Erik Barry Erhardt, PhD

Four events, all successful, so much love!

The weekend began on Friday 7/23/2010 with a youth contra calling practice party at Mia Bertelli’s, attended by Riley and Maddy Mullany, Lauren Lamont, Richard and Laurel Wilson, and me.  We developed a program of dancing and singing, each practiced calling dances, and learned from each other.  Mia discovered the challenges of teaching the pre-contra lesson.  Riley called his first contra and figured out quickly how he could improve his calling timing (keep an eye open for him calling more!).  Lauren and Maddy are already well on their way.  And Richard — how wonderful to show us clearer ways of teaching, direct us to the next thing we can work on, and demonstrate leadership and connection with the dancers.  Mia hosted Riley, Maddy and me for the night and we were treated to amazing crepes by Miles with fresh sheep’s milk ricotta cheese that Mia made on the spot.

The first youth dance and singing event (facebook) on Saturday 7/24/2010 2-5 pm was generously supported (made free) by FolkMADS.org and the Santa Fe Odd Fellows. Thanks to Bill Cooper of the IOOF for getting us in the hall at the last minute and setting up sound for us.  Callers were Maddy Mullany (16), Lauren Lamont (21), Mia Bertelli (20), and first-time callers Riley Mullany (14) and Abbey Schiffmiller (18).  Karina Wilson (25) played fiddle for us, accompanied by 3 of the 4 Mullanys (Mom Marj played, too).  Mia taught a Schottische and led singing in the middle of the afternoon, and at the end of dancing.  I was concerned there would only about 6 people there, but we started with 12 dancers and were up to 20-25 young people at the height of the afternoon. I was amazed, enlivened, and encouraged!  Everything was done by leaders 25 years and younger!  I helped facilitate by making introductions and helping with some planning, but we can thank the youth leaders in our community for the calling, music, and singing that led to such a wonderfully successful day.  Everyone would love to do it again!  People learned about the event mostly by word-of-mouth in the network of friends in Santa Fe, and many made efforts to get more people to come.  I have confidence another event will bring even more people!

Many people stayed for the potluck from 5-6 pm, and the singing from 6-7 pm.  If done again, I’d have the afternoon event a little later and the potluck a little later.

I was asked to host that evening’s contra dance open mic.  A few of our youth callers called another dance that evening (Mia, Lauren, and Abbey), as well as Bill Cooper, and I called several including one I wrote for Mia earlier that day, “Crepes with Ricotta“.  Victory Chicken played old-time southern tunes for us.  I’m feeling more confident in my calling, and loved working with the band.

Sunday was another first (for a long while), an English country dance in Santa Fe on Sunday 7/25/2010 2-5 pm that I organized with Bill Cooper.  Would people come to an afternoon ECD in Santa Fe in the summer?  I was worried again, but what a turn-out!  Noralyn Parsons called to more than 30 dancers with a 5-piece band (Gary Papenhagen, violin; Bo Olcott, acoustic guitar; Deb Bluestone, violin and viola; Phyllis Doleman, violin; Dave Faires, electric bass)!  I could not believe what a success it was.  Noralyn called very fun and accessible dances so that even first-time ECDers had a great time, and a couple waltz mixers.  People want to do it again and this event was again very encouraging for more SF ECD.

The Santa Fe and Albuquerque dance communities are vibrant, supportive of new projects, and show their support by committing, following through, and (most importantly) showing up! Sometimes I take risks and things don’t work out.  Sometimes many other people come along with me on those risks, and maybe they still don’t go right. And this weekend felt like a major risk — a new youth dance that I helped organize (with Riley Mullany), an evening open mic I hosted, an ECD I organized (with Bill Cooper), a potluck, a practice session I pulled people together for (thanks for hosting, Mia)!  But I was not alone.  The young callers and musicians created a program hoping young dancers would come, Noralyn Parsons and Gary Papenhagen’s band created an English program with the hopes of dancers, Karolyn Wilson helped create advertisements, Deb Brunt advertised it on the email list, Jane Phillips put it on the FolkMADS.org website, FolkMADS and IOOF sponsored the events, and I thank others who contributed to making the weekend a success.  Everyone must have believed enough that these new and uncertain events would be great because dancers came, had a wonderful time, and want more.

I want to help create opportunities for new leaders, and I am inspired by what we have already accomplished together.

Fun, dance

At the May 1st, 2010, Albuquerque contra dance, scheduled caller Richard Wilson handed me a special opportunity to call most of the evening.  The evening started with Karina Wilson and I leading a waltzing workshop.  Richard called the initial dance, gave me the rest of the first half, then Karina called the first dance of the second half and I called the rest.  Something that worked well was using the circle waltz mixer we taught in the workshop to begin the waltz ending the first half.  The mixer went around 5 or so times and by chance our original partner ended right in our hand, then the circle broke apart into a free waltz.

