Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground brought to you by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, member FDIC.

Welcome to Common Ground.

I'm producer-director Scott Knudson.

On this episode we conclude with Part 2 of Bemidji Contra Dance.

Wendy Greenberg: Contra Dance originated in New England so it's, it's very American.

It wasn't the, the fancy highfalutin formal dance.

It was the, the dance outback that the fun people were doing.

The Contra is two lines so it's a line of ladies facing a line of gents originally.

We mix it up a little bit now but that was the original origin so that's the Contra part of it, is lines facing lines and it came from the old English country dance style which is also lines facing lines but much more elegant, much more formal.

We're a little more rowdy.

We move a little faster.

We smile more.

We turn faster.

We have I think a better time.

They're both wonderful.

They're also Contra Dance is kind of a second cousin of square dancing.

There's some moves that people will notice, alamann, ladies chain, right and left through that are square dance moves as well as Contra Dance moves and then there's some moves that are just mostly in Contra Dance, balance and swing for a long time as opposed to a short time so now it started in New England and it's spread all over the country.

Every big city in the country will have several Contra Dances so Minneapolis has a weekly Contra Dance, every Saturday night.

Duluth has a monthly Contra Dance.

East Grand Forks has a monthly Contra Dance.

That's what I know of in, in the state.

I met my husband in Texas and I spent eight years going to Contra Dances in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio so it's not like it's just a New England thing anymore.

It's hit everywhere and square dancing was, was coming out of Appalachia in the south and Contra Dancing was coming out of New England.

There's overlap.

Some of the music will work for either one.

Music for Contra Dance is kind of Bluegrass to Celtic leaning and of course music for square dancing is Bluegrass to country leaning so if you did a venn diagram there would be an overlap in music but it wouldn't be 100%.

Well our local musicians who have been learning to become Contra Dance musicians have been practicing, well once a month when we have a dance we have a musician's workshop and the visiting musicians will come and talk to them.

First of all, building repertoire, building tunes that work.

Second of all, building how we stay together, how we signal where we're together and then also building a way to keep up the pace, to run the dance long enough, to build up your endurance and keep a steady beat as you go.

They've also talked about if we're trying a new tune how does the guitar on short notice figure out the chords and they've also talked about what are some styles that help us play for that long?

I have to know who in the band as the caller, who in the band am I communicating with because I can't get everybody's attention.

Sometimes I need them to go a little bit faster and I or I need them to go a little bit slower or I'm going to cue two more times through and I need to know who in the band am I going to make eye contact with to make sure that message has gotten through and then they will communicate amongst themselves so we all have to work that out.

The new bands have to pick who are we going to communicate with.

It's often but not always the melody instrument but sometimes it's the bass player who's setting the beat.

Sometimes the guitar player who doesn't have quite as much finger work to do right at that moment so but they have to tell me.

Jeanne O'Neil: The workshops were at the Headwaters School of Music & Art in downtown Bemidji and of course we came not knowing what was going to happen because anytime you get together with a group of brand new musicians who don't know each other and don't know what it is they're supposed to be learning but it was fine we started out by playing a few tunes and explaining how the tunes need to be to work with dancing which is a specific kind of traditional music and dance culture.

Certain keys you want to play in generally, length of tune, parts of the tune that fit with the dances.

They didn't know any of those things so we had to talk about that.

The first time it was just to get people up there and get used to the whole idea of playing for dance because really playing for dance is quite different than not playing for a dance.

I mean you actually are if you whether you like it or not part of the dance so if you're gonna just ignore the dancers and the caller you're not really playing for the dance so to get them up there and get them used to that and used to playing with each other and listening and listening to the caller and paying attention to the dancers was a very important first step.

Then as the workshops continued over the last couple of years some of those people kept coming back and got you know a better feel for what that was about and I think they began to develop an appreciation for why this whole thing would want to happen and should happen and how much fun it is and how much fun the dancers have and it's also very rewarding as a musician I think to see the dancers and say you're all new.

