Making the rounds on some of the square dance sites…

Square Dancing & Round Dancing – Suite101.com has a couple of new articles and a new poll:

So far, only 4 voters, though. Also, the responses mix up causes and effects. I think not enough new members are joining the activity because, among other things, the dress code needs to be eliminated.

Terry, the sitemaster, talks about starting a square dance mailing list…why not just refer people who are interested in an email discussion of square dancing over to square-dancing (message body should be: subscribe square-dancing).

Circle Left shows a little activity (there’s one future event listed), although the caller list appears static (and includes some ancient email addresses). I think event and caller listings have been covered better by other sites (notably Vic Ceder’s site…so other square dance sites should provide some other info…Circle Left doesn’t (yet).

SquareDancing.com continues to grow. It has caller listings (not as extensive as Vic’s and much harder to peruse), event listings (ditto), and forums (which have some current discussion of square dance issues).

It’s Cinco de Mayo, a regional Mexican holiday that has become a major celebration of Mexican heritage in the United States. Here in Albuquerque, music and fun highlight Cinco De Mayo. Today’s a good day to break out your Latin-themed records, and maybe play some mariachi music during the breaks.

American Square Dancer has a new article on sight calling.

We have a festival in Albuquerque this weekend: New Mexico Single Square Dancers Spring Fling.

Musical ideas:

In 1949 (the year I was born, if anyone’s interested), Lovesick Blues by Hank Williams was at the top of the charts. In 1957, A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation) by Marty Robbins was at the top. I know these have square dance versions because I have the records.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned being interviewed, along with Bob Brundage, Linda Haack and Bill Litchman, for an article to appear in one of our local papers. Well, the article did appear: Square Dancing Draws a Crowd. I’m not sure that it would make anyone want to take up the hobby, but I don’t think it was a total turn off either. It’d be interesting to think about what kind of article would work to attract new dancers…and then write it in such a way that clubs could use it as a press release for new classes or something.

Here’s a bizarre use of the words “square dance”: NO MINOR MATTER. Scroll down to the section “The ‘Square Dance'”…it’s about “sanctioned” fighting between inmates. Yuck.

Music notes for today: it’s Randy Travis’ birthday. Here are the Randy Travis songs that I have square dance records for:

• I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (Blue Star 2136)
• Stranger in My Mirror (ESP 922)
• Honky Tonk Moon (Red Boot 3018)

I’ll bet there are others that I don’t know about.

In 1626, the island of Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of cloth and brass buttons. Sounds like a good time to break out all those New York songs. I have:

• On Broadway (Rhythm 165)
• New York, New York (Blue Star 2431)
• New York Minute (Panhandle 109)

In 1964, My Heart Skips a Beat by Buck Owens hit the top of the charts.

I’m back from a brain- and leg-wearying weekend spent attempting to learn C3A. Obviously, one can’t start from scratch and learn the level effectively; we’d all spent a lot of time memorizing (or at least attempting to memorize) the definitions of the calls. For me, the memorization helped in dancing; I could focus on how the call worked with the whole square rather than on having to remember the definition on the fly.

At CALLERLAB this year, there was a session on music distribution in the future and on using digital music. At least a couple of music producers (no point in calling them “record” producers any more) are beginning to distribute their music as MP3 files rather than on vinyl. Supreme Audio is distributing MP3s from Lou-Mac and Shakedown: Digital Square Dance Music. I’m especially happy to see Shakedown; Pat Carnathan had stopped producing records because of the high production costs associated with vinyl, but he hadn’t stopped producing music for himself; now that music can be made available to the rest of us in a more cost-effective way.

Once you’ve bought and downloaded your MP3 square dance music file, then what…obviously you need something to take with you to the dance to play the music.

