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  Contra Syncretist
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Things to Percolate Next to Your Beverage of Choice

12/20/2011

 
_Pause

For many people, 'tis the season for parties and celebrating. Frequently, it is also a time of year where you're hurry-up-and-waiting for baked goods to bake, or there's down time while you're visiting family, or there's no work getting done at your desk job since people took time off. Or you've just finished your holiday shopping and you're kicking back with a congratulatory cup of a winter beverage and your technology fix of choice. Your local community's contra organizers are likely to be taking a well-deserved break before New Year's, so what's a 'Net-savvy contra dancer to do?
_Look
  • Doug Plummer takes really beautiful contra dance photos and he's even got a 2012 calendar featuring his photos for sale (about which Max Newman interviewed him for the Country Dance and Song Society blog)!
  • Jeff Kaufman's blog has been cited around here a few times; while it's not 100% contra-related all the time, he regularly updates and frequently has some interesting thoughts on contra community and the like from the POV of a dancer, a caller, and a musician (and a few times he's posted some interesting commentary -- on stuff I've posted here and otherwise -- that has made me think).
  • I stumbled on to Miriam and Clark Baker's pages back when someone posted a term I wasn't familiar with to the Glossary project a few weeks back. From what I gather, Clark was also one of the people who was in on Lisa Greenleaf's experiments with alternative music contra dancing in the 2000's. It focuses a lot on square dance, but in my Internet wanderings I'm seeing people finding interesting similarities between MWSD (especially patter calling) and alternative contras.
Listen
  • Club Contras DJ Nu B has a recording of his November set up. (Note to self: find my way down to Greenwood, VA when he's spinning in 2012.)
  • Contra Sonic's dJ improper also has a Mixcrate site, for those who haven't danced to his spinning yet (and those who have danced to his mixes in DC or elsewhere...).
  • For those seeking a contra-ish Pandora fix -- as has been pointed out by several people, the only thing on Pandora that's contra is Wild Asparagus. While I love Wild Asparagus, there is a wealth of other contra stuff out there that isn't reflected in Pandora. Until this is remedied, Eileen Thorsos mentioned that she finds some of her electrotrad source music for her Electric Camel Contra mixes on Pandora, by searching for artists like Shooglenifty and Martyn Bennett (Perpetual e-Motion cites the latter as one of their inspirations).
_If you've found something cool and contra-related while web surfing, please share with the rest of us! Happy Holidays to all!

Shining Some Light on Ambiance

8/15/2011

 
So far we've analyzed many aspects of the techno contra genre, particularly with the music and the dancing and the way the two relate. However, there's an aspect of this that's so far gone relatively unexplored. One of the other pieces that both contributes to the atmosphere and is generally very different in a crossover contra as opposed to a regular one is the lighting.

Jeff Kaufman has wondered about incorporating the lighting to make the phrasing and calls more clear in crossover contras, and even posits that it may be a way to help hearing-impaired dancers stay in sync. Some callers have talked about how the generally lower lighting made it more difficult to see the dancers on the floor and thus keep them together. At the same time, sacrificing the "club style" lighting would take something away from the event (and the lighting can enhance or detract from the experience, even though it's taken for granted). There are plenty of ways to do it wrong, but I'd imagine there are also plenty of ways to do it right and set the mood without detracting from the dancers' experience. Does it make a difference between new-dancer-friendly techno contras and experienced-dancer-only techno contras (who theoretically might not need as much of a visual cue as to where they need to be when)?

Food for Thought: Dancing Switch

8/1/2011

 
I was digging around online this evening (read: taking a look at Google Analytics to see how you lovely readers are finding this blog), and I found something really interesting over on Jeff Kaufman's blog, offering a couple of perspectives on why using "lady" and "gent" in describing contra dance roles is or isn't sexist.

This was especially interesting since we've been talking about dancing switch lately on the YouTube channel.

Read More
    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.

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