December 30, 2022

March 2016 has 5 weekly Tuesday night contras and Beach Party on Sunday March 20th!  

March 1 features Emily Ann and Kelly Thompson, with Adam Nichols, after a basic waltz workshop that starts at 7 pm.

March 8 features visiting caller Gaye Fifer, and music by Convolution with Mario. Gaye leads an intermediate waltz workshop at 7 pm.

March 15 Keith Tuxhorn and the Laughing Lizards, old time band from Austin, Texas join us.

Sunday March 20 is Beach Party, an afternoon contra with music by Music by Ben Smith, Matt Turino, and Claire Johnson, with Michael Hamilton. Sunday contras are 2 – 5 p.m. This annual event always features theme costumes, prizes, and snacks (contributions welcome!).

March 22 features Atlanta contra, techno and square dance caller Deanna Palumbo, with music by Indy Ceili Band.

March 29 features Ben Smith, Kristen, and Vickie Stohl, with caller Bob Duffy.

Our next Sunday afternoon contra is May 22, with the Flying Polka Dots (Martha Edwards, Kelsey Wells, Kristen Planeaux, Donal Sheets).

Save the weekend of October 21 – 23 for Gypsy Moon Ball, with Party of Three, and Cis Hinkle caller.

February 2
Deb Shebish and Johnandrew Bellner, with Ken Gall
Deb performs traditional fiddle, folk, orchestral and chamber music, and is currently working on a documentary about Indiana’s fiddle traditions. Johnandrew is a recording engineer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer who performs in half a dozen Indy bands.

Ken’s calling tour this past fall included Berkeley CA, Colorado Springs, Toronto ON, and Rochester NY.

February 9
Troika with Nick Rockstroh
Nick, visiting from Louisville, KY, has been calling and writing dances for two years, He likes to experiment, always trying to make sure everyone can participate.

It’s Mardi Gras, so expect beads, masks, and donuts.

February 16
Elections and annual meeting – Electro Contra with Vicki Stohl
A brief annual members’ meeting at the break features an update on our organization’s activities, and election of new board members.

We welcome back Vickie, who’s been living in Durham, NC. Vickie previously served on Indy Contra’s board, ran sound, called, and played a variety of instruments.

February 23
Baba Yaga’s Stew with Frank Buschelmann
Lucia Thomas on the fiddle and banjo and Dianna Davis on piano, clarinet, and piano, Baba Yaga’s Stew draws from both musicians’ repetoire of Eastern European folk music and beyond.

Frank is a long time Cincinnati caller and organizer.

Upcoming events
Our calendar the next few months includes visiting bands and callers from Georgia, Missouri, New England, Pennsylvania, and Texas, and a Sunday afternoon contra on May 22. Gypsy Moon Ball is October 21 – 23, with Party of Three and Cis Hinkle.

January 5 – Deb Shebish and Johnandrew Bellner with Adam Nichols

January 12 – Sunday Night Swing (band) with Rhonda Minnich; & Advancing Your Dancing workshop with Elizabeth
Join Indy Contra in its new workshop series on January 12 and 19 in the New Year! Workshops start at 7pm (sharp!) before the Tuesday night contra dance and is free.

Join Elizabeth as we play with ways to communicate personality, musicality, and ideas, in order to have an enjoyable experience with your partner and the entire dance hall.

You can come to one or both of the workshops – they will include different material at each one.

January 19 LEDfoot & Advancing Your Dancing workshop 2 with Elizabeth
Elizabeth Quay is an experienced dance teacher with the swing dance and contra community and we are excited that she will be teaching at our first workshop series! It’s free and starts at 7pm on the dot. You need not have attended last week’s session to come.

January 26 Convolution

January 31, Coffee Zombies and Darlene Underwood Sunday afternoon dance
2 – 5 p.m.
Admission $10 (25 & up), $5 (15 – 24), or free (14 & under).
The Coffee Zombies have rocked dancers from California to the New York island, and from Austin to Wisconsin. Based in Louisville, KY, Tom Cunningham’s swing, old-time and bluegrass backgrounds influence his fiddle and guitar playing. Drawing on her passion for Roma gypsy, Celtic and Balkan dance music, Dianna Davis brings her keyboard, accordion, clarinet and foot percussion playing from Indianapolis, IN. Playing percussion and guitar, Louisvillian Bob Douglas infuses the band with years of experience in world beat, punk and prog rock. The Coffee Zombies’ sound incorporates original tunes based on rock, classical and folk styles, as well as traditional and modern dance tunes. Combined with their hard-driving rhythmic base, their sound makes everyone want to dance.

