Arts Access Grant
Arts Access Grant
Bemidji Contra Dance was awarded $2,759 to hold a series of musicians' and callers' workshops and evening contra dances from July to October 2018.
Sandra Roman: retired art teacher, author; Laura Grisamore: photographer; Jill Johnson: author; Mary Therese: visual artist, fiber artist; Susan Olin: musician; Laura Dropps: visual artist; Becky Colebank: author; Corryn Trask: musician.
Sandra Roman: retired art teacher, author; Laura Grisamore: photographer; Jill Johnson: author; Mary Therese: visual artist, fiber artist; Susan Olin: musician; Becky Colebank: author; Corryn Trask: musician.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
As a result of this program: 1) Many more people will have the opportunity to try contra dancing to live music and build their dancing skills, creating a community of dancers who want to continue regularly dancing, 2) Interested local musicians will become more familiar with playing music for contra dances and work up to playing for an entire evening of contra dancing, 3) Several people will work on learning to call contra dances. For each musicians' and callers' workshop, there will be a request for verbal and written comments from participants. For each dance there will be a few questions for dancers to answer on an index card. Summaries of all comments and feedback will be provided in the final report.
Many people (about 100) tried contra dancing and more than half of them came at least twice, helping build continuity and a sense of contra dance community. We switched from index cards to paper surveys, which was simpler. Local musicians attending the musicians' workshops have really progressed and will be playing whole contra dances in December and February. Although several people expressed interested in the callers' workshops, only one person came to one. We'll have to adjust.
Other,local or private