Say you're a fairly new musician and you're a new dancer but you've created this thing by coming together and doing it that is always fresh and always new and always wonderful.

It's not like you're practicing for a performance that you're going to do someday.

This is it.

This evening that you just did with these musicians and these dancers was it and then the next time will be a different it so the fact that people can create an evening like that just by just walking in the door and being willing to take that step is amazing.

Tom O'Neil: So we did a workshop and this is something that we don't do that much of but it is fairly common when you go to music festivals for various genres in music such as Bluegrass festivals.

They have workshops and the workshops are experienced musicians sitting down with a group of less experienced musicians and either learning to play better or learning new, new tunes so that's the format we used.

We brought some minimal amount of chord charts at least for the the tunes that we were going to play.

There are also some resources with melodies and printed sheet music for some of these tunes.

We brought some of that along and we just had a group of local musicians there come and they did a wonderful job of listening and playing, asking questions.

We did this like three or four times over a period of a couple years having these workshops and by last fall I suppose Bemidji had its own local Contra Dance band so happy to have contributed in any way to make that happen and we hope their band grows and continues to support that, Wendy's dance.

Well there are always things that don't quite go right at the dances.

You have to work with the caller and we're real happy to work with Wendy.

She does a wonderful job of teaching the dances and talking to the band so that we know what she needs for each dance and she's also quite familiar with the music that we play so she can contribute there to help us to pick you know what tunes we should play.

A lot of times we put two tunes together because both for the musicians and the dancers you know, it is repetitive.

The switch has to be seamless and since we play by ear sometimes when you're playing one tune you can't get the other one in your head so when it comes time to switch there can be a little bit of a blip there in the music.

That's one of the challenges is to get those switches down, takes some practice.

Wendy: As a caller I have to call to the crowd I have.

I want them to have a good time I want them to learn the dance so we're all doing it together.

I want to have people not getting dizzy and so I have to balance all those things together.

We're a relatively new dance in Bemidji.

There are some people who have come and found the dance who have danced elsewhere and we love those because they really help to have basically ringers in the room but the more beginning the group the more carefully you have to call so there's actually some other people in the community who call ins and and have said that this is really hard.

The more beginning the group the more work it is for the caller and therefore trying to bring in new callers is also more challenging.

It's easier to call for a group that always knows what, already knows what they're doing and, and is going to be quite forgiving if you miss something.

But first I teach very carefully and I've had to think about that.

How do I teach the ladies chain, where the ladies are going across and turning around with the gent on the other side and then coming back?

I've had to think about that very carefully to use phrasing.

It's not a class, it's really to sort of teach as quickly as possible so we can get on with the fun part of dancing so I have to be very concise and yet very effective in how I teach a new move and I also have to not try to do too many things that are too hard because we want to just get on with dancing and it gets frustrating so that balance of new and interesting but not frustrating is something I'm always doing.

In a more experienced dance I can actually select a program in advance say, I'm going to do these 10 or 12 dances this evening.

In a more beginning dance I just bring a whole pile of options and, and we'll see how it goes.

I sometimes start with a circle dance that's very easy.

We don't have to start figuring out who's the next person to dance with.

We're all in a circle anyway.

To teach the most basic thing we need is walking in time to the music, smiling and having fun and then swinging with a partner and if I can get you to swing and not get dizzy which means eye contact, eye contact, eye contact then I can teach everything else after that and then as I start to call, we have to again, I'm the liaison between the music and the dance.

I can't call on the beat , then we're already too late.

If I say right now long lines forward and back we've already missed it so I have to kind of call in a 5,6,7,8 8 format so I will say long lines, forward and back at which point then I expect you to start that long lines, forward and back but if people start to get ahead of me I have to call a little bit later.

If people are still too far behind I have to call a little sooner and I have to always be vigilant to tweak that as we go.