It’s a very special experience to come face-to-face with the things I can’t do while doing the very best I can.  It’s me failing for the greater good, and to fail in public for the dancers is a powerful opportunity. I’ve felt wonderful support from the people in the contra dance and music community, and for them I want to do better at everything.

I’ve performed a postmortem on the dances I called using a program planning matrix and learned a lot of things I wish I had known before the dance.  I did well to offer a lot of variety, we did a circle mixer, a scatter promenade mixer, a triple minor, the circle waltz, and tried to start the second half with a polska (but few people know how to dance the Scandinavian dances).  There is plenty I would improve.  I would not do a mixer in the second half again.  There were 4 dances without a partner swing, and one dance without any swing — ouch!  There were 5 dances with circling, 5 with chains, 5 with stars, 2 with down four in line, and an overwhelming 7 with do-si-dos.  The dances were overwhelmingly easy.  The matrix is really valuable for planning variety and for seeing all the I could have done better, just in terms of dance selection.  This selection of dances would have been better suited for lesser-experienced dancers, but not the Albuquerque regulars.

What next?  Call more, fail more, learn more, dance more, laugh more, love more.

The steps I’ll take until I learn something better are these.  1) Consider the dancers and musicians who will be at the dance.  2) Using the program planning matrix to improve variety and see how to build a program of dances that introduces new calls throughout the dance.  3) Practice calling with recorded music to decide on the words to use to teach and while calling.  4) Have some back-up dances if I need to modify for easier or slower-paced dances or up the complexity or pace.  5) Say less, do more, be brave and confident, trust and love the dancers, honor the musicians, sound crew, and everyone else who makes the dance great, ask for critical feedback to learn and improve, reflect, and go do it again!

Thanks to fiddler Gary Papenhagen and his band for their wonderful support of the waltzing workshops and making calling with them a fun and easy partnership.  And thanks, FolkMADS!

Fun, dance

Laurus nobilis, now and again

by Erik B. Erhardt, 2010.03.04

Indecent (inactives cross)

[Pulses Call]
A1:
4 (Old neighbors) Left-hand star 1/2
6 (New, current neighbors) Right-hand Star 3/4
6 Partner allamande 1/2 (slow)
A2:
8 Balance ring, Petronella turn (to the right)
4 Circle Right 1/2
4 (with Ladies in lead) couples (with partner) weave Right around neighbors, then Left to connect with next neighbors
B1:
8 (Next neighbors) Circle Left 3/4
8 Pass the ocean wave (ladies turn 1/2 by left, gents cross set to connect right hands with partner to form a wavy line), Balance the wave
B2:
8 Ladies left-hand turn 1 time around, while Gents orbit 1/2
8 Pass up and down the line to Do-si-do (with current neighbors)

Dance Notes:

• This dance starts with old neighbors, moves to current neighbors, previews next neighbors, and ends with current neighbors.
• Jig about 110 bpm would be fine slow and smooth tempo.
• This dance is for Laurel Wilson.
• Danced 3/14/2010 and this dance is a bit too busy to actually dance, so I’ll write another for Laurel.

Fun, dance

Two inches off the ground

by Erik B. Erhardt, 2010.03.03

Proper

[Pulses Call]

A1:
8 Symmetric Do-si-do, Actives together, then Inactives
8 Actives Figure-8 down
A2:
8 (Left shoulder) Pass through (to maintain eye-contact), hands-off Courtesy turn (as in Money Musk)
8 Mad robin, Gents in first
B1:
8 Gents begin Right-shoulder Hay 1/2
2 Gents cross by Left shoulder
6 Left-shoulder (partner) Gypsy 1 time
B2:
8 Single-file Promenade 3/4, Gents in lead (to Left) [Gents, draw the Lady to you with your eyes]
8 Actives Swing, face down (stay connected for do-si-do), while Inactives 2-hand turn 1/2 (left)

Dance Notes:

• This dance is eyes-strong and you don’t get to touch anyone until B2.2, and then, only your partner.
• This dance is for Karina Wilson.
• Not yet danced.

dance

Catch and Release and Catch

by Erik B. Erhardt, 2010.02.18

Becket, double progression to the right (reverse Becket progression)
Music: slow tempo, flowing through B1, can have punctuation on beat 4 in four measures in B2

[Pulses Call]

