I picked this week's flourish up from a dancer in the Atlanta, Georgia dance community (his first name is Joseph, I'm afraid I didn't catch his last name -- sorry!). It's a neat variant on a partnered weave-the-line (often called in my neck of the woods as "Zig to the left and zag to the right...").

Couple of caveats: 1) these tugs on your partner's hands are GENTLE -- we are not forcing our partners anywhere, we are guiding them; and 2) these go "one-two-three and TURN," so if you are running really short on room where stopping on a dime unexpectedly might be a problem, or you're in a really tightly-packed hall, proceed with caution or risk being a speed bump for the couple behind you (not fun)

Dancers, as usual, are Ryan Holman & Steven Roth.

You, too, can have your flourishes featured! Drop us a line!

Happy Friday,

CS

The other week, I ran across the Furman University study abroad program for film majors blog for their excursion to the British Isles, and I mentioned that one of the students there was doing a documentary on the clash between innovation and traditional dance. She focuses more on Playford-style ECD than American contra (especially since she was filming in the UK), but it's interesting that similar struggles between modernity and strictly preserved tradition are happening across the global traditional folk dance community, not just to contra in the U.S. She posted a snippet of her interview with Mike Wilson-Jones, treasurer of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and longtime (over 50 years!) dancer, caller, choreographer, scholar, and dance event producer:

Near the beginning of this snippet, Mr. Wilson-Jones points out that the attitude of "give me something new" has always been there in the folk dance community, but now it's become "more complex," and that it becomes "less folk-oriented...." He says that ECD just doesn't fit as well to this "other" music.

Which all sounds remarkably like the critique of techno contra by a traditionalist...except that Mr. Wilson-Jones is referring to people going more toward Henry Purcell (late 17th century musician), rather than strict Playford (mid-17th century).

My immediate response to this is hearty disagreement that tradition need be so rigid (shocker coming from me, I'm sure). 

But beyond my knee-jerk reaction, I wonder: were there no regional variants, ever, that just didn't get passed down? Chaucer's version of English only got to be the "main" one we study among several dialects of the period because of Canterbury Tales, not because it was The Only Way They Did Things. (Ditto Beowulf, if I'm remembering right.) I would find it quite difficult to believe that Playford was the only one doing dances at that point in time; I'd believe he was the source of older dances Cecil Sharp managed to compile, but I somehow doubt he's the only one out there, and so I admit that I find the "Playford or bust" attitude a little baffling.

Likewise, what got passed down in American contra was a set of New England traditional jigs and reels (and other tunes dubbed "acceptable" by the traditionalists). How can we be sure that that's all they danced contras to? You mean to tell me that there wasn't anyone experimenting back then (even if not to the same extent as now)? I somehow find that hard to believe. 

I keep coming back again to the XKCD comic I linked to about a year ago where Randall Munroe proclaims, "400 years from now, all the English of the past 400 years will sound equally old-timey and interchangeable." Perhaps at some point the idea that popular tunes of the day (be they "Cluck Old Hen," "Sandy Boys," or "Rolling in the Deep") won't be so shocking.

This week's flourish is an embellishment on a square-through, where you keep connection with the person traveling with you the entire time. As with any trick involving twisting your own arm behind your back, realize that THE PERSON WHOSE HAND & BACK IT IS controls that move -- the other person's grip should be loose enough that the person with their hand behind their back can find where is comfortable as some people are more flexible than others, and they know where they fall on that spectrum. We do not want wrenched shoulders!

You, too, can have your favorite flourishes featured! Drop us a line!

Carry on Dancing,

CS

While I was talking to Penelope Weinberger, Dance Chair of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington and founder of the Contra Sonic series, I asked her about the T-shirts she had begun to sell earlier in 2012 with the dJ improper logo on the back and big block on the front reading, “Dance with who’s comin’ atcha!”

“Those are a completely independent, [non-FSGW] thing,” says Penelope. “But here’s what the shirts are: so I’ve been contra dancing for a really long time, and I’ve seen...you know, when you come to the Friday Night Dance at Glen Echo, you have this lesson that has like eighty people in it, and every week that’s true, but the dance doesn’t grow by eighty people every week. So something’s happening with those new dancers...they’re trying it once and they’re not coming back. I think that contra dance does attract young people -- not at a really great rate -- and a lot of the young contra dancers are the children of older contra dancers.”

“There are two parts to the shirts: one is the part where there are new dancers that end up on the wrong side accidentally -- like right when they progress and they end up in the wrong position. And I have, so many times, seen experienced dancers who think they’re being helpful reach across to try to pull them into the right position instead of just dancing with the person who’s in the position that you’re supposed to dance with next. And so the shirt is about dancing with the person who’s in the position you’re supposed to dance with next, whoever they happen to be, whether they are there accidentally or whether they are there intentionally. And I think that old-school contra dancers, or mid-range contra dancers, tend to be a bit uncomfortable dancing with whomever they are confronted with or whomever they are presented with. And the ‘dance with who’s comin’ atcha’ notion is that it’s about dancing, and dancing contra is about being in the right place at the right time, and if you’re at the wrong place at the right time, then that should become the right place. If you’re dancing as a new couple and you open up in the wrong direction, and the woman is on the left, then you should dance with the oncoming person. There are a lot of places in a figure to fix that, and right when you’re meeting up with the next person is not it.”

