NEW: Fiddler’s Roundtable, Friday, April 23
If you do not receive our emails and would like to be added to the list, please contact us at mmtdcolumbia@gmail.com.
We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and continue to be so. We look forward to the time when we can dance in person again!
Join us for a special evening of Missouri fiddling with our Fiddler’s Roundtable, featuring Little Dixie style fiddler John Williams of Central Missouri and Ozark style fiddlers Nathan Lee McAlister and David Scrivner from Southern Missouri.
John, Nathan, and David will be discussing and demonstrating some of the regional styles of fiddle playing and will treat us to a variety of tunes. There will be no called dances this evening, but there should be ample opportunity to clog, two-step, polka, waltz and otherwise cut a rug to the great tunes from these three great fiddler players.
The Zoom link to join the event will be sent to the MMTD email list. If you are not receiving our emails and want the link, please send a request ASAP to mmtdcolumbia@gmail.com. Or, you can also watch and listen on Facebook live at either our MMTD page: https://www.facebook.com/midmotraditionaldancers or our MMTD group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mmtd.como
We hope you can join us for this great evening of music!
Saturday, April 10th: The Figments w/Drew Delaware
Doors at 6:00PM, dance from 6:30 PM – 7:45 PM Central
Mid-Missouri Traditional Dancers is joining forces with communities across North America to produce All Hands In, a virtual contra dance event open to dancers world-wide.
We are thrilled to present The Figments, known for their driving fiddle and guitar with the rich texture and rhythmic excitement of the clarinet. Elegant melodies evolve into raucous riffs, transcendent harmonies, and playful improvisations. The Figments are Anna Patton, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, and Owen Morrison, who are also known for their roles in the dance band Elixir. You will remember Elixir’s wonderful concert presented last month for MMTD’s virtual Spring Breakdown! Don’t miss the chance to dance to their music with a great caller leading the way!
Our caller will be Drew Delaware from Toronto, Canada. Drew is an inventive and joyful caller, who has called virtual dances from coast to coast and beyond. Drew was an early advocate for creative adaptations of dance choreography for virtual dancing, and has contributed a dozen dances and countless adaptations to the virtual dance movement.
Because this dance uses pre-recorded video to feature our band, it is best if you join via laptop or PC; those joining on a mobile device will have difficulty if they like to pin or watch other dancers. Or join with both – use your PC for sound and your mobile device for pinned dancing.
Have you been to a virtual dance yet? If not, you might be surprised how fun it can be. In virtual (online) contra dancing, dancers interact with imaginary people (“ghosts”) in the majority of dances. Because of this, we presume that everyone in attendance has contra dancing experience. Walkthroughs are concise, and there won’t be a beginners’ lesson.
That said, when you dance alone in your living room, the contra line is exactly where you imagine it, and unexpected moves become glorious new choreography! So, everyone is always welcome to join.
To attend the dance, click on the following link:
http://contradance.link/allhandsin
Join the event at 6:00PM Central on Saturday to join our community social room. There will be a brief introduction to virtual dancing at 6:30PM, and dancing will begin promptly thereafter.
At in-person dances, an entry fee is collected; for All Hands In, we work on the honor system, asking dancers to make a donation to the band. Recommended donation is $10 (more if you can; less if you can’t.)
All of our callers and helpers are volunteering, to help our musicians during a difficult time. You can make your donation to our musicians at this link: https://contradance.link/donation
The Figments has put in a tremendous amount of work preparing this set of tunes specifically for our dance, so please give generously.
Toronto’s contra dance community hosts the infrastructure and provides the funding to produce All Hands In, with further volunteer assistance from participating communities like ours.
All Hands In is scheduled every 2nd and 4th Saturday evening until we can dance in person again. MMTD participates as a group ever 2nd Saturday. You can keep track of scheduled dances on the All Hands In Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/allhandsincontra) or the CDSS website: https://www.cdss.org/community/covid19/online-events.
We have a generous limit of 500 participants, so tell your contra dancing friends, and feel free to reshare this announcement.
See you at the dance!
Here is an event to tide you over until our 2021 Spring Breakdown on March 19-20.
MMTD is joining forces with communities across North America to produce All Hands In, a virtual contra dance event open to dancers world-wide.
We’re thrilled to present Gròóvåtrøñ, an enchanting contra trio featuring flute, oboe, acoustic and electric guitar, tenor banjo, didgeridoo, hotel bell, and various groovatronics™. The band features Everest Witman (Nova), along with Grace Hendrickson-Jones, and Jonathan Werk.
Gròóvåtrøñ joins us via video they’ve pre-recorded specifically for this dance. They pulled out all the stops – with easter eggs and antics, along with some fantastic tunes you’ll be certain to enjoy.
Our caller will be Perry Shafran of Alexandria, VA (just outside Washington, DC.) Perry has been calling contra dances since 2003 and has been organizing dances throughout that time, as well. He is well known for quick, efficient walk-throughs and a smooth calling voice. Perry organizes Glen Echo’s Friday Night Dance (FND) Virtual Contras, and has called for several other virtual dances, as well.
Because this dance uses pre-recorded video to feature our band, it is best if you join via laptop or PC; those joining on a mobile device will have difficulty if they like to pin or watch other dancers. Or join with both – use your PC for sound and your mobile device for pinned dancing.
Have you been to a virtual dance yet? If not, you might be surprised how fun it can be. In virtual (online) contra dancing, dancers interact with imaginary people (“ghosts”) in the majority of dances. Because of this, we presume that everyone in attendance has contra dancing experience. Walkthroughs are concise, and there won’t be a beginners’ lesson.
That said, when you dance alone in your living room, the contra line is exactly where you imagine it, and unexpected moves become glorious new choreography! So, everyone is always welcome to join.
To attend the dance, click on the following link:
http://contradance.link/allhandsin
Join the event at 6:00PM Central on Saturday to join our community social room. There will be a brief introduction to virtual dancing at 6:30PM, and dancing will begin promptly thereafter.
At in-person dances, an entry fee is collected; for All Hands In, we work on the honor system, asking dancers to make a donation to the band. Recommended donation is $10 (more if you can; less if you can’t.)
All of our callers and helpers are volunteering, to help our musicians during a difficult time. You can make your donation to our musicians at this link: https://contradance.link/donation
Gròóvåtrøñ has put in a tremendous amount of work preparing this set of tunes specifically for our dance, so please give generously.
Toronto’s contra dance community hosts the infrastructure and provides the funding to produce All Hands In, with further volunteer assistance from participating communities like ours.
All Hands In is scheduled every 2nd and 4th Saturday evening until we can dance in person again. MMTD participates as a group ever 2nd Saturday. You can keep track of scheduled dances on the All Hands In Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/allhandsincontra) or the CDSS website: https://www.cdss.org/community/covid19/online-events.
We have a generous limit of 500 participants, so tell your contra dancing friends, and feel free to reshare this announcement.
See you at the dance!
Friday, January 22 at 7:30 PM
Join us via Zoom for an online concert and dance featuring music by Roger Netherton and calling to recorded music by Jim Thaxter. The link to join the event was sent to the MMTD email list. If you are not receiving our emails and want the link, please send a request ASAP to mmtdcolumbia@gmail.com. You will want to be on our list for exciting news about future events, including the next All Hands In event in February! If you haven’t tried online dancing, yet, you should give it a try! While it isn’t the same as dancing in person, it provides good soup for the soul in the mean time. Please join us!