I'm Peggy Ellingson.

I'm part of the Contra band.

I also love to Contra Dance.

I love to get together with the people in this Contra Dance community, dance, play music, bring treats, eat treats.

We have you know a get together time during the half break where you can just have a moment to visit with folks and try to remember people's names that you met last month.

It gets to be tricky.

We tried name tags for a while.

They would fall off so you can be whoever you want to be when you come and sometimes we can remember your name and sometimes we'll get it next time.

I'm Corey Campbell.

I'm an old-time fiddler for the Bemidji Contra Dance and I've been playing fiddle in Bemidji for about three years.

I moved to Bemidji in the summer of 2017 and being an old-time musician I was looking for you know to see if there's anybody kind of playing old-time music in Bemidji.

I ended up seeing a flyer for the Bemidji Contra Dance and then ended up attending a workshop for musicians at the Headwaters School of Music & Arts and that's where I met Wendy Greenberg.

Peggy: Well it helps to be somewhat of an experienced musician to play this type of music.

It's best if you can play the music without looking at the sheet music because you need to look at each other and you also need to watch the dancers on the floor.

When we rehearse we usually sit in a tight circle.

The tighter the better so that we can really hear each other and we can watch signals from the fiddle player of when the tune is going to finish.

Corey: So when you're getting together to try to play as a band for a dance you know, it takes a lot of wood shedding as they call it, practicing and really what you're trying to develop a groove as a band.

You know even as the fiddler the melody might not matter so much as, as the overall rhythm and the like I said the groove for the dancers because a lot of times the dancers are new to this music.

They might not know the tunes but as long as they really feel that beat that's really what matters so as a band you know you really do have to put in some time to develop that kind of non-verbal communication to get your groove going.

As far as the Bemidji Contra Dance goes I've been able to collaborate with probably a half a dozen musicians at a time.

I'm basically the only fiddler.

We'll have a couple guitars, banjo, mandolin and then some people playing ukulele and bass so it really creates kind of a good, rounded sound especially for dancing.

Peggy: We have several different levels of experience within our band.

Not anybody is really a beginner, more of an intermediate level on up.

It's great that we had these workshops so that we could all come together and the people that showed up at the workshop wound up being the Bemidji Contra Band.

We're not necessarily a traditional band in the sense of just having a fiddle player, guitar, banjo and maybe a bass.

We may have some different instruments in our band.

We happen to have ukuleles which is very fun.

Usually at our practice or at our workshop where another band is leading us Wendy will be in the background dancing by herself across the floor to check the speed , the tempo and when we get through the end of the tune, you know she'll say that was pretty good, maybe we could speed it up just a little bit next time.

You know, the best way to learn a tune is to start out slow and the same with the dancing.

A lot of the dancers are beginners and so we may start the tune out slow from the stage as she's teaching these people to do this particular dance and as they are getting the hang of it she's out on the floor telling us you can pick it up a little bit and sometimes by the end it's really rocking and people are having a great time.

The bands that have come in to give us the workshops, really great teachers.

We've had the O'Neil family band from East Grand Forks.

We've had Sugar On The Roof from the Iron Range and we've had Four Mile Portage from Duluth and bless their hearts they're so patient to just sit down and teach us how to play these tunes over and over and over, which is good because that's exactly how the music goes in the dance.

You will play the same short tune for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

It gets to be very difficult.

We've had excellent teachers in our workshops.

It's been a wonderful experience.

Corey: Some of the challenges for bringing a dance band together when you haven't heard a tune, a lot of times it's hard to play that tune without already knowing it because there's some nuances but if you have a fairly good sense of rhythm and you're willing to stick with it and kind of roll with it a lot of times it comes out okay.

One of the other challenges with a lot of different instruments would be the key that you're playing in.

A lot of times these dance tunes are in similar, kind of simple keys but if you have an instrument like a viola or a mandola or something like that it might not, it might not fit into the d-a-g kind of keys.

