to, should they do so, and to what degree?

I don’t have an answer to that, but I’m certainly willing to hear what other folks think.
Special thanks to Steven Roth for sharing his views and for the research assistance!

Odds and Ends

6/19/2013

 

Upcoming Events

June:
  • Techno Contra in Albuquerque, New Mexico Saturday, June 29, 2013, 7:30 PM
  • Club Contras -- Contraphoria! Greenwood, VA, Saturday, June 29, 2013, Doors at 4:00 PM, Potluck dinner, Dancing with Perpetual e-Motion at 7:00 PM, late-night techno contra

August:
Phase X at BIDA, Saturday 8/24, Cambridge, MA

...And Some More Syncretism

New Dancers and the Marking Thereof

6/17/2013

 
The discussion about advanced-only dances last week made me start thinking about new dancers, and my experience as a new dancer in mid-2007.

The short version of why I started dancing is that I reached a time in my life where I really needed to get out of the house and so I weighed a few options in my head and some friends in college had gone contra dancing so I Googled "contra dance washington dc" and found Glen Echo. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday when I did this, so I resolved to go the following Friday night, figuring that if I made a complete and total jerk of myself that I didn't have to go back and I didn't know anybody there so it didn't really matter. Besides, it would make a decent story to tell later, regardless. (Actually, that last bit is the reason I do lots of things.)

Read More

Public "Advanced" Dances....Yea or Nay?

6/12/2013

 
(Perhaps this should be subtitled, "In Which The Blogger Kicks A Hornet Nest.")

There are various threads around the web lately about outreach to new dancers (and ways to revamp how we approach beginners), or the importance of feeding your local dance community as well as the snazzy dance weekends that tend to self-select for advanced dancers.

I've gotten into conversations with folks about public advanced dances lately as well. To be clear, I'm not talking about private parties, dance weekends, many one-off techno contras, or all-day days of dance (all of which tend to self-select for advanced dancers). I'm referring to the regular nights of dancing (~3 hours) that are publicly advertised, but are advertised as "experienced dancers only please; new dancers are welcome next week" types of things.

I'm actually wondering a bit about their existence in the first place. I have yet to hear a reason for them (and here's where y'all can help me) that doesn't boil down to some variant of, "...because dancing with newbies sucks."

It's also entirely possible that I'm missing something here, and that there is an angle of this that I have overlooked entirely. (I hope so; I'm having a viscerally negative reaction to the reason cited above.)

So I'm using one of the perks of being a blogger and crowd-sourcing this for my own edification: if you're in favor of publicly-advertised "advanced-dancer only" dances, could you kindly clarify why? I want to see both sides of it.

Full disclosure: Steve and I did not go to the one-off "advanced dance" at Glen Echo last month, but that was more a result of its happening when we had other stuff going on than really a conscious choice either way (beyond "we are not cancelling our previously-made plans in order to attend").

Other Syncretists: Christylez Bacon

6/5/2013

 
PictureChristylez Bacon
(A Guest Post by Steven “Trouble” Roth.)

One expects to hear certain kinds of music when at a folk festival. While at the Washington Folk Festival this past weekend I quickly found myself immersed in many different styles, from Bluegrass to Balalaikas to Blues to Balkan. As I came around a certain corner of Glen Echo Park this past Sunday afternoon, however, instead of banjos I heard beatboxing.

Meet Christylez Bacon. On the surface, all you might see is a straight-up hip-hop artist who’s flow and playfulness is eerily reminiscent of Andre 3000. You might ask yourself (as I did, however fleetingly), “What’s a hip-hop artist doing at a folk festival?” But look again: that’s a string section backing him up on stage. They are the Washington Sound Museum (his back-up band), with one person playing an electric violin and another on electric cello. Over the next several numbers, he shows that he’s just as comfortable on guitar and djembe as he is improvising rhymes using words shouted out by the audience. It is quickly apparent that this guy is extremely talented. In this somewhat unexpected venue, he appears completely at ease and in his element. He gets this crowd, and the audience responds to that. This is a performer who is completely at home at a folk festival.

Make no mistake -- Christylez Bacon IS a hip-hop artist. He is a born-and-bred native of Washington, DC and you can tell when you hear him lay out a beat on his djembe that go-go music runs in his blood. His musical “mentor” is none other than local luminary Bomani Armah. (You don’t recognize the name? He’s also known as D’Mite, who achieved viral success with his “Read a [M************] Book.” Google it, but not at work or around small ears -- the language in the song is decidedly NSFW.) He also fully embraces 21st-century methods for his craft, running his show off of his iPad on stage, complete with mixing mic levels, looping tracks, and playing beat tracks while his hands are busy playing guitar.

But is it folk? Oh yes. When it comes down to it, Christylez is an extremely organic performer. While his music starts with hip-hop as its foundation, he is also eager to include elements of many other styles of music in his performance as evidenced by the fiddle and cello additions. He struck me as the kind of music nerd who could sit down and enjoy any music you put in front of him, no matter the genre (and maybe even improvise the style into his next performance). Most importantly , however, is just how present he is with his audience while he performs. When I saw him perform, I saw something magical happen; he has the ability to bring in all of the audience members and make them feel like they are part of the music as it is being created. The performance would have been a different thing had any one person in the audience been added or taken away. In that moment, he created music that will never occur the same way again because it was the product of that unique moment in time and those people who happened to be present.

