CONTRA WORKSHOP and DANCE Sat 5_31 SEATTLE - TACOMA area

Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 20:58:58 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.folk-dancing
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 FIFTH SATURDAY CONTRADANCE SEATTLE-TACOMA WA AREA TWO EXCITING EVENTS - MAY 31 CONTRA WORKSHOP from 2:00 - 5:00 GREAT DANCE from 8:00 - 11:00 with caller JENNIFER YOUNGMAN
Please join us at the Rockin' Horse Dance Barn, for two exciting events!
First,in the afternoon, a Contra Dance Workshop. Then, in the evening, the
regularly-scheduled Seattle Fifth Saturday Contradance. The workshop will
be taught, and the evening dance called, by the marvelous Jennifer Youngman,
reknowned for bright, cheerful, easy to follow, and innovative teaching and
calling. Please welcome Jennifer, who was able to step up and undertake our
workshop/dance combination on short notice when Laura Me' Smith was forced
to bow out (see note below) due to an unforseen emergency.
In the workshop, Jennifer will start with tips for making contradancing
comfortable and fun (basic moves, giving weight, painless connections, conserving
energy to dance without tiring.) She will demonstrate "truly listening" to the
music, and getting from it a sense of timing (how to flow from one move to
the next with the music, no matter what the tempo.) And she'll show how to
stay oriented in some of the trickier moves and "end conditions"that never
really get thorougly explained during regular dances.
Jennifer has called this "a Newcomers Workshop and Beyond." So everyone
is welcome - perfect newbies will learn to dance, and more experienced dancers
will also benefit. So invite your friends you've been encouraging to take up
contra dancing; invite those newcomers you met on the dance floor at Folklife,
and invite yourself! Everyone will get something from Jennifer's instruction.
(A relevant aside: Kate, Marcy and I played the April 1st Saturday dance w/
Jenn calling; we all sat there nudging each other and smiling, as she did the
workshop before the dance.)
We will dance real dances (with live music, of course, from members of the
evening band) in the workshop, to demonstrate the concepts. I can tell you
from my own experience that "workshop dancing" is exciting and a bunch o fun.
You combine new experience, learning and dancing. And if you're an experienced
dancer taking a "rookie" through a part of the workshop, there is that
possible thrill of being there when that newcomer "becomes a dancer"
The workshop runs from 2:00-5:00 or maybe 5:30, and its cost is $10.00.
In the evening from 8:00-11:00, Jennifer will call the Fifth Saturday
Contradance. Our new venue, Rockin' Horse Dance Barn got rave reviews
when we opened there in March, and with folks fresh from the afternoon-long
workshop, along with dancers who arrive for the evening, it should be a
wonderful dance!
The new hall is about the same distances from Seattle, East Side, Tacoma, and
South Sound locations as was the Aquabarn. (Directions below.) We think it's
quite a bit nicer, too - high beamed ceilings, lots of space, a superb wood
floor finished for dancing (pls bring clean shoes to dance in), good
acoustics, and plenty of tables right off the dance floor to sit and have a
conversation.
Music will be by SMALL PLEASURES.
Vivian Williams, fiddler in PoH, Salmonberry; guest w/ Scotsbroome; probably 30 years playing for dancers including the Northwest Passage live-music square dances that started our recent tradition. 1999 Senior Division Fiddle Champion of the U.S. despite being a great dance . fiddler. Keeper of the traditions of the dance tunes of the Northwest.
Miche Baker-Harvey, budding dance fiddler who has joined us the last couple of Fifth Saturdays, and has played a number of Friday and Thursday Seattle dances. Gleans knowledge, style, and tunes from Stuart Williams, Vivian Williams, Cathie Whitesides, Gil Kiesecker, Washington Old-Time Fiddlers. Yet another "bridge" between the contra and regional traditions. (Ask her about her summer travel to up-country Saskatchewan, heartland of the Metis tradition that powers so many of the tunes we play.)
