Host Mary Wesley takes you behind the caller's mic to explore perspectives from the people who choose to stand in that curious place between the band and a roomful of dancers. Featuring conversations with callers of American social dance forms (contras, community dances, trad squares). Why do they do it? How did they learn? What is their role, on stage and off, in shaping our dance communities?
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Host Mary Wesley takes you behind the caller's mic to explore perspectives from the people who choose to stand in that curious place between the band and a roomful of dancers. Featuring conversations with callers of American social dance forms (contras, community dances, trad squares). Why do they do it? How did they learn? What is their role, on stage and off, in shaping our dance communities?
We have a special episode for you this month, From the Mic listeners! Mary shares an interview she recorded with David Kaynor of Montague, MA in 2011, ten years before his passing. Rather than focusing on calling, this interview is about the relationship between contra dancers and the Grange, the social organization connected to some of the places David organized dances near his home in western Massachusetts.
Dancers and Grangers represented two hugely important communities and touchstones in David’s life; he was deeply involved with making contra dancing happen at both the Guiding Star Grange and the Montague Grange in Massachusetts.
When Montpelier contra dancers rallied to save the best dance floor in town (the grange hall), they relied on the help and encouragement of David. Mary, an enthusiastic 20-something with a new interest in oral history and a borrowed recorder, then asked him for an interview that you are about to listen to!
From the Mic
Host Mary Wesley takes you behind the caller's mic to explore perspectives from the people who choose to stand in that curious place between the band and a roomful of dancers. Featuring conversations with callers of American social dance forms (contras, community dances, trad squares). Why do they do it? How did they learn? What is their role, on stage and off, in shaping our dance communities?
