Here's a prototype for a calling blog. I'll write more about each of them.

(Go back)

Contra dances (future)

See you at a dance, I hope!
2018-01-06 Winters TBD
2018-01-19 San Francisco Audrey Knuth, Christopher Jacoby
2018-04-12..14 Queer Contra Dance Camp (Aptos) (with Alex Deis-Lauby) Countercurrent; Toss the Possum
2019-09-20..22 Chehalis Contra Dance Camp (with Sarah VanNorstrand) Pete's Posse; The Waxwings

Contra dances (past)

I've included some programs and lessons learned here for my own edification, but perhaps yours too. (I'm somewhat behind on updating it.) As a historical curiosity, I called my first contra dance at the Hayward community dance on 2011-10-23.
2012-06-10 San Francisco Free Folk Festival (1/5) Community band, led by Art Peterson
  1. Cranky Ingenuity
  2. The Nice Combination
Ric Goldman organized this group of callers. I brought several dances and we picked these two. There were a large number of dancers at the free folk festival, including many newcomers who managed to have a good time.
2012-07-22 Hayward (1/3, with Kelsey Hartman) Uncle Dave
  1. Get Me Going
  2. Valerie's New Trip to Portland
  3. Fun with Alex
  4. California Twirlin'
  5. Streetsboro Daisies
  6. The Love Shack
  7. Double Boomerang
  8. (break)
  9. Sarah's Journey
  10. Cascade Contra
  11. Java George
  12. Carried Away by Gypsies
  13. Torpedo
* called by Kelsey Hartman
My first real gig, the post-BACDS Family Week dance. I called 2 in the first half and 2 in the second half. It went pretty well except for miscalling California Twirlin' at the same time that the band accidentally played an extraneous part to their tune; we all admitted fault and started over, and it went fine thereon.
2012-10-24 Google Uncle Farmer
  1. Simplicity Swing
  2. Revolution Reel
  3. 3-33
  4. (break)
  5. You Can't Get There From Here
  6. Poetry in Motion
  7. Tica Tica Timing
My first entire dance (only 1.5 hours). We had a somewhat small crowd of 14 at most. Unfortunately, it was also the last Google contra, as our house band moved on to bigger and better things, such as not working at Google. 3-33 broke down because dancers didn't know what to do at the end, but they really wanted to make it work; by having ladies trade places in B2 in whatever way they felt like, it seemed to work much better.
2013-01-05 Canyon Eastport Station (Art Peterson, Jonathan Goodwin)
  1. Hypnosis
  2. Simplicity Swing
  3. Ted's Triplet #15
  4. (break)
  5. Easy Street
  6. Hocus Pocus
  7. David's Triplet #5
  8. (break)
  9. Microchasmic
  10. I Wish They All Could Be California Twirls
This dance only ran about 2 hours. Only 6 dancers came, likely due to weather, so we did some triplets and some contras in which everyone was constantly getting out at the end, so I had to keep calling throughout. Many things didn't work out right, especially Ted's Triplet #15 which got out of sync with the music, but the band and dancers were forgiving. The other two triplets were excellent.
2013-01-30 Berkeley (open mic, 2/5) Erik Hoffman, Debra Tayleur, Del Eckels, John Douglas
  1. To Turn a Phrase
  2. Simplicity Swing
  3. You Can't Get There From Here
  4. To Live Is To Dance
  5. A Dance for Dan
  6. (break)
  7. Millbrae
  8. Mirror, Mirror
  9. Comfort Deluxe
  10. Still More o' More?
* called by Susan Pleck
I didn't prepare many dances for this open mic session, but it turned out only 2 people had any interest in calling, so I called more than I had expected to. Not everything went well, especially the teaching of To Live Is To Dance, which somehow left one set in a different place from the other. Millbrae was tried for the first time and seemed fine (if not all that interesting).
2013-02-03 San Jose (with Bob Fraley) William Allen, Stan Kramer
This was the second half, consisting of contras, following a first half consisting of English. There were about 18 dancers, but most dances had fewer until I announced Petronella, which was enthusiastically received.
2013-03-06 Berkeley The Rosin Doctors
Surprise! "The scheduled caller isn't here and I've taught the first dance, but would you like to call after that?"

Having gotten my card software ready for Circle Left on Friday, I was about as ready as I could be, but programming on the fly.

