I began folk dancing and contra/square dancing while attending MIT in the early 1970's, and after graduating was a rare (for the time) "Dance Gypsy" in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. When I moved to California in 1981, I found that the New England dancing I enjoyed was not was was being called in San Francisco — the contradances were "California style". That's why I started calling dances in 1982, but it meant I wasn't dancing...
And now my calling style is much more California than New England, with a little Southern and a smidgeon (oops! — I mean すこし) of Tokyo thrown in. Shoganai!
In 1984 I took over the Palo Alto Contradance at Stanford, which had been started by Brad Foster in the 1970's and was inherited by Susan Murphy when Brad moved to New England as the new Director of the Country Dance and Song Society. That bi-weekly Palo Alto dance series is celebrating a history of more than 30 years, which I believe makes it the longest continuously running contradance series in California. I've been calling it for 23 years of that long run.
What does a contra dance look like?
In all, I've been calling for more than 25 years. In that time, I've also written several dozen dances which have entered the repertoire, and have toured most of the US and several other countries. In 1992 I taught and called contradances (in Russian) on tour with dancers and musicians in Russia and the Ukraine; I have taught and called contradances and New England square dances in England, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, and have taught and called contradances and Modern Western Square dances in Tokyo, Japan.
Calling for first-time dancers is a specialty!
Contradancing and square dancing with exciting live music is a great activity for weddings, private parties, company events, rafting trips (yes, really!), almost any kind of get-together. I've done many such events, and have taught several thousands of first-time dancers who all had a great time at a fondly memorable event. Many left the event finding themselves hooked on a good way to have fun, and are now among our regular dance crowd.I am available for booking, and can arrange for some of our best and favorite local Bay Area dance bands to play at your event. Or, if you already have musicians lined up, I can work with them. Contact me at eric@eric-black.com to discuss.
One of the things I will get around to soon, is an online database of my dances, and my bookings calendar. Expect it Real Soon NowTM.
In the meantime, you can find my upcoming public BACDS dates in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- Eric Black calling at BACDS dances this quarter, and the
- full quarterly calendar for the Bay Area Country Dance Society (BACDS)
Here's an abbreviated list of 22 of my most popular dance compositions. I hope you enjoy dancing them:
- Rhonda's Reel
- The Barron of Connecticut
- The Housewarming
- Political Hey
- Valentine Swing
- Harmony
- Танцуем ("Tahn-tsu-yem" — We Are Dancing)
- Harmony Freeze
- 50-50 (written with Kirston Koths)
- Mudslide Reel
- Harmony Dance Floor
- Exercise at Lunch
- Alison Wonderland
- Queenie and Charlie
- Butterfly Reel
- Surprise (square)
- Zingy Swingy Reel (someone "Back East" correctly attributes this dance to me, but with the incorrect title "Razzle Dazzle")
- Redwood Reel
- Mendocino Redwoods
- So When Was YOUR Wedding?
- Chorus Jig Alternative
- Solsticial Contra
A searchable dance list and my touring schedule will be listed here as soon as I can get them up and running.