“Just let people figure out what they’re doing -- if it’s a new couple and they’re dancing with each other and they end up dancing up the whole line in the opposite position, oh well. That’s the dance, that’s how they danced it. Either they’re going to dance that way forever, or they’re going to fix it on the next dance, or they’re going to fix it somewhere in the line, or they’re going to fix it on the next couple, or they’re not going to fix it. But the bottom line is, this is figure dancing, and when you dance the figure, you dance the figure with the person in the position that you’re supposed to dance it with, and you don’t take that extra time, or make people feel awkward, or scowl at them, or condemn them, or condescend to them because they screwed it up. Just smile and dance. So part of it is about dancing with people and welcoming them in a more graceful way.”

“It’s also partly about gender-imbalanced dancing. It’s mostly about how the dance is for dancing, and it’s not for proving your knowledge or our superiority or your expertise. So that’s what the shirt’s about, and you know, it’s fun.”

“We [Penelope’s household, including graphic designer Dennis Fleming, who also designs the Contrastock artwork, the Contra Sonic flyers and Facebook avatars, and the dJ improper logo] all kind of collaborated on it...and it was originally this gentler thing, and I said no, I wanted this bold design and so it ended up like this Parental Advisory block and something that appeals to all of us as something we recognize as a statement, not a suggestion.”

Want a shirt of your own? They’re available from Penelope -- contact me and I’ll pass along her info!

I came across this quote on a geek blog, but when I read it I was finding that a lot of this resonated as a contra dancer looking at events, too:

"The biggest challenge is the fact that a geeky audience is really looking, at heart, for something which is fantastic and new and amazing and hasn’t been done before – but which is also recognizable as something that’s part of our shared geek culture, part of the flesh and bone of being a nerd. To do events for geeks the way I want to do them, we need to reinvent ourselves for every event – because geekdom moves forward, expands, explores, grows; it doesn’t stay in one place!"

Given that techno contra overall seems to be the most highly attended in an event-based format -- DC's Contra Sonic series is heading back to this in 2013 -- it seems particularly important that the events be distinct in some way. The iGlow techno and the White Out events in the Carolinas seemed to follow this format, at least in their marketing. I'm interested in hearing what others have to say on the matter; to what extent might crossover events need to "reinvent" themselves going forward? Or is the bigger issue the idea of spreading these events to the communities that want them still, rather than making the events distinct at this point in time?  

This week's flourish builds off of a roll-away flourish we did several weeks ago. However, it gets translated into a sideways-slide flourish that can be done as long as there's lots of room between sets (either short lines or long wavy lines). As usual, beware of space issues, or shoulder issues, or dizzy issues. If you try to push this too fast, you can wrench someone's shoulder/arm and you obviously don't want to do that. Also make sure you switch hands at the end so that your partner is facing the proper (read: opposite) direction.

You, too, can have your flourishes featured! Drop us a line!

Happy Friday!

Carry on Dancing,

CS

I first met Penelope Weinberger, Dance Chair of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW), when one of my friends joined the Board. I have had the pleasure of knowing her not only in that capacity, but also as a friend who does awesome things like being the DC side of the organization of Contrastock I and II and the creator of the Contra Sonic alt music contra series, the first monthly series of its kind, in November 2010.

“I  wanted to have the first series,” she says. “I knew that other people were doing  special events and one-offs and I wanted an ongoing series.  I also wanted our alt music series to not be an exclusive thing. The first alternative contras were by invitation only and those were...the music and the calling were both recorded ahead of time, and for me that wasn’t what contra dancing is about.”

This week's flourish is actually an add-on to a previous flourish that we featured on October 26, 2012; it was submitted by viewer Brad Branner (thank you!). As with the regular lean-back balance, be sure to keep your own weight and for this one be mindful of the distance between you and your partner before you start the twirls into the swing -- being too far apart can set you up to wrench your partner's shoulder at a really awkward angle, and that's really no fun at all (says she who spent the an entire summer dancing in an arm sling due to a non-contra-related case of bursitis a couple of years back).

Want to join Brad and have your flourish featured? Contact us!

Dancers, as usual, are Ryan Holman and Steven Roth.

Happy Friday!

Carry on dancing,

CS

I was reading Jeff Kaufman's post from a week or so ago (wow, was Halloween really only a week ago?) about cliquishness in contra and it got me thinking on a bit of a tangent, but one that I think it worth looking at.

I recently had a conversation with a dance gypsy from New Jersey, and in the course of our chat I told him about an experience Steve and I had where we experienced cliquishness at a regional dance in another state. Both of us were having a lot of trouble finding partners (and being refused flatly when we asked around if people would like to dance, which was weird since several people stopped us and complimented us on this site and our YouTube videos that night, so I don't think it was a "common denominator" issue), to the point that by the last set we gave up and just enjoyed the music on the sidelines, and that wasn't the first time I'd danced there and had that problem, which was really concerning.

The Jersey dancer I talked to suggested two things: 1) that we not judge the community in question based on an event crowd (although, he admitted, it's kind of cliquey on regular nights too), and 2) that I give that community two more tries before I gave up (for a total of four). Okay, I can do that. They won't be four in a row, but he seemed to be under the impression that four was the magic number.

Which actually begs a question -- how many dances do you give a community that's cliquish before you give up? Does it matter if you're there for an event/weekend or a regular dance? Speaking to Jeff's point, does the exclusivity make you want to be accepted by the community, or is it a real turn-off? If the latter, how might we as a broad community fix that?

We're going to the realm of the fluffy today because it's Monday and my day job is going to be insane this week:

A lot of techno contra events have special lighting effects, particularly blacklight, and so lots of folks go find special outfits to reflect that (pun intended). Where do folks find stuff to wear, especially if it's online? Michael's craft stores seem to have glow sticks (especially now, right after Halloween) for cheap, but I've seen lots of EL wire and white hair extensions (or hair dyes) and foofy white tutus and the like. If you're willing to spill, where do you find this stuff?