Darlene Underwood, a well-known caller not only in her home dance community of Cincinnati, but throughout the midwest and east coast, will be calling our afternoon of contras. You always know Darlene is in the room with her unlimited supply of energy and her fabulous spirit. As always, she will have a great program of dances to match the Coffee Zombies rockin tunes.

December 1st
Deb Shebish & Johnandrew Bellner, with Rhonda Minnich

December 8th
Ken Gall

Sunday, December 13th
Turnip the Beet with Lauren Peckman
2 – 5 p.m.

December 15th
Electro Contra – D.R. Shadow with Adam Nichols

Wednesday, December 16th
Board meeting at Kathy’s, all welcome, 7:30 p.m.

December 22nd
Mario Joven & Dianna Davis

December 29th
Emily Ann & Kelly Thompson, with Bob Duffy

Nearby:
Thursday, December 10th
English Country Dance

Friday, December 11th
D.R. Shadow Electro Contra in Urbana, IL

Saturday, December 12th
Turnip the Beet with Gaye Fifer in Cincinnati  

New Year’s Eve
Cincinnati & Louisville both have dances

This month we’re sticking with our basic Tuesday night schedule:

November 3, Frank Buschelmann calls to Deb Shebish and Johnandrew Bellner. We welcome about 30 brand new dancers! Experienced folks, please come share the joy of contra!

November 10, Rhonda Minnich calls to Convolution.

November 17 features music by Emily Ann and Kelly Thompson.

November 24 guest caller Clinton Ross with Kristen Planeaux, Ben Smith, and friends!
Clinton Ross is visiting from North Carolina! Kristen Planeaux and Ben Hemmendinger will be rolling in to add piano, accordion, foot percussion, and more to Ben Smith’s fiddling

Here’s the complete schedule for Gypsy Moon Ball 2015.  All are welcome, but please bring clean shoes!

It’s Gpysy Moon Ball month! And we have four regular (fun) Tuesday evening contras. 

6th
Convolution, our house band, with caller Bob Duffy
This is the last dance before Gypsy Moon Ball early registration deadline, so to save $$ bring cash, check, or pay with PayPal tonight! It’s also t-shirt deadline.

10th
Register for Gypsy Moon Ball: early registration (save $10) and t-shirt orders end today! Send US mail postmarked 10/10/15, or register online & pay by credit card.

13th
LEDFoot and Rhonda Minnich

14th
Board meeting, 7:30 p.m. at Dianna’s. Last planning session before GMB.

20th
Caller Tavi Merrill stops in Indy on a cross country road trip! Tavi calls dances from stately to salacious to synchronously stomptastic – and takes seriously the opportunity to steward and interpret our tradition, with all its uncommon courtesy and kinematic vorticity.

Musicians will be our own Dianna Davis and Maggie Davis (no relation).  Maggie is the fiddle player for the Irish rock band Mother Grove and the Irish traditional band the Indy Ceili Band!

23-25th   Gypsy Moon Ball
Our annual weekend of contra dance featuring more than fifteen hours of contra, and several hours of waltz and couple dances.

Join 200 or more friends from around the midwest and at least one pair from Florida!

Music by Gallimaufry & Turnip the Beet, calling by Susan Kevra & Maggie Jo Saylor.

Gallimaufry are a high-energy contra dance band with a sound based in Irish, Quebecois, and Old Time tunes; recent graduates of Oberlin, scattered across the country and returning to the midwest to play for us.  Turnip the Beet play an organic mix of eclectic tunes from the American South, Ireland, Cape Breton, Quebec, and Scandinavia, as well as a half-bushel of grooving, homegrown originals

Saturday afternoon theme sessions include Maggie Jo’s silly contras, complex contras, and unusual formation contras with Susan.

