Dance Band
Playing for Dances is like toast and butter.
Even if there were no dance scheduled, the music would cause you to jump out of your seat and dance.
It is a call and response.
Being in the same room with a live band fills you with energy.
In all traditions a step dance is found. Most are informal bouncing of the feet in some ways.
In the south it was clogging, or flat-footing or any number of things.
So we do that.
Then there is the interactive inter gender dances.
It offers opportunity to touch other people in controlled acceptable ways.
There are the arm turns and assists and swings called out in old French terms, "Alamand right, "Do-si-do".
And it fits right well with reels played on a fiddle.
Some how everyone has a great time.
We like helping people have a good time.
Here are some links to other Dance Sites:
Michigan Contra Dance, Square Dance, and Waltz Schedule
Allegan Woods (Holland)
Kalamazoo Country Dance
Grand River Folk Arts Society (Grand Rapids)
Ten Pound Fiddle (Lansing)
Looking Glass Music and Arts Assoc.
Commendation:
On 1/3/2016 5:59 PM, Karin Neils wrote: I highly recommend Gooder 'n Grits! I called GRFAS first Friday, and they were terrific: they've added a bass so the beat is well-pronounced for dancers [and for me!], their tunes were well-paced and pleasantly varied and their medleys transitioned well, they announced their tunes which was something appreciated by a number of folks, Bob has his eye on the caller continuously, Julie used the dances I sent her a week ahead to choose possible tunes when they got together to practice and she's making notes on which tunes may not be as 'danceable', the waltzes were lovely, they used a
monitor and their sound was 'whole and smooth' and at least twice they did tunes with varied volume [there is certainly musician's lingo for that, and I cannot tell you if they all did crescendo/decrescendo, or if they went to fewer musicians playing; I just heard it while I called and loved it]. If you want to hear them yourself, they have a Valentine's dance on their website schedule <gooderngrits.us> which may be an annual repeat of an ONS with a downtown GR church group supporting international adoptive families - talk to them about being a dancer..... :-)