Dance Lab Debuts in Ann Arbor!

The Ann Arbor Community of Traditional Music and Dance (AACTMAD)  held the first dance in their new Dance Lab Series last Friday in Ann Arbor’s Concourse Hall.

AACTMAD is a non-profit volunteer organization sponsoring over 200 traditional music, dance, and related events each year. These are lively public gatherings where you can enjoy dancing, playing instruments, or listening to traditional music.

The Dance Lab Series is designed with several purposes in mind:

 - allow new, learning and inexperienced callers to get time behind a microphone calling to real dancers,

 - allow experienced callers to try out dances that are new to them,

 - allow callers and choreographers to try out original dances to see how ideas they’ve been thinking about actually work on the dance floor,

 - allow aspiring dance musicians to get experience in an open band playing with more experienced musicians.

In addition to serving the callers, dancers and musicians who are already participating in community dance, the Dance Lab Series also promotes AACTMAD’s larger vision of increasing the number of participants in the dance community, training and encouraging the next generation of dance leaders and increasing the public awareness of Michigan’s community dance heritage.

Friday’s line-up saw three musicians from the Pittsfield Open Band brave the threatening snowstorm to play for the calling of Marlin Whitaker, Mark Hillegonds, Ed Vincent, Joan Hellmann and Jim McKinney while 15 patient dancers whirled, twirled, offered feedback and made suggestions.

The pace was a little slower than a normal contra dance.  Callers took extra time to explain figures that the dancers hadn’t seen before and slower music gave the dancers a little more time to think as they were dancing.

The Dance Lab Series is free to attend and open to all callers, dancers and musicians who are ready to try their material in a real dance environment.

The next Dance Lab dance will be Friday, February 17, 2012 at the Pittsfield Grange in Ann Arbor.  There is a caller’s workshop from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm and the dance runs from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm.  Admission is free for everyone.