You have several options:

• Bring a laptop and plug it in to your amp. Vic Ceder has provided some detailed information on how to use your laptop in this way and how to create MP3 files out of your vinyl records: Calling with MP3 Files. Vic’s program, Ceder Square Dance System includes a music database and MP3 player that allows you to categorize your MP3 files, loop them (for patter), and change their tempo on the fly. It’s way cool.
• Record your MP3’s from your computer to a CD. You need a CD-burner and a portable CD player. You need to be sure to record the MP3’s as audio files.
• Record your MP3’s from your computer to a MiniDisc. You can do this in digital (Mac to MiniDisc Tutorial or Thunderwire) or analog (simply connect the line out from your sound card to the line in on your MD recorder) mode. You need a MD recorder.
• Download the MP3 files to a portable MP3 player. For a comparison of MD and MP3, see Portable Music 200: MiniDisc vs. MP3

Since I already carry a laptop to most of my dances and already use Vic’s program, I’m seriously considering moving to MP3 files for all my music. It’ll be a lot of work, but once it’s done, it’s done. For me (since I’m already using MDs), the advantages of using the laptop are (a) the on-the-fly tempo adjustment, and (b) the organizational capabilities of the music database.

Musical possibilities for today:

• On May 3, 1939, “Beer Barrel Polka”, one of the standards of American music, was recorded by The Andrews Sisters for Decca Records. Patti, Maxine and LaVerne turned this song into a giant hit.
• In 1956, the Frank Loesser musical, Most Happy Fella opened on Broadway and ran for 676 performances. The music included “Standing on the Corner”.
• It’s Pete Seeger’s birthday. I checked Songs by Pete Seeger, and didn’t see any songs that I have square dance records for. Among his more famous songs are “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “If I Had a Hammer,” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.”
• It’s also Wynonna Judd’s birthday, so you can break out all those Judd songs.

Today is Casey Kasem’s birthday; he’s 68. Some callers (me included) like to introduce songs with some info about them (who did them originally, how far they went on the charts, maybe a teaser before starting the song…). We sometimes refer to this as “doing a Casey Kasem.”

Here are a couple of bios: Casey Kasem Biography, and I Want My Son to be Proud (scroll down).

Casey’s famous quote: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” To generate more quotes, see the Kasey Kasem Phrase-in-ator.

What cartoon show had Casey as the voice of one of the characters? Scooby Doo. What character? Shaggy.

So in honor of Casey, maybe for your dance tonight, you should pick songs that you can introduce in that Casey-esque style. “Here’s a song that reached the top ten with versions by both Pat Boone and Fats Domino. Guess which version reached Number 1.” (The song is “Ain’t That a Shame”, Pat Boone’s version reached number 1, Fats’ only reached number 10.

In looking around for stuff on Casey, I found The The Straight Dope’s analysis of What is Don McLean’s song “American Pie” all about? I’ve loved The Straight Dope for years, so it was nice to find Cecil on line.

I was glad to see that Western Square Dancing is listed among the folk dance forms covered by the Folk Dance Association. Too bad several of the articles refer to contra dancing rather than MWSD.

Looking for trivial information about today’s date? Trivia at UselessKnowledge.com has it.

I’m going to be a little terse for the next few days; I’m memorizing C3A calls before going to SoCal for the weekend to try to learn C3A. Talk about an exercise in masochism…

Music and Square Dancing

Some callers seem perfectly content to use the same old patter records and the same old singing call records year after year (at least, I’ve heard that there are callers like that; I don’t know any). Most callers that I know are interested in new square dance music and buy new records. Some look for music outside of the confines of what the square dance record producers provide. Some create their own music.

Music is important to me, both as a dancer and as a caller. As a dancer, I can usually tell you what singers a caller did and what patter records s/he used. As a caller, I have a reputation for using a wide variety of music, both for singers and patter. I do look for non-square dancing music that might be useable. I have created music, even though I’m not a musician.

So I’m interested in discussions on the use of music in different dance forms. Notes on Choosing Tunes for Medleys contains some interesting thoughts on using music during a contra dance. As most of you know, traditional contra dances almost always use live music, and for many dancers, the band is more important than the caller. Contra bands usually don’t play “popular” music; they play folk and traditional tunes along with some tunes composed by members or by other contra dance musicians.