Phil Katz, melodeons (five of them now.) Nearly 25 years, playing the Yankee tunes for contras; PoH, Scotsbroome; a Salmonberry "original", North Trunk Highway, KPM. Just returned before Folklife, from a 7 week car trip to New England and points in between in April and May, visiting the musical and personal roots of the tunes he plays.
Phil Williams, guitar, mandolin, and banjo player in PoH, Salmonberry, and all that stuff with Vivian; a founder of the NW Folklife Festival 32 yr ago. "Classic" backup player - specializes in making everybody else sound good.
Lynnel Rowan, bodhran, bells, tambourine, "clackey" spoons. From our Puget Sound dance to Yakima and Tri Cities, Lynnel has given our rhythm backup a new kind of excitement. Versatile across the range of New Hampshire, NW Prairie, Quebec, Irish, and English tunes we play. We think you'll appreciate how she and Phil W work together.
The dance runs 8:00 - 11:00 pm; The cost for the dance is now $8.00. (When
we started at the Aqua Barn we were paying $100 rent for the evening; now
we pay $250.)
Workshop and dance are sponsored by the Seattle Folklore Society.
http://www.seafolklore.org
Please wear no scented products; several of our regular dancers are extremely chemically sensitive to same. So pls skip the perfume, aftershave, scented hand lotion, etc. Thanks.
A NOTE regarding the Substitution of Callers. Laura Me' Smith, the founding
caller of this dance, and listed in earlier 5/31 publicity, undertook months
ago to do this workshop/dance combination, clearing the date with her
employment schedule. (She is a wardrobe mistress for the theater.) But
just a few weeks ago, her regular employer discovered an emergency situation
and gave Laura Me' no choice but to work long hours on the days up to and
_including_ 5/31 She called with her profound apology as soon as she knew.
We do understand; a large fraction of the callers and musicians who do
contra dances make their "real living" in other professions. Had there
been any other option, Laura Me' would never have missed our events.
Sometimes a woman just has to do what she has to do. We are pleased
that Jennifer Youngman was available to take over. (And if the
Saturday sewing madhouse ends early enough, we might just
see Laura Me' and Mark unwinding on our dance floor.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ROCKIN' HORSE - DIRECTIONS
(These directions are based on the reader being familiar w/ the
basic freeway system in/near Seattle. If you are not and these are
confusing pls email email-address-deleted and say what direction
you'll be arriving from.)
Get yourself to Exit 5 of I-405, namely Route 900 - Sunset Hwy. _East_.
This exit is south of I-90 and north of the Valley Freeway exit.
(Avoid Exit 4, marked Route 900 - Sunset Hwy. West.)
After Exiting: get on the Sunset Highway, namely Rt. 900 - eastbound,
and start counting 3.1 miles.
Wind uphill through a long strip of commercial district (where streets have
names, not numbers.) At about 2.5 miles you will leave the commercial
district and continue uphill (still on same road) into a semi rural area.
At about 3.1 miles: Turn Right into 148th SE. (Turn is preceded by green
mile marker 15, followed by a yellow cross-road sign for 148th Ave.SE;
both signs on the right and impossible to miss.)
Follow 148th SE for 1/2 mi, passing several street signs on the left.
Look for SE 117th Street, sign-posted on the _right_, on the same post
as a sign for the Apollo School. Across the road (on left) is a sign
for the Rockin' Horse.
Turn Left into SE 117th, and go one long block till it ends (at the
school); then turn Right into 150th Ave. SE., for one block,
straight into the gravel parking lot of the Rockin' Horse.
(The actual street address is 11820 150th Ave. SE, Renton WA.)
More detailed directions, from various points North and South:
http://seattledance.org/contra/rockinhorse.directions.html
or email email-address-deleted or call 206 722 8228 or 206 323 1112
We will be soliciting volunteers to help with the cleanup of the hall at
the end of the dance, to keep it beautiful for the next user. ----------------------------------------------------------
Upcoming events:
June 7 First Saturday Contradance at University Friends Center Alan Roberts, fiddle; Dave Bartley, guitar, mandolin, cittern: Phil Katz, melodeons; Marcy Kubbs, piano. Caller Tom Wimmer (7:00 wkshp - 7:30 dance)