tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-220543482009-03-02T00:08:09.211-07:00Exciting adventures on the road, stage, and dancefloor!Janenoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-6019175025597642982008-01-09T22:58:00.000-07:002008-01-09T23:18:23.910-07:00

NOVEMBER 2007 Basque CountryBerets and Balconies, Chile Ristras and Fast Accordeon Musicby Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler(first published in the Jan 2008 Desert Exposure) Sometimes we are amazed how far we can travel on the wings of a good old New Mexican polka. We arrived in Euskal Herria - Basque Country - on a Thursday morning in early November, after 20 hours of flying and changing

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-79099577674212674902008-01-08T23:58:00.000-07:002008-01-09T00:05:48.979-07:00

Tom Leith & I visited my family in Massachusetts over Christmas. And we got to contra dance! We attended a dance on Thursday December 27th in the Boston area. For those of you familiar with the dances in the Boston area, this is the dance that used to be held in the VFW Hall in Cambridge. In August 2006, this Thursday night dance moved to Medford and and in August 2006, to the Scout House in

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-56804247485272341152007-06-07T18:12:00.000-06:002007-06-07T18:11:58.947-06:00

Dick Riger here doing his civic duty and writing about Contra Dancing in other places. This dance was the third Saturday of May in the Denver area. The larger dances are usually on Friday night and smaller ones on Saturday night. They still alternate dance nights with Boulder. This particular dance was at the Scheitler Recreation Center. As a first-time dancer with them I danced free. I had

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-1175622214057084582007-04-03T11:30:00.000-06:002007-04-03T11:43:56.020-06:00

Those of you who were at the March 24 dance in Santa Fe may remember Dave and Lisa, a young couple from New England dancing their way across the country. It was open-mic night, so Dave called a couple of dances, too. They've been documenting their journey on a blog. If you want to see a visitor's perspective of the dance, and the rest of their contra-dance travels, check it out.Here's the link

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-1158889438644009742006-09-21T19:33:00.000-06:002006-10-10T22:36:48.290-06:00

Someone said, “If somebody bombed West Virginia’s annual Clifftop Music Festival, old-time stringband music in America would cease to exist!” This statement, rather morbid, does give some indication of the number of musicians who attend this and other top-billed eastern old-time music festivals. One reliable estimate of this year’s Clifftop event, for instance, claims over 4000 musicians camping,

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-1153421886282238022006-07-20T12:44:00.000-06:002006-07-20T12:58:06.303-06:00

Hi Folks: A few thoughts on Contra Dancing that I'd like to share with all of you, no matter how I make them sound they are meant to be positive because they were inspired by a great trip: physical, not drug induced.The event was the Wasatch Wiggle and it was held at the Wasatch Mountain Club in Brighton, UT. How I got there is a story in itself but let us say that I would not argue with the way

Janenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-1140836453488323792006-02-24T19:30:00.000-07:002006-02-24T20:00:53.500-07:00

This isn't exactly a roadtrip report (although we did travel some roads to get there), but I thought it worthy to comment on last weekend's ABQ Contra Dance adventure. It was a night of comings and goings, both on the dancefloor and in the band. When the scheduled caller for the evening didn't appear, we all found out just how deep the bench is on our team. Five callers who were there to dance

Janenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22054348.post-1139812866378757332006-02-12T22:37:00.000-07:002006-02-12T23:41:06.386-07:00

To kick off the road-trip blog, here's a peek at the fun times at Durango's disco-themed contra last weekend.Caller Wendy Graham and a growing community of dancers put on their best polyester and danced the night away under disco balls and a music-synched light show. We (Hey!) had a great time playing for them! See a tiny video clip on our website.

Janenoreply@blogger.com0