William Watson, a Contra Dance caller
I started calling contra dances in Texas in 1992,
and have called a full evening of dances about every month
since about 1994.
(I enjoy dancing too much to call more often.)
I mostly call "Modern Urban Contra Dances",
evenings of dances
where a goodly fraction of the dancers have danced contras before.
I've called slots for hundreds of dancers at
The Northwest Folklife Festival
starting in 2004,
and for the Cascade Contras contra weekend.
Over those years, I've called evenings of contra dances
in Ashland, Bend, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Eugene, Newport, and Portland, Oregon;
Austin, Bryan, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas;
Olympia, Seattle, and Tacoma, Washington;
San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz, California;
Denver, Colorado;
Gainesville, Florida;
Vancouver, BC;
and Cambridge, England.
I've organized and led callers' round table discussions,
callers' open mike dances,
and workshops for new callers.
I was one of the original three organizers of a contra dance series,
one of two instigators and lead organizers of an in-town contra weekend series,
and main committee member of another for several years.
I booked the talent for the Corvallis dance series for five years,
served on the board of the Eugene Folklore Society
and as treasurer for the organization,
and chaired the committee that runs a contra dance series in Portland, OR.
My goals in programming an evening of dances
At regular contra dance evenings,
I usually try to start with a fairly straightforward dance,
both to help ease the new dancers into the experience,
and also to help "warm up the brains" of the experienced dancers.
From there out, I try to ramp the difficulty level and complexity up
in a sawtooth manner for the first half of an evening.
This means that dancers challenged by one dance
will usually find the next one easier,
and conversely,
dancers who find one dance too easy will find the next a little more engaging.
Another advantage of this strategy
is to allow me to substantially adjust the degree of difficulty
of the evening program.
If the proverbial bus of foreign exchange students arrives,
I can rake out the more difficult dances and swap in much easier ones,
leaving the original easy dances as the new challenging ones.
(Again, I could do the converse to bump up the difficulty,
should some reason arise.)
In the second half, I aim for a similar sawtooth,
but this time ramping down the complexity.
I try to have the last dance fairly straightforward,
perhaps done without a walk-through,
as the dancers' "brains are full",
and need no further challenges.
(Also, bands often like to end with a powerful set of tunes,
so the calling should not "get in the way" of the music.)
Within the framework described above,
I try for a few additional points.
I like to start each half with fairly straightforward dances
in order to get everyone moving again with a minimum of talking.
I also like to know where the organizers plan to make announcements,
and follow them with an easy dance, for the same reason.
If the evening has a substantial number of newer dancers in attendance,
I might feature a "mixer" dance
to ensure that the newcomers and the regulars dance with each other,
and don't just dance with folks they know.
A quick calling bio
"William Watson, a resident of Eugene, OR,
danced his first contra in 1989 and began calling in Texas in 1992.
Having called numerous contra events in cities coast-to-coast,
William's extensive experience and soothing voice project a calm confidence.
His vigilant and thoughtful dance programming
ensures a variety of figures, transitions, and sequences
to entertain and support new dancers
while offering the occasional challenge for the more advanced.
His calling proficiency and sensitivities ensure everyone has a good time."
Calendar of Contra events
I've created a page
of William's calling gigs.
Just because I don't show an event on a given day doesn't mean that I can call for you on that date.
Contra Dance Videos
I can't point to any significant collection of videos of my own calling.
When I called a session at the 2013 Northwest FolkliFe Festival,
it seemed that everyone I knew was out on the floor dancing,
and not standing by the sidelines with a camera.
You can find a few brief snippets of video here:
-
Contra at the Rick Anderson Memorial Dance
-
Dance: The Country of Marriage, by Susan Kevra
Band: The Wisenheimers (Dave Goldman & Alan Snyder)
Location: Norse Hall, Portland, Oregon
Date: 19 October, 2013
-
Tacoma Contra Dance
-
Dance: Spring Fever, by Tony Parkes
Band: Andrew VanNorstrand, Noah VanNorstrand, Anita Anderson
Location: Wells Hall, Tacoma, Washington
Date: 17 November, 2007
-
Vancouver, BC Contra dance
-
Dance: Chuck the Budgie, by Rick Mohr
Band: Andrew VanNorstrand, Noah VanNorstrand
Location: Vancouver, BC
Date: 16 November, 2007
Resources for Contra Dance Callers
I moved my listing of resources to
its own page
so that anyone interested doesn't have to wade through my personal material
when they want more general information.
Contact me
William J. Watson
1-541-760-
(cell)
"william calls contras" at gmail dot com
(remove quotes and spaces and insert appropriate punctuation)