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.