I haven't seen it posted so just want to be sure that you know, for
the tally, that Nils Fredland called Money Musk just after the break
at the Greenfield dance Saturday night too, with Tidal Wave providing
the music. Not sure how many people, but there were 4 lines, for
those of you who know the hall (most of you, I'm guessing).
On Mar 17, 2009, at 4:36 PM, David Millstone wrote:
Good luck, Bill! And there definitely is a market of folks
interested in the
older dances. David Smukler and I each held a dance this past
Saturday where the
program was advertised as all older dances. We each had a great
turnout. At my
dance, we had everone from absolute first-timers, to many of the
regular crowd,
to folks whom we haven't seen on a dance floor in ages. Some
dancers drove two
hours to attend.
Here's the program I called in Norwich, Vermont:
Grand March
British Sorrow
Lamplighter's Hornpipe
Jamie Allen
Gay Gordon's
Portland Fancy
Morning Star
Devil's Dream
Money Musk
Rory O'More
Speed the Plough
Young Widow
Chorus Jig
There were plenty of other good possibilities. Didn't include
Petronella or
Hull's Victory or Hull's Victory because we do 'em so often anyhow,
mixed in
with more modern material. Of course, we do Chorus Jig often, too,
but you can't
have a program of chestnuts and omit that one!
The program in Syracuse, with multiple callers, went as follows:
Lady Walpole's
Queen Victoria
British Sorrow
Chorus Jig
Petronella
Rory O'More
Money Musk
5th figure of the standard Lancers
Lamplighters' HP
Young Widow
Devil's Dream
One of the delights has been reading comments e-mailed after the
dance from
folks who wished that there could be more such events. Here are
some samples:
"I've been meaning to write to thank you for that fabulous dance
this past
weekend in Norwich. It was well worth the trip from northern
Vermont. On the way
back we were wondering if this could become an annual event. I've
pretty much
given up contra dancing in recent years (twirling, stomping,
athleticism, etc)
but that night brought back everything I love about it. The
calling, the music,
the dances, it was all sheer pleasure. So were the tidbits about
the dances and
their history. You even persuaded people to behave in a civilized
manner..."
"What wonderful dances !! Those chestnuts are such a treat to dance
-- they're
full of that unending flowing feeling if you're active; and if
you're inactive,
they're full of chances to admire the actives - the hall - and the
caller and
band, to enjoy the other dancers in your set, and to support the
actives in
making each round of the dance a perfectly timed smoothly-
choreographed delight.
And Money Musk is one of my favorites, so it was wonderful to do
that last night
-- I particularly like when the active person swoops (or backs)
into his/her
spot in the lines of three -- or as an inactive, when to two of you
are
receiving the "incoming" active with just the right timing. Plus
while we were
dancing it in Norwich, it was wonderful to realize that this dance
being done by
like-minded but unknown "friends" all around the globe, with great
callers and
bands all urging on the dancers!"
"I saw so many familiar faces (usually I can't remember the names)
and found
that many had come because of the program. Us 'oldsters' don't get
the chance
to do the old chestnuts often. Thank you!"
"Thank you for an absolutely wonderful dance last night. The
program and music
and calling were utter heaven..."
Are these dances for everyone? Probably not. (I was calling a week
ago at a
large venue with many-- i.e., 50 or so-- new dancers on the floor.
The first
dance of the evening had no partner swing, only neighbor swings, so
that the
newbies could experience swings with many different people. One
experienced
dancer approached me afterwards to point out that there had been no
partner
swing. She mentioned that she had never done a dance before that
evening that
didn't have a partner swing, didn't know that such items even
existed.)
One of the things I noted in looking at the two hours of video
footage we
gathered from the Norwich dance was seeing all those inactive
couples having fun
while just standing still. Smiling at their partner, listening to
the music,
occasionally sneaking in a swing with an inactive from the
neighboring line--
okay, so they weren't always standing still-- and watching the
active couples.
Boy, I sure remember picking up a lot of tricks from watching good
dancers,
something that's much harder to do in the everyone-moving-all-the-
time dances.
Don't get me wrong-- I love those, too, and call plenty of 'em, but
variety is
good.
Where can you find directions for all those dances? Well, I'll put
in a plug for
"Cracking Chestnuts," published by CDSS. You can also find many of
them on the
syllabi online for the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend.
As many of you know, Saturday night was also the time for what we
dubbed the
International Money Musk Moment. Folks in venues around the
northeast danced
Money Musk at more or less the same time, and we were joined by
dancers in
Michigan, California, New Zealand, Denmark, and (coming up this
coming Saturday
at their monthly dance) the outskirts of Zurich. David Smukler and
I will
compile the stories from all these venues and will share the
information in some
fashion.
I posted a piece of video footage showing our dancing in Norwich,
Vermont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnCnMSEAejg
There's also a short piece documenting Money Musk at Monte Toyon
camp (Linda
Leslie and Bob Isaacs calling):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy8hIwkpo1Q
Here's a link to a Facebook site showing the dance in Bethlehem,
PA, with Donna
Hunt calling
http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/swf/mvp.swf?8%3A149819=&v=24250984990&ev=0
and this clip from New Zealand, with Bill Baritompa calling to the
New England
Chestnuts recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdQIKMdtR3A
Cheers,
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
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