Calling "Just Because"

February 29th, 2012
calling, contra
I've been trying to learn the singing square Just Because for about a month: singing it as I walk to and from the bus, while doing the dishes, when bored, and generally driving Julia crazy. At the fourth Saturday dance this weekend I chickened out but yesterday at MIT I got up the nerve for it: (mp3)

Overall, I think it went ok. The dance was a little hard for the group: the quick succession of partner-corner-partner-corner combined with the unfamiliarity of the formation, singing call, and partner changing was too much for some of the squares. The dance has recovery time, though, and no square fell apart. Musically I'm not totally happy with my singing; G is a little low for me and I sang louder than I needed to, pushing my voice too hard. I got good feedback from the dancers, though, and no one complained that it was dorky (to my face, anyway).

It was great working with Eric, Julie, and Judy. You can't hear much of Judy's drumming on the recording because she was barely mic'd (fine acoustically), but she was really good.

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