Peggy: A lot of times with the rehearsals when we are just the Bemidji Contra Band we'll go over a tune and over a tune and then sometimes we will switch the first part with the second part and say we think this flows better because we're going to move into another tune and, and have it as a medley and so having time to, to come together as a group to do rehearsals and work out those tunes is really a wonderful thing.

By going to these workshops and playing in the Bemidji Contra Band my husband and I have become more accomplished musicians, simply because of the repetition of playing the music over and over and over for such a length of time naturally you're going to build up this muscle memory and calluses and so we were noticing by the end of the second year, hey we're becoming way better musicians just because of this and also it rekindled our interest in playing music where sometimes it tends to wane.

You kind of lose interest.

You've played the same thing over and over different types where we're out singing songs instead of playing tunes so much so this has rekindled the the tune playing aspect of it.

[Bemidji Contra Dance has been happening at Rail River Folk School for the last two years.

It's a wonderful quirky hall that's perfect for our dance.]

Corey: And it's really a great venue for a Contra Dance.

If you haven't been there, it's an old building located right off the railroad tracks, kind of backing up to Lake Irving in Bemidji and it's just really nice.

It's got really old wood floors, wood beams, wood ceiling so the acoustics in there are really probably as close as you would get to an old time dance you know, 100 years ago or whatever.

It's maybe not as big as some dance halls but it's really like the perfect setting for a folk dance in my opinion.

[But the most important part for dancing is that wooden floor that you can slide on and you can stomp your feet.]

Tom: We actually run our own dance series in East Grand Forks and we know this the people don't show up right at 7:30 or 7 o'clock when the dances start.

They kind of filter in, in the first 15 or 20 minutes or so, so there is that period and we, we usually warm up on the stage with playing a few tunes of our own, sound check, that way, then after critical mass shows up which is depending on, which kind of dance.

Wendy has them usually Contra Dance.

She's looking for what eight to ten people at least to be there.

Then we start up when she comes up to the stage and calls people together and teaches a dance and she likes to start with a mixer dance called La Bastringue which is not a Contra Dance but it's just a circle dance where people start off with a partner but through the course of the dance they change partners so it's a way to get the entire group comfortable on the floor with each other so that's the typical start.

Jeanne: Well I think Wendy is wise to start her dances with a circle mixer because the mixers are much easier and they get you familiar with just stepping to the music and and the idea of moving from one dancer to the next because in a mixer you dance with somebody and then you switch to another dancer and in the Contras you switch as couples so at least you have your familiar person to be with but in the mixer you just dance around but it's really simple.

There's only a few moves and you just get used to doing those moves and then doing them again with somebody else and somebody else and they, you start to get the feeling for this is just a way of communicating with all the people in the room.

If you ever remember going to a high school dance and you are shy and embarrassed about like what if somebody doesn't ask me to dance?

What if they do?

You know, what am I going to do but in traditional dancing it's set and you can go through this dance and you become a little community of trying to figure it out so if you're in a Contra in the Contra and you're having some trouble with your other couple but you work it out then it's like yay, we did it and then you move on to the next couple and you and you have a little bit more in your toolbox as far as how to fix what went wrong and then you do it again and you just keep learning but you're learning with other people at the same time so it's really important that people are willing to let you learn and, and if they've been to the dance before it's really important that they help you learn.

Corey: Yeah, working with Wendy has been great.

She's really been able to curate this culture of music and dance in Bemidji which I don't think we've had in the past as far as traditional music and dance.

It's been just really comprehensive.

She gets the grants.

She gets the dance going.

She facilitates the workshop and even though Bemidji's not a real big town we've had enough people come out to be able to play music for the dance and obviously have enough dancers so it's been great.

Peggy: I've worked pretty closely with her about through this whole thing and it's been a blast.

We're so grateful that she has brought this to Bemidji.