27th
Emily Ann and Kelly Thompson with Jonathan Sivier

Emily Ann and Kelly will play traditional Irish, Scottish, and Canadian tunes with energy and passion.
Jonathan is a dance leader, dance history researcher, and researching dance and aging.

31st
5th Saturday contra in Bloomington, with Bob Green & Martha Edwards visiting from St. Louis!

This month Indy Contra has five Tuesday dances, and cooler fall weather means a cooler dance floor.

Registration is open for Gypsy Moon Ball, October 23 – 25! There’s a flier & form at the end of this email, and lots more on our website, with online registration coming soon.

Music by Gallimaufry & Turnip the Beet, calling by Susan Kevra & Maggie Jo Saylor.

September 1
Convolution with Steven Janowiecki
Our last chance to dance to Steven’s calling before he moves to Australia. Hopefully he’ll call his new backwards contra. No word yet on whether Convolution, Ben Smith and Dianna Davis, will play backward.

September 8
Deb Shebish and Johnandrew Bellner with Ken Gall
Come celebrate the release of Deb’s new CD, Kitchen Fiddle, fresh old-time and Irish fiddle from Indiana! Pretty sure they’ll autograph copies at the break, so you might want to buy several and get your holiday shopping done early.

Emily Ann and Kelly are back from touring around Montana and Michigan, and happy to be back home in Indiana playing for their home crowd!

September 22
No Jerry with caller tbd 
“No Jerry” is Tom Cunningham (fiddle) and Ben Andrews (guitar). If there were a Jerry, they would be Tom and Jerry or Ben and Jerry, but they’re not. Tom is a member of the nationally known contra dance band the Coffee Zombies and Ben is a member of the gypsy jazz band Swing 39 and organizer of the Django Jamboree. They’re both from Louisville and if there were no hybrid vehicles, there would be no “No Jerry.”

September 29
Troika
“Troika : a group of three people, things, countries, etc.”  Sarah, Dianna, and Adam bring wild rhythms of Balkan dance traditions to our American traditional dances.

This month Indy Contra has two special events on top of our weekly dances, and we get to dance with hundreds of our best friends at Bloomington’s annual “Sugar Hill” weekend.

Tuesday, August 4th
Convolution with Rhonda Minnich
Our “house band” of Ben and Dianna play music from many traditions beyond contra. We’ll dance gypsies to gypsy influenced tunes, and swing to swing tunes, and if there’s a musical style called “hey” they probably play it too.

Friday, August 7th
Bonus: State Fair contra!
Emily Ann and Kelly Thompson, with Frank Buschelmann
Join us at the Indiana State Fair
We’re on the Dance Stage, far west side of the fairgrounds, near the midway. Come early for fair food.
A few fair admission passes are available to members of Indy Contra and other contra groups. Email us ASAP or ask any board member at the dance.

Tuesday, August 11th
Deb Shebish and Johnandrew Bellner, with Bob Duffy
The last time Deb and Johnandrew played we had a dozen brand new dancers, and several non-dancing friends who came just to listen. Expect an enthusiastic crowd again this time!

Sunday, August 16th
2-5 p.m.
Mulberry Street with Josiah Roberts
Mulberry Street is a 3 piece trio out of southwest Ohio. With fiddle, accordion, piano, and percussion putting out an energetic mix of New England, Cape Breton, and French Canadian styles, they’ll tempt your toes to tap and feet to fly across the floor.

Tuesday, August 18th
Electro contra: DR Shadow with Adam Nichols
Time to get out your glow in the dark t-shirts.

Tuesday, August 25th
Guest caller Alex Deis-Lauby, and LEDFoot
Alexandra started contra dancing five years ago in Chicago and began calling a year ago. She loves dancing all over the country and travels widely and often to dance. Since Chicago, she has moved to her home town, New York City, and dances more on the east coast, so this may be your only chance to dance with her for a while!

Her enthusiasm for contra is evident when she invites everyone she meets to come dance with her, so perhaps you can think of someone you could invite to come try contra this week?

Friday – Sunday, August 28-30
Bloomington, IN
Sugar Hill dance & music weekend

Join hundreds of dancers at Camp Ransburg on Lake Monroe.
Dancing may go to dawn both nights; meals & tent camping included in registration.
More at bloomingtoncontra.org/sugar-hill/