Sister Salad's Page

Hey sistersalad!

Wanted to let you know that I had a long respite of my own, and it was well-needed (as I'm moving rather soon). But I wanted to let you all know that I did my first contra call! If you want to check it out, skip to about 2:00 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Vg0gkIpNY

Be good to yourselves,

~ Jethro.

I just wanted to say hi and ask how you were doing. I also wanted to ask if you ladies know of any good books. I just can not seem to find any good ones, so I just thought I would ask you what your favorit books were cause I know you ladies read alot. Thank you
~ Jason

You girls are awesome. I follow you guys a lot. I always watch your videos when I need a good laugh or just smile, you girls rock. Keep up the good work and thanks for adding me.
~Jason

Hooray! I'm glad I saw some contra dancing on your 8 awesome things video! :D

~ Jethro.

I'd never heard of Ceili, but I checked out some videos on YouTube, and it looks fantastic! I just love those shoes they use. Sounds like you need to get yourself out of Heliopolis and escape over to Scotland for a little while to get your Ceili quota filled!

Honestly, I never thought to do calling either. It was only when someone asked me if I wanted to guest call that my interests soared through the roof! I think it's just really catchy when have a good caller. I especially like it when they change up the steps midsong. : )

We have an excellent caller at our dance who does workshops, but he's pretty tied up from the one he did last year-- he keeps track of about 8 people from it who he tries to find area dances for them to practice calling. That takes a lot of work, plus organizing the materials for a workshop is pretty time-consuming, he says.

The caller sent me some materials to study over: An easy example dance to call, some really important tips to remember, and some good ways to practice. So to start, it'll really be a DIY kind of learning. After my first guest call-- much of my learning will probably be through experience and feedback. Still, were there a workshop, I'd be all over that.

If you're interested-- ask a caller at your local dance. Likely they will 1) Know someone who teaches and 2) Will be ecstatic and want to help you learn, just like how many experienced dancers are with beginners at contra.

Playing the fiddle would be so cool! If you're still doing Sister Salad when you're out of grad school (And I'm pretty confident you will be), you should show us when you practice...even if it sounds something like *sscccccrREEEEEEE!* Everyone's got to start somewhere, right?

Take care,

Jethro (my nickname)

Thanks for dropping me a line! Contra is pretty amazing-- I'm going to do my first guest calling in July. It does feel really cool to be learning how to do this, especially because I have time now! I'm not sure that I'll be able to do a lot of guest calling when I start grad school (it's a lot of prep work!), but that won't ever stop me from dancing.

How did you get into contra dancing?

My fiancee and I will be watching your many videos this weekend in a sister salad extravaganza marathon! She is very excited about them, and I am happy to rewatch them.

Take care,

Chris