Wendy: Community members can expect to be welcome to come and learn and be welcome to give it a try.

They do not have to have any prior experience dancing with Contra Dance or anything else.

They can expect to have fun.

They can expect to enjoy live music.

They can expect to learn something new and be ready to come back the next time.

We're all trying to do the same thing together so it's not completely free form.

That's a different type of dance, quite wonderful but not the same as Contra Dance.

The idea is to be moving to the music, smiling at people, being sociable, having a good time, learning some new things, getting a little exercise and being ready to come back for more after you stop and get a drink and a snack and, and take a break.

We're hoping to move forward so that we have a dance that sort of stands on its own.

Right now I'm the only caller for the most part and I'm the grant writer and I'm also booking the bands.

We're trying to distribute out, not just the work but the organization and the decision-making process.

We have some wonderful up-and-coming musicians playing.

We have people getting into dance and we hope that we have a dance that will hold on and be sustainable into the future.

That we have a dance community where there's enough people coming back that have done it a little bit before so the newcomers can be folded in and that we have more younger people coming.

They can be little kids but also high school college age students and we at the moment haven't got a whole lot of them coming.

We're trying to build that with expanding our outreach, out to both high school and college as we move forward.

Peggy: It's been very fulfilling to come to these Contra Dances and the music workshops and to play in the Contra Band.

It's something that Dean and I do together.

We're involved in the whole operation.

We love to dance.

We love to play music and meeting the new friends and having so much fun together is... it's just real important to us.

We hope it goes on forever.

Jeanne: I hope that it will grow back to be stronger.

It seems to go in waves.

Like it'll almost die out somewhere but then it never does and the reason I think it never does is because it is actually vitally important to human beings to have some kind of a community, cultural dance that sort of has some slight instructions so that you know what to do when you get there.

You don't have to feel awkward.

Somebody I know who's a Contra Dancer caller, musician, he said that when he was younger he didn't like to dance because he was shy and afraid to go out there and do the modern type dancing.

He just felt awkward but when he discovered traditional dancing, he's like, hooray, I can dance because I know that if I do these simple patterns I can dance.

It's a different thing than live dancing to say rock music.

It's a patterned dancing that gives everybody a place and they know what their place is and if they do their part the whole thing works.

Corey: I've studied a lot of the history to this music and dance traditionally.

It's something I pursue kind of just in my spare time as a huge interest of mine so I, I could go on for a long time about this but but basically I think it goes back to who we are as human beings on a primitive level.

There's just this need to want to get together socially and connect and find joy in a common space and it's been going on in this country since the very beginning from people of all kinds of backgrounds and ethnicities and cultures and it really is about coming together.

The big draw I think that draws people to it now even in the modern day is the music and the dance isn't for anyone but yourself and your, your friends.

There's no capitalist aspect.

There's no money involved.

There's no higher force other than joy and connection.

I mean people back in the day for the last 400 years essentially sat around and played this music for their own enjoyment and then of course you're gonna have other people there watching and the nature of the music, you're going to want to move around.

You can't really sit still when you hear it.

It's only natural that you'd still want to do it today and that's really what keeps me coming back and keeps me interested in this music is it's just there for your enjoyment and it's free and it's fun.

Tom: So when we're playing for a dance and, and we look out there and we see people.

They're not paying attention consciously to us but they're smiling, they're dancing rhythmically with our music and, and when we see what looks like a lot of happiness that we're creating that's what makes it all worth it.

Peggy: I just have to say it's been the most welcoming community.

Everybody is welcome to come in and give it a try.

Some people may stay for one dance and then leave or stay until half-time break and then leave and then other people come in.

People come late.

People leave early so that the hall is usually filled all evening long.

It's just whatever you're comfortable with.

Just come and join us and know that you're going to be welcome.

Scott: Thanks for watching.

Join us again next time on Common Ground.

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Production funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, member FDIC.

Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.

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