Jude's Journal Issue 2009-1

Jude’s Journal 

by Jude Conroy

WHERE ARE THEY?

Bon Voyage to our Toni Charbonneau. She’s part of a sailing crew moving a boat from Panama to Florida! Fair winds to ya Toni!

Donnalyn just came back from Mallorca, Spain where she was visiting her son and his family. I am anxious to hear all about your adventure Donnalyn .

Correction: Bill Ossa. He’s in Africa, not China. Good thing, we don’t want him getting into anything made with melamine! He’s teaching at the Morogora Teacher College. Go Bill! Teach the folks how to contra, spread the word and dance steps!

Ellen ~ we miss you gal! Ellen is looking after her dad up in c o l d Wisconsin. The day I received her e-mail it was MINUS 20! Burrrrrrrrrrr! 

APPLAUSE & HURRAH

Kudos to the wonderful music Simon Kiefer has been booking on our dancing behalf! Music and callers have been outstanding. Lots of good dances being called on our S.B. wonderful sprung floor! How lucky we are!

More kudos to our regular dancers, who in the course of an evening help out our newcomers (potential continuous community dancers). Steering a newcomer in the correct direction with your hand movement, eye direction and body language is very helpful. 

I remember being a newcomer. Wow, it was confusing for a long time and I really appreciated those of you who took a little time out to help my direction along the way. Sometimes I still need direction! HA! (No comments from the peanut gallery thank you very much.)

Our New Year's Dance in Ojai was just wonderful. Kudos to Karin Dron for all the work you do to make our Ojai dance possible. Our dancing friends from L.A., S.B., and Riverside helped fill the hall with smiles, laughter, warmth, fun, twirls and synchronized stomping. What a wonderful way to bring in the New Year! YES!

Dance Floor Courtesy: Please, no perfume, heavy scented lotions or aftershaves. 

Many thanks to the persons who change their shirts/blouses during the course of an exuberant evening of fun dancing .

DANCING PROTOCOL

One of the most noticeable and attractive points of contra dancing is eye contact. Some of us have a problem with eye contact but eyebrow, nose or forehead eye contact is ok too! Just check out how eye contact on the popular TV program “Dancing With the Stars” looks. Could you ever imagine them not looking at each other!  

Eye, eyebrow or nose eye contact also keeps one from getting dizzy!

CONTRA CORNERS: When I first had to do this complex move, oh my gosh! Confusing, you betchya. Little hint: if you were to put your arms out into a ‘V” shape, you would be heading to the person across from your right arm, go around this person and meet your partner in the middle, half turn with your partner then off to the person you pointed to with your left arm, then back to your partner. Congratulate yourself and dance on with a smile .

PASS THROUGH: Ok, which shoulder of the person across from you do you pass? Right or left? Explore this with your fellow dancers ~ Gary or Donnalyn will teach or answer this question on the dance floor.

CONTRA CARNIVALE was held in San Luis Obispo (SLO) January 16-18. What a wonderful weekend of music, dancing, making new and reacquainting with friends from all parts of the USA. The weather was delightful, hall was beautiful and our hosts did a fabulous job of hosting. Kudos SLO chapter . One of the best parts of a dance weekend is getting to know people better. I haven’t been disappointed yet!

Some up and coming dances are Fiddling Frog in Pasadena, Monte Toyon near Santa Cruz, Balance the Bay, May Madness in Prescott, AZ, Labor Day Dance Away in Julian, Dance in the Desert outside Tucson (November).

Want to know about many local and away dances? Contact louise-danceinfo [at] earthlink [dot] net. Tell Louise you would like to be added to the mailing roster. Tell Louise you are a part of the SBCDS (Santa Barbara Country Dance Society) community.

Another source of info is on a corner of the SBCDS website: http://www.sbcds.org/festivals/

Want to become part of the SBCDS Group on line community goings on notices? E-mail Gary Shapiro at:

garys [at] sbcds [dot] org

 Contra Community Artistic Members Showings:

Mary Thompson’s Sculptures in Faulkner Gallery at

the SB Library, 40 W. Anapamu St, SB ~ now, 

until 2/28

Let Jude know your comings/goings/celebrations. This column is for this dance community. Respond to cloud-merlin [at] roadrunner [dot] com.

Ojai's Still the Place!

Join us once again on Dec. 31 for an intimate New Year's Eve Dance in beautiful OJAI!

SUSAN MICHAELS will be calling, bringing her wonderful sense of humor, and ability to elevate the level of dancing to fit her flowing, synchronistic repertoire. BONFIRE will set your feet on fire with their unique configuration of the traditional.

Bonfire is: BONNIE INSULL on flute, pennywhistle, and foot percussion sparking the band with her passion for traditional, classical, and improvisational music, RICHARD SCHER playing keyboard & percussion, and bringing his extensive background in jazz, popular, and world music and FRANK HOPPE, who has been delighting dancers with his rhythmic fiddling for longer than he cares to remember.