2013-03-08 Circle Left (Berkeley) The Raggedy Annes
I count this as my first full evening that I was actually booked for. A gender-free dance.
2013-03-22 San Francisco (with Susan Pleck) Community band, led by Erik Hoffman
2013-03-24 Hayward Uncle Farmer
2013-04-20 San Francisco The Killarney Boys
2013-05-11 San Rafael (with Susan Petrick) Uncle Farmer
2013-06-09 San Francisco Free Folk Festival (1/3) Community band, led by Art Peterson
2013-06-14 Circle Left (Berkeley) Michelle Levy, Mike Sokolovsky
2013-08-03 San Francisco The Killarney Persons
2013-08-04 Petaluma The Raggedy Andys
2013-09-28 Palo Alto Whimsical
2013-10-05 San Francisco Common Ground
2013-10-18 Santa Rosa Uncle Farmer
2013-11-09 San Rafael Uncle Farmer
2014-02-01 Nevada City Hot Cider
2014-04-19 Newcastle Star Thistle
2014-04-22 San Francisco Perpetual e-Motion
2014-04-30 Berkeley The Rosin Doctors
2014-05-23 San Francisco Common Ground
2014-07-16 Berkeley StringFire
2014-07-26 Hayward Raggedy Annes
2014-08-02 Monterey Common Farmer
2014-08-15 Santa Rosa Don Coffin, Gus Garelick
2014-09-12 Circle Left (Berkeley) Stolen Goods
2014-09-26 San Francisco Raggedy Annes
2014-09-30 Hayward (with Kelsey Hartman) (special "techno" recorded music)
2014-10-17 Santa Rosa Ben Schreiber, Paul Machlis
2014-10-18 San Rafael Ben Schreiber, Paul Machlis, Paul Kotapish
2014-11-22 Sacramento Star Thistle
2014-12-31 Palo Alto - New Year's Eve Common Ground
2015-01-03 San Francisco The wiNgNuts
2015-03-07 Canyon Claudia's Kitchen
2015-03-17 Google The Galaxy Notes
2015-04-12 SF Bay Queer Contra Dance Camp (early morning techno) (special "techno" recorded music)
2015-04-05 Petaluma Seaglass
2015-04-26 NEFFA (Saturday late night) (with Kristin Seibert) Nor'easter
2015-04-30 Mt. Airy Mind the Gap
2015-05-03 Glen Echo AP and the Banty Roosters
2015-05-15 San Diego Old Twine String Band
2015-05-16 Pasadena Frank Hoppe, Bonnie Insull, Jeff Spero
2015-06-17 Berkeley Rodney Miller, Daniel Steinberg, Paul Kotapish
2015-08-17 Palo Alto Audrey Knuth, Larry Unger
2015-09-02 Berkeley The Stringrays
2015-09-05 Nevada City Star Thistle
2015-10-03 San Francisco Switching Protocols
2015-10-09 Circle Left (Oakland) Switching Protocols
2015-11-07 Monterey Rosin Doctors
2015-11-14 Sacramento Soul Weaving
2015-12-30 Contradancers Delight Holiday (morning spot) Nor'easter
2016-01-22 Village Contra (New York) Dance Therapy
2016-01-31 Hayward - Zesty BLAM!
2016-02-13 San Rafael Ray Bierl, Blaine Sprouse, Paul Knight
2016-03-05 San Francisco Switching Protocols
2016-04-23 Queer Contra (Oakland) StringFire
2016-05-13 Circle Left (Oakland) Swing Farm
2016-06-15 Berkeley Bald Mountain Boys
2016-07-16 San Francisco The Raggedy Annes
2016-09-24 Palo Alto Magic Reelism
2016-11-02 Berkeley Swing Farm
2016-11-06 South Bay Calamity House
2016-11-11 Circle Left (Oakland) Switching Protocols
2017-01-07 San Francisco Adrianna Ciccone, Colin Cotter
2017-01-27 San Francisco - Family Week Benefit DJ Balance/Swing (Gordon Allen)
2017-01-28 Sacramento Deniz Akin, Obin Sturm
2017-02-01 Berkeley Tripleplay
2017-02-11 San Rafael wiNgNuts
2017-03-05 Petaluma Swing Farm
2017-04-28 Sacramento - Zesty BLAM!
2017-08-26 Palo Alto Fresh Possum
2017-08-30 Berkeley Swing Farm
2017-09-16 San Francisco Fresh Possum
2017-09-28 Mt. Airy The Faux Paws
2017-09-29 Glen Echo The Faux Paws
2017-09-30 Bethlehem - Blue Moon Contra Great Bear
2017-10-01 Glen Echo Lydia Sylvia Martin, Robbie Caruthe
2017-10-13 Circle Left (Oakland) Will, Yona, Holly
2017-10-14 Sacramento TBA
2017-10-15 South Bay Madeira
2017-11-05 Petaluma TBA
2017-12-02 BACDS No Snow Ball (Oakland) (with Kelsey Hartman) KGB
2018-01-13 Circle Left (Oakland) Pepperjack
2018-01-20 San Francisco In-Tent-City
2018-02-17 Carmel BLAM!
2018-03-24 Sebastopol Open band led by Audrey Knuth, Dave Cory
2018-04-07 San Francisco Pepperjack
2018-04-28 Sebastopol (family dance, contra) Roxanne Oliva, Morgan Cochneuer, Debra Tayleur
2018-05-19 Newcastle Star Thistle
2018-05-28 Northwest Folklife The Lindsay Brothers
2018-06-09 San Rafael BLAM!
2018-06-16 San Francisco Tempest in a Teacup
2018-06-17 South Bay Pepperjack
2018-07-14 Palo Alto Anne Bingham Goess, Jason Pollock, Craig Johnson
2018-07-18 Berkeley Tea and Whiskey
2018-09-23 Hayward Community band, led by Erik Hoffman
2018-10-05..07 Next Generation Dance Camp (Mt. Hood) The Waxwings
2018-10-12 Circle Left (Oakland) Whimsical
2018-10-13 Palo Alto The Whimsies
2018-11-02..04 Foggy Moon Dance Weekend (Carmel) (with Cis Hinkle) Elixir; Dynamix
2018-11-10 Sacramento Reno Ceilidh band
2018-11-11 Santa Cruz Countercurrent
2018-11-17 San Francisco Countercurrent
2018-11-18 South Bay Countercurrent