Sounds like folk music to me.

When I arrived at the festival, I had not been expecting to hear rap or hip-hop being performed. To be honest, it is not a musical genre that I had ever directly associated with the folk tradition in my own thinking. However, by including live instrumentation and by bringing the audience into his performance in a participatory manner, I see this falling under the same umbrella of folk music. He may have taken a different path to get there than we are used to seeing, but he does get to the same place; I am reminded of how DJs and other artists have been approaching crossover contras from paths that are different from the usual acoustic bands, but it is still undoubtedly contra.

What do you think? Do you agree with Steve’s definition of folk music? What other sorts of performances might fall under “folk” music using this definition?
Steven is talent in the 100+ ContraSycretist YouTube Friday Flourish videos and is a former member of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington's board. Many thanks to him for sharing his insights!

Christylez Bacon's web site may be found at www.christylez.com.

A Pleasant Surprise

6/3/2013

 
I'm still recovering from my trip to Atlanta, GA for Catapult! 2013 over Memorial Day weekend; it was great to meet a lot of you for the first time or for the nth time and to dance with a lot of you. I got there late on Friday night and went to go add some flyers to the flyer table and this sight greeted me:
Picture
ContraSyncretist flyers at Catapult! That I didn't put there this year! (Squee!)
I didn't have to bring my own stash this time, someone else had beaten me to it (or at least, saved some of last year's stack)!

You, too, can be part of Contra Syncretist's street team!

  • print and take this flyer to dances (PDF format);
  • like us on Facebook to keep up to date on new techo contra events when I hear about them;
  • subscribe to the YouTube channel to be the first to know when we post new flourishes (i.e., come back from hiatus);
  • promote us in your dance community;
  • link to relevant ContraSyncretist entries in other spots; and
  • chime in when you have opinions; a lot of what makes this site lots of fun for me (and hopefully for you) is the ongoing conversation.
Onward!


    This project has concluded as of mid-2013 (with an epilogue posted mid-2016) but we hope to see you soon on a contra dance floor! Meanwhile, head over to our Facebook page for upcoming techno contra events and other items of interest.

    The 100+ Friday Flourish videos can still be found on YouTube.

    Author

    I dance with abandon. I play with glowsticks. I look for music that is conducive to one or both. I play behind cameras.  I write about all of the above. I'm based in Glen Echo's contra dance community outside of Washington, D.C., but I'm happy to go dance afield when I can. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.