The evening starts at 7:30 with an introductory lesson and hors d'oeuvres (potluck dish is optional) followed by live music & dancing from 8 PM till midnight, with special entertainment & refreshments planned for the break.

Ojai Art Center is located at 113 S. Montgomery St.
Admission $15, teens $10.

For further information, please call Karin @ (805) 933-0660, or e-mail her at karincontra [at-sign] juno [period] com.

Join the 'Barn Dance Project'

by Scott Williams

In an effort to attract new dancers to contra dancing and introduce Santa Barbara and our neighboring towns to the pleasures of the dance floor, a dedicated group of our dancers have formed The Barn Dance Project.

The organizers (Jude Conroy, Scott Williams, Donnalyn & Elliott Karpeles and Gary Shapiro) are enrolling interested & committed contra dancers to participate in an outreach program within our extended community. The Barn Dance Project offers to put on a Barn Dance, as a free group participation event at any business or community gathering of 30 or more people, anywhere in the Tri-County area. The band, caller and experienced dancers are supplied for free!

The first ever SBCDS "Barn Dance" was held at the World Fest 2008 on October 18 at Earl Warren Show Grounds. 25 eager and enthusiastic dancers showed up, along with a full band, dubbed The Pick Up Artists, and Elliott Karpeles did the calling. The dance was a tremendous success and was even briefly covered by KEYT, so we even wound up on the evening news. We ended the performance by handing out SBCDS dance schedules and a free coupon to their first dance. The turnout and interest in this event was very encouraging. Getting people to dance was as easy as asking. The World Fest organizers were so impressed that we were asked back to next year’s event and also want us to participate at the much bigger S.B. Fair and Expo in April 2009.

What the Barn Dance Project offers is a simple community building event whose objective is to expand our contra dancing community by exposing hundreds of potential dancers to what we do. We’re committed to seeing our community outreach make a real difference in our community, and we invite you to join us by adding your name to our data base of possible dancers at these events. We want to do Barn Dance Introductions throughout the Tri-County, so if you live in Santa Maria, Ventura, etc. please let us know if you could possibly participate. To help with the driving we will help organize carpooling. Attendance is never mandatory, but if we have a large pool of possible’s it will be easier and more fun to make each event a success.

To be added to the contact list please contact Scott at 805-451-9300 or scott [at-sign] scottwilliams [period] com. Also if you have a suggestion or can think of a business that might like to put on a Barn Dance event, contact us to determine if it would be suitable.

Our next Barn Dance Event is coming up on February 22. The local organization Santa Barbara Newcomers will be bringing 20-40 first time dancers to our regular Sunday night dance. There will be a special lesson starting at 5;30 so we’ll need extra men that night.

One last special thanks to everyone who made the first event such successful fun. It was wonderful to see what is possible when we work together for the community.

Jude's Journal Issue 2008-1

by Jude Conroy

Happy trails to Bill Ossa! Bill will be with the Peace Corps for three years in China. We’ll miss your silly and fun antics Bill!

DANCING WITH OUR SENIOR SENIORS They are such an inspiration to me and I am sure to most dancers. We’d want to be able to have the desire AND the get up ‘n go to attend a dance AND dance! KUDOS TO ALL OF YOU! Let us all “Keep it Grounded” for them by acknowledging our strengths and exuberance by transferring these gifts into gentleness and fun with them !!!

DANCING PROTOCOL:

THE WAVE: Unless told differently by the caller, while holding hands, four across, stomp and look at the dancer to your RIGHT, then stomp and look at dancer on the LEFT. If wave is quickly repeated, (unless told differently by caller) stomp and look to the dancer on the LEFT, then RIGHT.

EXCITING NEWS!!! Simon Kiefer has joined the SBCDS board. For the past year he has been scheduling the talent for our weekly dances and is responsible for all the wonderful bands and callers we’ve been so delighted in having on our stage.

WHERE ARE THEY Now? Local dancer Nancy Breslin and her partner Tom Smith will be residing temporarily in Berkeley as they await the arrival of Nancy's first grandchild and setting herself up to be the loving, caring, cooing grandparent she's so excited to be! We will miss both your faces, so delight in your forthcoming wonderful event and hope to see you both 'on the dance floor' in SB whenever you get the chance.

Call, tell or email Jude about your travels, anniversaries or birthdays to be included in a future "Jude’s Journal." Email 9jude6odie [at-sign] roadrunner [period] com.

