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RIP Contra Sonic: The FSGW Monthly Series

12/19/2012

The last installment of Washington, DC’s Contra Sonic series is on Thursday, December 20, with a “Dark Side of the Earth” theme. It started as a monthly series in November of 2010 and was the source of several of my caller interviews and the home techno contra of dJ improper.

Some folks will say that the series failed, because it’s needed to evolve into a more sporadic, event-based format to be profitable for those involved.

I disagree.

Founding Contra Sonic: Penelope Weinberger

11/13/2012

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.”

10 Things I've Learned About Alternative Contras

4/3/2012

This week, Contra Syncretist celebrates its first birthday! I launched the site a year ago on Friday.

Here's some of the cool stuff I've learned in that time:

Not all alternative contras are conducted to mainstream music that you would necessarily find in your local downtown dance club. Eileen Thorsos of Electric Camel fame spins and remixes "electrotrad" music, which focuses heavily on remixes of contemporary bands with a strong traditional/Celtic influence. dJ improper of the DC area mixes contemporary hits with songs by The Who, Kansas, and The Beatles.
Alternative contras can trace their roots to Lisa Greenleaf's experiments in the last decade, and to some private parties that anecdotally pre-date these.
There is some debate about whether alternative contras are better staged as outreach events to draw more people into the community, or advanced events to strengthen the shared experience of the existing community. (Feel free to weigh in on this idea over on the Forum.)
While there are many alternative contra events out there, regular series that are billed as such are comparatively rare. The first predictably-regular one (i.e., "third Tuesdays of the month" type schedule) was the Contra Sonic series near Washington, DC, which started in November 2010.
In 2011, DJs began to travel around in a way that live bands on the traditional contra scene have for years, injecting more variety into the experience.
There are hip-hop morris and "Extreme English Country Dancing" (xECD) counterparts to crossover contra, which bring in similar elements.
The people who are infusing the contra dances with other influences are by and large very much agreed that they do not want to see the acoustic and carried-on tradition go away -- they have differing reasons for looking into electronic music and other genres of music than are typically found in contra, but most will actively say that they wish to build upon the tradition that inspires them, and they see that as what they are doing with their syncretistic art; they do not seek to diminish it in any way, shape, or form.
Most of the leading techno contra musicians and DJs are men; two notable exceptions are Boston-based piano and accordion player and DJ Julie Vallimont (currently with Firecloud and other incarnations, as well as more traditional bands Nor'easter and La Banane Enchantée) and DJ and caller Eileen Thorsos of the Triangle Country Dancers community in North Carolina, who tours with her remixed "electrotrad" music.
Instead of mixing the music to be square and go with the dance, some series write contra dances to specifically go with the alternative tunes.
Many alternative contras maintain the club atmosphere without strobe lighting effects, much to the relief of some contra dancers who get migraines.

Thank you to everyone for coming on this journey with me so far! The Friday Flourish will update as usual on Friday and then we will have still more syncretistic goodness to come, and I've got a few ideas up my sleeve for the future! Stay tuned!

Catching Up with Caller Jack Mitchell

3/25/2012

I first caught up with Jack Mitchell when he called a Contra Sonic installment in 2011. He mentioned that he had danced with Electric Camel Contra and called to dJ improper's sets before, though not with dJ improper himself there, and that he saw some interesting differences between the experiences--at which point I knew I had to talk to him for Contra Syncretist.

Curiosity, Contra, and Conversing with Caller Will Mentor (Part 1)

1/24/2012

Vermont-based caller Will Mentor ventured down to the mid-Atlantic to call for the Contra Sonic techno contra series, and did so another time to call at Contrastock I at Glen Echo (he will also call for Contrastock II this September). I ran into him again at Contra Evolution in Greenfield, MA in October and the Midwinter Ball earlier this month in Baltimore and he kindly obliged my request for an interview.

Caller's Perspective: Bev Bernbaum

11/7/2011

A couple of weeks ago, the October installment of the Contra Sonic series in Arlington, VA featured Toronto, Canada-based caller Bev Bernbaum calling with dJ improper. Contra Syncretist caught up with her afterward. “It was my first time calling a techno contra and I’d never danced one before either,” she says. “I’d heard about techno contra and was interested in finding out more about it. I attended a dance weekend earlier this year that claimed to be having a techno contra late one night, but it wasn’t anything like what I’d seen on YouTube or was expecting. As it happened, I was arranging a short mid-Atlantic calling tour in the early spring and had contacted the organizer of the Glen Echo dance. I’ve called there before. She asked if I’d consider staying in DC long enough to call the Contra Sonic dance and I jumped at the chance.”