One of the contributors to the above page said:

I believe that a band’s programming of the evening’s tunes can be just as important as the caller’s programming of the evening’s dances.

Some callers have an instinctive knack for requesting music that fits both the dance they’ve chosen and the place during the eveing they’ve chosen to call it. Others will leave it to the band beyond saying “jig” or “reel.” Watch the flow of energy over the course of a dance event that leaves you feeling GREAT. Think about matching your high energy or funky tunesets with the energy peaks, and providing more relaxed tunes for “warming up” or “recovery” times. A whole night of hot driving tunes will wear out both band and dancers.

Sounds a lot like what we think about when programming square dance music.

As you know, I like klezmer music, so I was happy to find The Klezmer Shack, a site devoted to the music. Maybe I’ll be able to find some instrumental music suitable for square dancing here.

Today might be a good day to feature the call Heads Rollaway. Why?

On April 25, 1792, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine.

You might also feature songs about the radio; it’s Guglielmo Marconi’s birthday.

And, of course, you should do Dream a Little Dream of Me; in 1931, it hit #1 on the pop singles chart by Wayne King. There are several square dance versions available; I have HiHat 5215, from 1998, with Kip Garvey on the flip side.

Why wasn’t square dancing part of this: Baltimore Folk Music Society Folk Festival? Here’s a list of the dance events:

• Swing Workshop
• Cajun Workshop
• Waltz Workshop
• Open Swing dance
• Contra workshop
• English Country
• Tango Workshop
• Family Dance
• Irish Workshop
• Contra Medley
• Open Waltz/Tango
• Balkan Workshop

Square dancing is supposed to be the “official” folk dance of Maryland? Where were the square dances in this folk event? Why weren’t MWSDers involved? Could it be that they’re not really part of the folk dance community in Baltimore?

There are lots of other folk festivals that don’t included MWSD. The DownEast Country Dance Festival includes:

• Contras
• Squares
• International
• Swing
• English
• Cape Breton
• Cajun
• Scottish
• French Canadian
• Scandinavian
• Zweifachers

(The squares are definitely traditional.)

Philadelphia’s 16th Annual Heritage Dance Festival features a variety of dance forms including:

• Contra
• Swing
• International Folk
• Cajun
• Square
• English
• Latin
• Clogging
• Argentine Tango
• Vintage
• Japanese
• Waltz
• Country Western
• Scottish
• Scandanavian

From looking at the schedule, the squares are all traditional, although Sunday morning’s “Allemande Alphabet Squares” with Ridge Kennedy calling is somewhat related to the MWSD form. But why no “Intro to MWSD”? Could it be that MWSDers are not a part of the folk dance community in Philadelphia?

I could go on and on with festivals that present a variety of different dance forms (including Swing, which I would consider less of a folk dance than even MWSD). I could talk about Albuquerque, where the MWSDers have virtually no contact with the folk dancers and are not listed in their publications or included in their events. To me, it’s obvious…the MWSD and folk dance communities are totally separate. There are a few people who bridge the cultural gap, like Al and Yona Chock, for example. There are some dancers who do both. But the crossover is miniscule. Why?

Happy Easter! If you square dance today, you’re eligible for an Easter fun badge (Square Dance Fun Dangle Requirements).

There’s not much in the way of square dance Easter music. Easter Parade (Lamon 10095, Bruce Williamson Jr.) is about it. Maybe someone should put out Peter Cottontail. I suppose we could always play the Bunny Hop during a break.

Nice enthusiastic page on square dancing: Dave’s Dancing Page.

Ever wondered what contra dancers do when they’re bored with repeating the same sequence over and over? They do medleys.

For example, Steve Holland’s Contra Dance Page notes:

The “master of the medley” has a reputation of calling medleys that change each time through the dance.  The current record is 19 separate dances in a medley.  You will not want to miss the next experienced dance where Steve will break his record — set at the last experienced dance!!

There was a contra medley with no walk throughs at this year’s Dance Flurry.