Contras -- Steve Zakon medleys
Chris Putnam
>>I've experienced at least three different levels of "changing the
>>calls" in a contra dance. I'll make up some terminology:
["Fancy Medley" descript. deleted...]
>>A "Simple Medley" is what Steve Zakon has become known for--2 or 3
>>dances, with just one caller. Steve usually (always?) returns to the
>>original dance at the end of the medley, and usually runs each
>>component dance long enough to be able to stop calling it. Generally,
>>each component dance shares some sequence of figures with the previous
>>component dance (e.g., just the second half of each may differ).
[more deleted]
and later, j...@hounix.org (Joel Breazeale) commented and queried:
>I understand that the contra medley first arrived at NEFFA around 5 years
>ago. Has the concept of a contra dance medley been around before that?
>I'd like to see if the concept can be traced back to a particular place.
>
>For example, did Steve Zakon get the idea for the simple medley from seeing
>it at NEFFA? Anyone know? If anyone sees him anytime soon perhaps you could
>report back?!
>
>Thanks,
>Joel Breazeale
>j...@hounix.org
Since I planned to have my first experience dancing to Steve Zakon's calls
this past weekend in West Virginia, I took your comments and questions
along and asked him.
He said that he did not get the idea of his "simple medleys" from
NEFFA, but was inspired to combine a couple of similar dances into one
dance sequence by the creative calling of Cammy Kaynor (I think he
said the Kaynor family is from New Hampshire, and is well known in the
New England dance community). The occasion he recalls took place in
Massachusetts in approx. 1984. Steve says he's not at all certain
that Cammy had *planned* a medley of sorts, but that he was just so
comfortable in calling a repertoire of moves that he was able to
combine interesting things on the spot without a walkthrough.
Steve cautioned that (a) he chooses to combine dances which have some
moves in common, and where the music and phrasing allows a smooth
transition from one to the other; and that (b) he does not walk into
a dancehall planning to call a particular medley -- that he transitions
into the possibility as the crowd warms up and he's had a chance to
assess their skills and responsiveness to the calls. Then he said,
with a twinkle in his eye, that he signals to the musicians that he's
about to call without a walkthrough, and just begins before the crowd
quite knows what's coming; i.e. he intentionally does not announce "we
will now have a medley without a walkthrough," -- he just does it. He
thinks this minimizes/omits the anxiety of some who maybe react to an
announced medley as though it is a quiz. He was quite flexible on the
"no walthrough" aspect -- again, he responds to the crowd. If he thinks
a partial walkthrough will be of benefit, he uses one. My summation is
that he's such a skilled and experience caller that he has a wide range
of options available to him, and he uses them freely to create an entirely
fresh dance experience each time.
One anecdote to share with fans of Steve (and I count myself among them
since this past weekend). In the closing "Potpourri Session" on
Monday, he got a wonderfully active contra dance started, then somehow
hopped in at the top of the line, danced through for a while, hopped
out again to get back to the microphone (perhaps he observed that folks
needed to be pulled back on track?), then suddenly latched onto one of
the men to make a double-male partner (making a threesome for each
swing, etc). He moved back down the line in this way, just exuberant
in sharing the dance joy with everyone. The fellow with whom he
linked was the organizer of the weekend, which added to the sense of
community of the whole scene. I was standing on top of a chair at the
end of the hall to observe all this: wishing to some extent that I
was in the midst, but thoroughly enjoying the full picture. It was
time to head back to Ohio, and that closing experience was a joyful one
with which to hit the road.
Chris