    Archives

    June 2016
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All
    Aaron Marcus
    Advanced Dances
    Alan Foss
    Album Review
    Alex Krogh-Grabbe
    Allemande
    Allemande Swing
    Alternative Music Party
    Alternative Twirl Out From Promenade
    Andrew Marcus
    Andrew Vannorstrand
    Andrew Van Norstrand
    Andy Reiner
    Anna Kendrick
    Anna Rain
    Anne Midgette
    Ann Fallon
    Arlington Va
    Ascap. Bmi
    Asheville Nc
    Atlanta Ga
    Back Lead
    Backward Swing
    Backward Swing With Lasso
    Balance And Play
    Balance-&-swing Transition
    Balance Switch
    Bates College
    Beatles Contra
    Behind-the-Back Swing Variant
    Bennett Schatz
    Bev Bernbaum
    Binary Blackout
    Blaise Thompson
    Blogger
    Blogger's Soapbox
    Blogger's Soapbox
    Blogger’s Soapbox
    Blues
    Brendan Carey Block
    Brendan Taaffe
    Brian Hamshar
    Burning Man
    Cake
    California Twirl
    Caller
    Call For Submissions
    Cha-cha Slide
    Chaos Lines
    Chattaboogie
    Chelsea Co
    Choreography
    Chrissy Fowler
    Christopher Jacoby
    Christylez Bacon
    Claps
    Clark Baker
    Club Contras
    Community
    Connie's Whirl
    Consent
    Content
    Contra Evolution
    Contra Evolution.
    Contra Evolution. Greenfield Ma
    Contraforce
    Contra-phoria
    Contra Shenanigans
    Contrashock
    Contra Sonic
    Contrastock
    Cool Hip Dancer
    Copyright
    Costuming
    Courtesy Twirl
    Cover Bands
    Crabs
    Crowding
    Cuddle Swing
    Cuddle Swing Switch
    Cuddle-up California Twirl
    Culture Clash
    Cups
    Dana Parkinson
    Dance Experiment
    Dancers
    Dance Weekends
    Dancing In Small Spaces
    Dancing Switch
    Dan Kappus
    Dave Colestock
    Dave Eisenstadter
    Dead Cat Bounce
    Decadance
    Deca-dance
    Deca-dance Event
    Demon Barber Roadshow
    Diane Silver
    Dj
    Dj Fml
    Dj Gaga
    Dj Improper
    Dj Nu B
    Dj Shel D
    Dj Solar Sound
    Donna Hunt
    Do Si Do
    Double Allemande Swing
    Double Apex
    Double Twirl Under
    Doug Plummer
    Ecd
    Ed Howe
    Editorial
    Eileen Thorsos
    Elbow Swing
    Electric Camel Contra
    Electric Slide
    Electrotrad
    Elyse Marder
    Eric Harris
    Eric Johnson
    Fads
    Fiddlefoxx
    Firecloud
    Flash Mob
    Flourishes
    Flurry Festival
    Flying Swing Switch
    Follow
    Footfall
    Footworks
    Fox News
    Fremont Abbey
    Friday Flourish
    Gangnam Style
    Gate
    Gaye Fifer
    Gender Balance
    Gender Free Contra
    Gender-free Contra
    Gender Roles
    Gents Chain
    Gents Swing
    George Marshall
    Gerry Diver
    Giant Robot Dance
    Giant Swallow Motion
    Glen Loper
    Glossary
    Greenfield Ma
    Greenwood Va
    Gypsy Meltdown Twirl
    Hank Morris
    Hay For Four
    High Ceilidh Swing
    High Ceilidh Wing
    High Contrast
    Hip-hop
    Hiphop Contra33bdaf614f
    History
    Housekeeping
    Infographic
    Intergenerationality
    Jack Mitchell
    Jamie Oshima
    Jayjfresh02b2d7b2bf
    Jeff Kaufman
    Jesse Edgerton
    John Cote
    John Pranio
    Jordy Williams
    Julie Vallimont
    Ladies
    Ladies Chain
    Ladies Chained9d7891b2
    Lead
    Lewiston Me
    Licensing
    Lighting
    Lights
    Links
    Lisa Greenleaf
    Live At The Butterball
    London Bridge Hay
    Long Lines
    Louis Dow
    Low Ceilidh Swing
    Macarena
    Madonna
    Marketing
    Marlin Prowell
    Martin Hayes
    Martyn Bennett
    Medley
    Melissa Taggart
    Mel Novner
    Mens Chain
    Miami Fl
    Michael Ferguson
    Midswingc4f63a1de0
    Midswing Spinoutb14a07051c
    Midtwirl Reverse8b8dd124c4
    Mike Wilson-jones
    Miriam Baker
    Misdivine
    Money Musk
    Moral Issue
    Morris
    Mosh Pit
    Music
    New Dancers
    News Coverage
    New York Ny
    Nils Fredland
    Noah Van Norstrand
    North Carolina
    North Whitefield Me
    Organizer
    Other Syncretists
    Outreach
    Over The Head Slide
    Parallel Variant On Crabs
    Pattycake
    Paul Dalessio5fc83e8cd1
    Pawbat Twirl3677eefc75
    Penelope Weinberger
    Perpetual E Motion
    Perpetual Emotionab4aa3ee79
    Perry Shafran
    Petronella
    Phase X
    Portland
    Portland Or
    Pretzel Swing
    Principle
    Promenade
    Ray Polhemus
    Redux
    Resolutions
    Reverse Cape Position
    Reverse Courtesy Turn
    Reverse Ripcord Twirl Variant
    Rick Mohr
    Ripcord Twirl
    Road Stories
    Roanoke Wv
    Roll Away
    Rollover
    Ross Harriss
    Rss Feed
    Safety
    Sarah Dicegoldberg38fd311c67
    Scout House
    Sean Oshima
    Seattle Wa
    Sesac
    Seth Tepfer
    Seventeen
    Shiny Objects
    Simple Twirl Switch
    Singing Squares
    Skaters
    Sonny Newman
    Soulja Boy
    Sound Mixing
    Spark In The Dark
    Spider Vetter
    Spinout
    Spokane Wa
    Stanford Ca
    St Petersburg Fld35dde8e84
    Street Team
    Stretches
    Survey
    Swallowtail
    Swing
    Switch
    Technoberfest
    Techno Contra
    Technophoria
    Ted Hodapp
    Terpsichore
    Terra Price
    The Henry Road Bandits
    The Matt Blackfield Project
    The Speech Project
    The System
    The Turtle Duhks
    Things To Think About
    Tobacco Road
    Toki Oshima
    Tradeoff Twirl
    Transsiberian Orchestra6b3cf55bca
    Traveling Swing
    Tricky Swing
    Turn Under
    Twirl
    Twirl In Switch
    Twisted Swing
    Twisty Chain
    Twitter
    Two Handed Ladies Chain
    Ufo
    Uk
    Variety
    Vernals4785e4f52b
    Vicki Herndon
    Videos
    Vince Budnick
    Waltz Variant On Crab Swing
    Washington Dc
    Wendy Graham
    Whipperstomper Balance
    Whipperstompers
    Whitefield Me
    Will Mentor
    Willow Grove Pa
    World
    Xecd
    Youth Dance Weekend
    Yuja Wang

    Comments are welcome; spam-bots and disrespectful behaviors are not. Please do (nicely) point out errors if they are found.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from edwin.bautista, Cupcake KITSCHen, Ivy Dawned, Martin Pettitt, quinn.anya, LimeTech, avlxyz, Sarah and Jason, Bill Ward's Brickpile