[ We're trying to figure out how to put clickable email addresses here without exposing them to spambots. ]

Upcoming Dance Camps

Contra Carnivale January 16-18 in San Luis Obispo CA.
Bands: The Groovemongers, Crowfoot & Notorious. Callers: Nils Friedland, Rick Mohr and Susan Petrick. www.cccds.org/carnivale

Fiddling Frog February 27 - March 1 in Pasadena, CA.
Band: Contrazz and The Lissa Schneckenburger Band. Caller: Kathy Anderson www.caldancecoop.org/cgi/frogdriver.cgi

BACDS Spring Weekend March 13-15 at Monte Toyon camp near Santa Cruz, CA.
Bands: The Raggedy Annes, The Guppies, and The Rhythm Rollers.
Callers: Bob Isaacs and Linda Leslie. www.bacds.org/camps/springweekend

Dance Awakening April 10-12 at Harbin Hot Springs, Middletown CA.
Band: The Figments. Caller: Rick Mohr. www.danceawakening.com

May Madness ContraFest May 15-17 in Prescott Az.
Bands: Groovemongers and the Privy Tippers. Callers: Beth Molaro and Kari Usher. www.folkhappens.org

Also see the SBCDS web site's festival page.

Ojai Concert Series

The Ojai Concert Series

The Ojai Concert Series provides a valuable service for traveling contra bands and a treat for music lovers. About once a month the OCS brings an evening of wonderful music to Ojai. The main focus is Celtic and Folk with lots of Contra and Roots Music from around the world. They often feature bands that are on a contra dance tour. Jamie Laval, Ashley Broder, Notorious’ Larry Unger & Eden MacAden-Somer plus members of Crowfoot are a few of the artist you might remember dancing to. These concerts are held in downtown Ojai at the beautiful, 100 year old, Ojai Valley Woman’s Club meeting hall and all profit goes to the artists.

OCS is run by local dancers Shane & Kelli Butler with help from Barbara Briggs and Joe Aleks. So come on out to Ojai for dinner then stay for a wonderful concert and help support live music.

Upcoming Shows

Dec. 22nd: Irish Christmas Show

with Cul-An-Ti a unique Japanese/Celtic fusion band from Portland and featuring local step dancers Elizabeth & Deirdre Wood of Celtic Spring.

Jan 14th: Crowfoot

Appalachian/Quebecois fusion Trio sensation (they are also a featured band at this year’s Contra Carnivale)

Feb. 6th: Tom Chapin

Three time Grammy-winning Folk Singer and the brother of 70’s folk legend Harry Chapin

For directions, carpooling or ticket info or to get on their mailing list go to www.ojaiconcertseries.com or call Shane at 805-665-8852.

submitted by Shane Butler

A History of Contra Dancing, Part One

by William Noack

Humans have always danced - it seems to be a part of our nature to express joy, reverence, fellowship, as well as individuality through movement, especially to music. And among the forms which developed in the 1500’s and 1600’s in England were the roots of our present contras. These country dances – as opposed to the formal courtly dances where a misstep might elicit a beheading (OK, I exaggerate) – were enjoyed by the common folk – by everyone of all classes, adults and children. Even Queen Elizabeth enjoyed Country Dancing.

In 1651 the first collection of English country dances was published, which introduced country dancing to the wealthy and city dwellers where it also became popular. The longways set, which we now use, gradually over the decades of the 1600’s became the most prevalent and enjoyed formation in country dancing. As it is also human nature to be intrigued by the foreign, these English country dances were avidly adapted on the Continent, especially in France where they were called contredanses, a corruption of the term country dances.

Publication in England, while preserving and popularizing country dances among the gentry, also unfortunately caused the dance forms to lose much original spontaneity, joy, and simplicity. Standardized folk tunes would be attached to each particular dance, and there would be proper polite ways to perform each movement, with some variations.

Meanwhile, on the Continent, lively new music for the contradance evolved alongside the dance form, much based on the folk tunes. In 1699 seventeen contredanses anglaises were published, then Mozart wrote a number, and Beethoven wrote 12 contredances for orchestra, from one of which he developed the finale of the Eroica Symphony. (This contradance music is eminently danceable, and for variety it would be fun to have an evening sometimes with 18th century music!)

Country Dancing was brought to Colonial New England in the late 17th and 18th centuries where common folk as well as the gentry danced to the jigs and reels. One favorite dance of George Washington became known as the Virginia Reel. But America, being the land of immigrants, soon had waves of rural Englishmen and Scots settling and bringing their less pretentious forms of country dancing to its shores. The spontaneity and energy of rural English country dancing returned and evolved in New England.

Contra Dances were taught from New Hampshire to Charleston, and by the time of the American Revolution country dancing, mostly contra dances, were being done in both cities and rural areas. Some dances were the traditional ones which had been published over a century earlier, but others were new contra dances, created to commemorate the American Revolution and its heroes. With French influence helping us acquire our independence from Britain, as well as an anti-British sentiment in the colonies, the French term, contredanse, became the popular term for our type of dancing. And contra dancing, being democratic in nature, was a perfect activity for the sons and daughters of the American Revolution.