CONTRALAB
Updated June 15, 2019
Articles & Excerpts
Chairman's Corner We
are fast approaching the 68th National Square Dance Convention in
Atlanta and hope that many of you are registered. Gary Chamberlain and Jeff Smith have been
busy planning and preparing the Contra program for the Convention. We
hope that many of you can arrive early and participate in the Energizer dance
on Tuesday evening. It will be held at
the Convention site (specifically the Kennesaw Ballroom in the Renaissance
Waverly Hotel at the Cobb Galleria). Gary has reported that Diane Silver has
committed to calling our Energizer dance. Wednesday
morning we will have a group discussion among our members and any interested
dancers are invited to attend. The topics we plan to focus on are: 1
Members talk about successes in
their contra dance programs. 2
Issues members face in their contra
dance programs and ideas to resolve those. 3
Workshop to
help newer callers who have questions about decoding choreography or with
prompting. Wednesday
afternoon is our Contralab meeting followed by the Board meeting. Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday will have full days of dancing. All of these events will be held in the
Contra room at the Convention venue. Just
received the National Squares Online e-Magazine and noticed that our own
“Queen Guinevere” (aka Lissa Bengtson) is a member of the 68th NSDC
Roundtable discussion. 68th NSDC Roundtable! Discussion
Topic… “But We’ve ALWAYS Done It That Way…” Friday,
June 28th 3:15 - 4:30 pm Education
Room 104 Galleria Centre Roundtable Members are:
Moderator: Bill Jarrett (as King Arthur) ARTS: Jim Maczko (as Sir Lancelot) Callerlab: Dana Schirmer (as Sir Galahad) ACA: Bill Boyd (as Sir Gawain) ContraLab: Lissa Bengtson (as Queen Guinevere) Roundalab: Paul and Barbara Connelly (as Tristan and
Isolde) USDA: Butch Hayes (as Sir Hector) We
look forward to once again seeing all of our dance friends at the
Convention. That is the real bonus of
attending a National Square Dance Convention.
See you there. Duane
Olson |
A book we recommend for you written by Paul Moore:
Click on the above to get to new page giving
details about this book.
Upcoming Project To all Contralab Members - I would like to compile all the dances that were published in past
national conventions' syllabi. A lot
of great dances may have been forgotten or never experienced by people like
me. Many times I've danced to really great sequences, but only remember that
they were fun to dance to. A standard format (TBD) will be used to document all of the dances that
have been submitted over the years, while sorting out the duplicates. This
compilation will be created in Word 2007, and can then be redistributed to
Contralab members. In my possession are syllabi from the 65th, 59th and 54th conventions.
There are obviously a lot I am missing. I do not know when Contralab started
distributing them at conventions. If you have any duplicates or 'unsold'
pamphlets, I would like have one. Photocopies of your original would also be good. It may be easiest to
scan and e-mail. I'll be more than happy to pay round trip postage for any
personal copies on loan. It will probably take me most of Jan-Feb of 2019 to accomplish this, but
hey, it gets cold here, and I will need something to do while sitting by the
fire! |