CONTRALAB

Home

Calendar

Membership

Articles

Definitions

List of Dances

Links

 

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:

As I Saw It

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!