Only on the contra floor....

10/5/2011

One of the recurring discussions in the contra world is community -- how to build and keep the bonds between people. Contra dancers in general tend to be a pretty friendly lot and we also tend to be a bit quirky, which makes for some pretty awesome road stories, both at crossover contras and regular ones. I know there are a few times that I've looked back on something and thought to myself, That would only happen on a contra floor.

For example: a couple of days after Contrastock last May, there was a Contra Sonic installment. Some people were able to stay the couple of days into the week who weren't locals, so I got to meet new people and dance with them as well (yay!). A guy I didn't previously know who had been my shadow for a dance asked me for the following dance, and I accepted. We had a really fun dance, and when everyone was getting ready to leave, he motions me over to where he and his beloved are putting on their street shoes.

He then says, "My fiancée and I getting married in Massachusetts in a couple of weeks and are having a contra dance as the reception. You should totally come, it'll be a really awesome dance!" (I was honored to be invited, but I already had other plans that day, or I totally would have gone -- it sounded like an amazing dance.) I can't say that I'd ever been invited to anything related to anyone's nuptials after knowing them for less than half an hour before.

I know there are other stories like that out there. Please share your strange and funny stories in the comments....

Speaking of stories, in a few hours, Steve and I will be hopping in the car and heading north to Contra Evolution in Greenfield, MA -- it promises to be amazing with Double Apex, Perpetual e-Motion, Nils Fredland, Will Mentor, and Contra Sonic's own dJ improper all in one spot! Hopefully we'll get there before it sells out! (Fingers are definitely crossed.) To those who will be there, we're looking forward to saying hello and dancing with you!

Embracing the Unknown: Dave Eisenstadter

8/24/2011

After calling the Sunday FSGW dance with Nor’easter playing last week in Glen Echo Park, Dave Eisenstadter turned around and called the August edition of the Contra Sonic techno contra series two nights later in Arlington, VA. While it was his first time calling Contra Sonic, this was not his first exposure to a crossover contra event:

“My first techno contra was on New Years Day 2010 in Asheville, NC, and it was organized and DJ'd by Jordy Williams. Since then, I've been to a handful of techno and alternative music dances at Youth Dance Weekend in Vermont and throughout Massachusetts. Dancer friends told me about Jordy's dance and we wound up driving 12 hours to see what it was like.”

(Pleasant) Surprises and the Evolving Tradition: Caller Ann Fallon and Contra Sonic

7/18/2011

Right before your friendly neighborhood crossover contra blogger left for vacation, she caught up with Ann Fallon, who called the Contra Sonic dance in Arlington, VA on June 22, to talk about what it was like for Ann to call her first techno contra. Unlike some people, Ann had attended a couple of Contra Sonic events before she called, one before and one after the move to Artisphere in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, VA. She had watched a few format changes over the course of the series as well: “The first Contra Sonic I attended had several very long medleys, and I understand that some of the ones after that one had long medleys as well, one being an hour long. The format at DC Contra Sonic has evolved to regular length dances, with the emphasis being on keeping to simpler dances with low piece counts so the dancers can just dance to the music.”

The experience of calling traditional contra and techno contra did not differ as much as she thought it would. “I was concerned about possibly losing my place in the music. I’m not very familiar with the tunes used for crossover contras,” she says. “Although I knew that Jeremiah [Seligman, a.k.a. dJ improper] made the tunes be dance length, 64 beats, etc., and of course I know how to count beats, some of the music I had heard at the dances I attended seemed to have unclear phrasing. I knew there would be an 8 count intro rather than the usual 4 … and I was prepared to count throughout each dance. But it was easier than I thought to keep track of the parts of the dance, and …. and this was awesome … the dancers were so attuned to the music and for the most part were very experienced, they had absolutely no trouble hearing the phrasing and keeping the dance where it belonged. So I began each dance counting rather than ‘feeling’ the phrasing as I would normally do … but I didn’t count for very long … maybe twice through the dance.”

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?

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