Re: [Callers] Marie Cassady of Louisville

[Susan McElroy-Marcus via Callers]

I have such fond memories of Marie from my first dancing days-what an 
inspiration and delight!
Susan

From: Jerome Grisanti via Callers 
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2017 11:37 PM
To: trad-dance-call...@yahoogroups.com ; e...@bacds.org ; callers 
Subject: [Callers] Marie Cassady of Louisville

Lovers of traditional dance,  

It is with sadness I announce that Marie Cassady, a dancer and teacher of dance 
in Louisville Kentucky for many many years, died on Sunday afternoon. She was 
104, just two months shy of 105.

Marie founded Louisville Country Dancers, which has since become a mostly 
contra dance group, but in the day featured English dance as well, and even 
occasional international dances.

I first met her in the mid 1970s, when she and husband Frank Cassady taught 
Italian folk dances to a performance troupe that my siblings were involved in. 
(I was too young to join the first few years). As it turns out, they also 
taught performance troupes for many ethnic groups.

She was interested in many things besides dance, including national and 
international travel. She also sang with her church group for many years. As 
well, she reared several children and was a maternal figure for many others.

A few years ago, she related to me her memories of the influenza epidemic of 
1919. Imagine that, she had memories of her father from that time, and of Camp 
Taylor in Louisville! She also talked about the 1937 flood of the Ohio River.

She slowed a bit over the years, remaining active in English and international 
but leaving contra to younger bodies. She also took up hula dancing in her 90s. 
Gotta keep learning!

She remained active and mentally sharp until very recently. I saw her in 
August, and she immediately called me by name.

There will be a memorial service for Marie in early November, but the details 
are not yet determined.

Many thanks to you, Marie Cassady, for introducing so many people to dance and 
the communities it engenders. I am grateful to have known you.

Jerome Grisanti


-- 

Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com


"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and 
magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe






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Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars

[Susan McElroy-Marcus via Callers]

Just a bit of Louisville dance community history on this subject—when my 
husband started dancing there in the late 70’s and I came in 1982, the Monday 
night dance was a mix of English and contra.  The default contradance star grip 
was the “wrist lock” not hands across as in English.  We called it a basket 
handhold or wrist grip.  Our influence came from New England because our 
friend, Norb Spencer, who started the group along with Marie and Frank 
(Cassidy?) and who called much of the time—learned in New England.  We then 
taught it that way when we moved to Cincinnati and started that group.  
Louisville only became a “bastion of hands-across-by-default” sometime in the 
late 1990’s or ealy 2000’s during my calling hiatus.  When I re-entered the 
calling scene 6-7 years ago, I was surprised and bemused upon calling in 
Louisville to learn of the high regard held for their ‘traditional’ 
hands-across star style.
Susan McElroy-Marcus

From: Chet Gray via Callers 
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 9:44 AM
To: Tim Klein 
Cc: callers@lists.sharedweight.net 
Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars

I tend to consider my home dance, Louisville, KY, and nearby Lexington, as two 
of the last bastions of hands-across-by-default. Wrist-grip seems to be the 
default (for contra; squares are a different matter) even in relatively nearby 
cities: Indianapolis, Bloomington, IN, Nashville, Cincinnati. Not sure about 
Berea and Somerset, KY, also nearby. 

I'd be hesitant to use weekends, Flurry in particular, as bellwethers of what 
is typical in anything but weekends. I'd wager that the vast majority of contra 
dancers, even habitual dancers, have never been to a dance weekend, perhaps not 
even their "home" weekend. Just as there is a sort of "weekend-style" dance 
program, there is a "weekend-style" of dancing that is a pidgin not necessarily 
representative of any particular regional style.

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 9:41 AM, Tim Klein via Callers 
 wrote:

  I call for dances in Knoxville, TN and occasionally in the surrounding area 
(Jonesboro, Chattanooga). I've been dancing here for 30 years. Kaufman was 
correct. I recall hands across stars in Knoxville, Atlanta, Brasstown, 
Asheville and points between, but wrist grip stars in Lexington, Louisville and 
Nashville. I'm certain about Knoxville, but perhaps others can confirm for the 
other cities.



  The wrist star has gradually taken over as the default in the area, but a 
couple of us old-timers are still holding out. I still teach the hands across 
star in the pre-dance lesson because it's quicker, but acknowledge that there 
are variations. When I call and dance, I still prompt and encourage the 
hands-across grip. We've got to hold onto our traditions and fight the 
globalization of contra, right?



  Of course, there are situations where one variety works better than another - 
to/from a move with an adjacent person (star to alemande, courtesy turn to 
star) suggests a wrist star, while moves where the contact is across (star old 
neighbors to star with new, ladies start star then gents join in) suggest the 
hands across. In those cases, I'll explicitly suggest one version in the walk 
through.

  Tim Klein
  Knoxville, TN


--
  From: Dave Casserly via Callers 
  To: John Sweeney  
  Cc: "callers@lists.sharedweight.net" 
  Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 8:37 AM
  Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars


  Jeff Kaufman wrote a paper on regional variations in contra dance.  Here's 
what he found for wrist-grip stars (page 31 of the link).  Basically, they're 
common everywhere in the US except in some parts of the South.  This is based 
on data from ten or more years ago, so I'm not sure if that's still true.  I 
would not be surprised if it isn't-- there's enough cross-contamination that 
wrist-grips could have taken over even in the South.  We do have people from 
Georgia and North Carolina on the list; hopefully they'll chime in. 

  -Dave
  Washington, DC

  On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 4:31 AM, John Sweeney via Callers 
 wrote:

Hi all,
I have been to contra dances and festivals all over America and
everywhere I have danced everyone automatically uses a wrist-lock star
(unless the caller has specified hands-across because of the subsequent
choreography).

But I am constantly challenged in England by people claiming that
wrist-lock stars are not the standard in America.

When I go to somewhere like The Flurry and see 600 people from all
over the country all doing wrist-locks it seems to me that it must be the
standard way of doing things.

And obviously it has been common in America for a long time; this
video is from 1964 in Northern Vermont and shows