Hi, I'm Harris Lapiroff.

Calling Brooklyn Contra in August 2023. Photo by Matt Willner.

In 2019 I decided to get back into contra dance calling after a multi-year stretch of doing very little of it. I called one dance in December, one dance in January of 2020, and then the pandemic hit. Oops.

But when my local dances started back up in 2022 I got into it again and called five dances that year:

• BIDA in Cambridge MA once¹,
• Monday Contras in Concord MA three times. This was particularly generous because my first evening with them was error-ridden, but I was grateful for the opportunity to redeem myself a month later.
• Common Floor Contra in Topsham ME once.

In 2023 I called thirteen, almost fourteen, dances:

• Monday Contras (5 evenings, two of which were half evenings, split between me and an up-and-coming caller)
• BIDA (1 evening)
• Common Floor Contra, now in Portland ME (1 evening)
• Brooklyn Contra in Brooklyn NY (1 evening)
• Downtown Amherst Contradance in Amherst MA (1 evening)
• Contra Montréal in Montréal QC (1 evening)
• Smith College Contra Dance in Northampton MA (1 afternoon)
• BFMS Wednesday (1 evening)
• Porchfest on Jeff Kaufman’s porch in Somerville MA (1 afternoon)
• I had to cancel one gig because I had covid 😕

Here are the different dance choreographies I called in 2023, their choreographers, and how many times I called them. You can see which ones I return to again and again. Most at the top of the list are from Maia McCormick’s “My Go-To Dances” which was instrumental in helping me build my collection up when I started calling again.

• Maliza’s Magical Mystery Motion, Cary Ravitz (7)
• Tica Tica Timing/Old Time Elixir #2, Dean Snipes/Linda Leslie² (6)
• Train Delay, Maia McCormick (6)
• Wrinkled Ribbon, Melanie Axel-Lute (6)
• Appetizer, Scott Higgs (5)
• The Boys From Urbana, John Coffman (5)
• Mary Cay’s Reel, David Kaynor (4)
• Read Between The Lines, Bob Isaacs (4)
• Serving REELness, Andy Shore (4)
• You Can Get There From Here, Linda Leslie (4)
• Butter, Gene Hubert (3)
• Get Me Going, Lisa Greenleaf (3)
• Heartbeat Contra, Don Flaherty (3)
• Minimum Fuss, Maximum Fun, Dean Snipes (3)
• Salmonella Evening, Steve Zakon-Anderson (3)
• The Barn Mixer, Rick Mohr (3)
• Twirly Minds Think Alike, Tavi Merrill (3)
• After the Solstice, Lisa Greenleaf (2)
• Are You 'Most Done, Russell Owen (2)
• Chinese New Year, Chris Page (2)
• Dancing Bears, Brian DeMarcus (2)
• First Hey, Paul Balliet (2)
• Forgotten Treasure, Beth Parkes (2)
• Fun Dance for Marjorie, Bob Golder (2)
• Little Green Heron, Joseph Pimentel (2)
• Monday, Jim Hemphill (2)
• New Year’s Day, Paul Balliet (2)
• Over, Under, and Through, Chris Page (2)
• Roll Twelve, Chris Page (2)
• Rolling and Tumbling, Cis Hinkel (2)
• Soul Reversal, Tavi Merrill (2)
• Stars of Alberta, Carol Ormand (2)
• A Pirate’s Life For Me, Nathaniel Jack (1)
• Accretion Reel, Chris Page (1)
• Doorbits, Andy Shore (1)
• Flirtation Reel, Tony Parkes (1)
• Honor Among Dancers, Tom Hinds (1)
• Hypnosis, Melanie Axel-Lute (1)
• Melted Butter, Will Mentor (1)
• My Right Hand Man, Roger Auman (1)
• The Big Easy, Becky Hill (1)
• The Devil’s Backbone, William Watson (1)
• Venus and Mars, Martin Sirk (1)
• Violet Ice, Maia McCormick (1)

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Though I had a bit of experience calling from my college days and a while after, when I resumed, it mostly manifested as baseline comfort with the technical skills of calling – using the right words, listening for the phrases in music, and being on time. In the past couple years I’ve developed a much stronger sense of how to program the arc of an evening, how to communicate with a band, and how to watch and respond to a hall.

One of the great pleasures of calling these past couple years has been the chance to provide some mentorship and opportunity to newer callers, even in my own still-learning state. I had the chance to share the stage with two up-and-coming callers over the past year and have since watched them rocket off onto their own successful calling careers.³

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of a caller I am. Some callers have a lot of on stage charisma – they’re Performers with a capital P. I’m not sure that’s ever going to be me; I try to evoke a friendly and encouraging charm, but I don’t think I have the natural performance instinct. I’m sure I’ll gain some of that over time, but I’ve tried to lean into what I see as my strengths: going deep on efficiency, clarity, and attentiveness to the room.

I’ve also concluded that I really like doing this. I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it and I’m determined to get better.⁴

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I have some calling goals for the future:

• Go on a tour with a band. I love the idea of building rapport, debriefing each dance, and testing out refinements daily. I have a Midwest tour scheduled this summer with Kingfisher, but I’m still looking to do even more of this! (If you’re a band interested in bringing a caller on tour with you, let me know 😇!)
• Get booked to call a challenging/advanced dance.
• Get booked to call a weekend and eventually a full week camp.

If you want to see me call somewhere, check out my contra dance page for my schedule.

1. I’m on the BIDA board and specifically I am the caller booker, so I try not to book myself too frequently, as a conflict of interest issue. Also, as a practical matter, it’s useful to keep myself in reserve for last minute cancellations or hard-to-book dates. ↩︎

2. Dean Snipes and Linda Leslie wrote almost the same dance independently, so I try to credit both when I mention it. ↩︎

3. I’d be remiss not to mention the mentorship I’ve received as well, in particular from Don Veino who gave me crucial feedback in my early evenings of calling Monday Contras, Sue Rosen who has organized a number of up-and-coming caller chats, and Maia McCormick who has consistently been there for assistance with program ideas, debriefing dances, or kicking around calling ideas generally. ↩︎

4. I had a moment of doubt about including this line here. In between when I started drafting it and finished publishing it, I called a slot at the BIDA 15th Anniversary caller extravaganza and I flubbed it. I don’t feel like a particularly good caller this week. But, errors happen. I’m better than my worst nights and I’m getting better still. ↩︎