TACOMA

FIFTH SATURDAY CONTRADANCE

AUGUST 30, 2008

Please join us, at Wells Hall, for hot twin-fiddle and box tunes with powerful percussion and guitar rhythms to drive your dancing. All are Welcome!

Matt Temmel will return once more to call for Fifth Saturdays. Matt is a caller of great good spirit and charm, best known from the enjoyable and welcoming Tacoma Third Saturday contra series. Singles, couples, and families are welcome; No partner needed; Alcohol and smoke-free; Workshop for newcomers (see below.) We have a great time, dancers, caller, and musicians too! All sponsored by the Seattle Folklore Society.

Music will be by Grey Owl, namely Miche Baker-Harvey on fiddle, Phil Katz on melodeons, and Jay Finkelstein on guitar. Grey Owl emphasizes tunes from the Red River Métis, a live tradition from the U.S. northern plains and Canadian prairies. In our opinion these are some of the hottest and most contra-danceable tunes around, though not well known because they come from remote places. We've been travelling to these places, working with Métis fiddlers, performing, and finding a remarkable number of exciting tunes, well suited to contradance style. (Miche will have just returned from two musical trips to Saskatchewan in July and mid-August.) If you listen, you may hear the French Canadian and Scottish fiddling, along with Plains Cree and Ojibwa chant sounds, all of which built Métis fiddling into what it has become.

We leaven these recent Métis "finds" with a generous addition of our local and Northeast contradance repertoire. And a fair number of local "standards" have been discovered to come from Métis country as well.

Specifics on the Event:

The Fifth Saturday Contradance will be held at Christ Church Wells Hall, 310 North K Street, Tacoma - directions below. It is well-known as one of the sweetest halls in Puget Sound and it cools naturally, on warm evenings, due to a full extra row of windows up above at the balcony level. (Note: It's the same location as the monthly Tacoma Contra Dance that's held on Third Saturdays.)

The August 30 dance, will run from 8:00 - 11:00 pm. The cost is $8.00. As always, a 10% discount will be available to Seattle Folklore Society members who request it.

There will be a newcomers' workshop at 7:30 pm. Bring your friends whom you've been wanting to introduce to contradancing. It is "not rocket science", and by the third dance, anyone looking out over the crowd will likely be unable to tell who just learned that evening! We're proud of the tradition of asking newcomers and visitors to dance, and looking after them on the dance floor.

Please avoid wearing scented products (e.g. perfume, aftershave, cologne, scented hand lotion) to the Fifth Saturday Contra Dance. (Dancing, being aerobic, magnifies their scent, and also the effect of the solvents used therein!) Some dancers are hypersensitive or allergic to such products.

A word about children's attendance: It is fine for older children and teenagers who are comfortable interacting with adults on their own. However, it is not appropriate for small children unless they are on the sidelines supervised by adults at all times.

A caution on parking: The street right across from the hall has been posted as a "residents only" zone, so please don't park there - tickets have been given. There is plenty of parking on adjacent streets, and there are spots behind the church as well.

Special Mini-Concert at the Break:

One of the principal types of dancing in Métis communities, historically and up to today, is step-dancing (jigging), which most often is done to a repertoire of uniquely Métis tunes that aren't evenly phrased ("square") as contradance tunes must be. Miche has gotten a taste for these, and has been learning to play them from traditional Métis fiddlers and their recordings.

At the break, Miche and Jay will be doing a 20-25 minute version of their set on "Crooked" Metis Step-Dancing Tunes that they performed at the NW Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center in May. Possibly including something newly learnrd in Saskatchewan this Summer, as well.

Directions to Wells Hall

310 North "K" Street, Tacoma

From Seattle, "Eastside" of Lake Washington, or Des Moines
I-5 south to exit 133 (Tacoma City Center). Then take I-705 and Schuster Parkway exit on the right (still called I-705). Then take the Stadium Way (first) exit from Schuster Pkwy. At end of exit ramp, turn right. The street goes up hill then swings left onto North 1st. You pass Stadium Thriftway and a Chevrolet lot, and then merge into Division at a traffic light. Continue on Division, turn right onto North "K". Wells Hall is the second building on the left. Enter the dance through the church courtyard.

From Olympia
I-5 to Tacoma, exit 132 (the route 16-Gig Harbor exit). As you are entering Route 16, take Sprague Avenue Exit. Follow Sprague about one mile to the end. Be in the second lane from the right. Take the soft right onto Division, so that "It’s Greek to Me" (restaurant) is on your right after the turn. Follow Division about ½ mile. You pass Frisko Freeze. At the next corner turn left onto North "K". Wells Hall is the second building on the left. Enter the dance through the church courtyard.

For more information please contact:
Phil Katz - philkatz@ZZZhalcyon.com - 206-722-8228. (You know what to do with the Z's),
OR
Local Organizing Committee Chair, Steve Conway - 360-584-9062.

Seattle Folk Dancing

Webmaster: Matt Fisher (webmaster@seattledance.org)
Last Modified: August 13, 2008