A1:
4 (with Neighbors across,) Box the Gnat
6 (into) Right-hand (wrist-grip) Star 3/4
6 (Gents turn over right shoulder,) Neighbor swing
A2: (catch)
8 (with Partner across, Ladies pass left shoulder taking right hand with Partner)
Gents Lasso Ladies [Partner], high then low (Ladies walk around twice, letting hands go behind the Gent’s back on second time around)
8 (into) Partner gypsy 1-1/2 (lades end on left, facing in)
B1: (release and catch)
8 1/2 Poussette (Ladies join both hands with Neighbor Gent, then push and pull the Gents as the Ladies move as a do-si-do relative to each other)
8 (while Ladies are backing up, gents catch partner with right hand and) Partner Swing
B2:
16 Zipper (across right-hand pull-by (no courtesy turn), turn (or hop) alone to right and with same-gender diagonal one person left pull-by, face in and repeat; end effect is to not pull by if no one on is on diagonal)

Dance Notes:

• Many dancers may be unfamiliar with a Lasso (Richard Wilson), Poussette (English country dance), and Zipper.  Therefore, this dance may take a while to teach.
• Teaching Zipper:  It is a series of pull-bys with four people.  The person straight across is #1, to their immediate right is #2, and #3 and #4 are the next two to the right.  Now pull-by across and use the held hand as a pivot, turn (or hop) to right and look on the close left diagonal for that next person with the left hand.
• The first three quarters of the dance turns to the right, so the zipper is a welcome relief to stop turning.
• I wrote this dance in the car driving to Stellar Days and Nights, 2010 talking about dance with Richard Wilson who mentioned Lasso and Poussette as rare moves.  I called the dance there two days later and I thank Mary Devlin for providing calling feedback.
• This dance is for Tara Schneider who I befriended at Berea Christmas Country Dance School, Dec 2009.

dance

I developed a solitaire game for pool (pocket billiards) that stresses the importance of making every shot count and developing your balls-per-inning potential for those of us who often run between 2 and 10 balls, based on straight pool.  I call it “Penalized-x”, where “Penalized-5″ would specify 5 penalty balls. The rules:

1. Rack all 15 in the standard way, start with cue on the head spot.
2. Choose a number of penalty balls, a number of balls from 1 to 14.
3. All shots except the break must be made with the intention of sinking a called ball in a called pocket; shots taken explicitly to spread the balls are not allowed.
4. On any miss, foul, or scratch return the number of penalty balls to the table, spotted in the standard way starting at the foot spot along the foot line to the foot of the table, and continuing at the foot spot toward the head of the table.
5. On a scratch, additionally, the cue is placed on the head spot if unobstructed, else on the center spot if unobstructed, else in the kitchen.
6. The game ends when the last ball is potted with a legal stroke.
7. The game is scored by the two numbers balls/innings, which also gives balls per inning. For example, 78/23=3.39 indicates 78 balls potted in 23 innings for 3.39 balls per inning.

Leave a comment to let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions for improvement.
My games so far:

Penalized-5 (date - balls/innings=bpi)

1. 20081230 - 78/23=3.39, end run 9,11
2. 20081231 - 45/12=3.75, end run 15
3. 20090101 - 71/21=3.38, end run 15
4. 20090101 - 61/15=4.07, end run 15
5. 20090102 - 270/63=4.28, end run 7,13 (made it to 1 ball 3 times)

pool

The Calamitous Milkcrate Caper

by Erik B. Erhardt, 2003.05.27

Duple Improper Contra Dance

[Pulses Call]
A1:
4 Circle Left 1/2
4 Gent Roll Partner [Lady] Left into (no sashay, Gents are anchored in place)
4 Gents Chain across by the Right [hand] (the Gents are doing a Ladies chain)
4 Ladies Courtesy turn Gents (give Left hands, wheel around)
A2:
4 Circle Right 1/2
4 Lady Roll Partner [Gent] Right into (no sashay, Ladies are anchored in place)
8 Ladies Left shoulder 1/2 Hay
B1: (the tease)
6 Gypsy Partner 3/4 around (until the gents are facing in)
2 Gents cross set (by right shoulders) into
8 Swing Neighbor on Lady’s side
B2:
4 Ring Balance
4 Active Lady California twirl Partner/Gent (Lady lift right hand, gent turn under, and pull into a swing)
8 Actives Swing
while Inactives cast alone over outside shoulder

[can alternate actives and inactives role in B2 if long sets and very sharp dancers, caller may need to cue actives/inactives for swing throughout]

Dance Notes:

• This dance was written with gender role reversal in mind. It’s about time the guys get the dance action! Also, if the gypsy is done meaningfully, it can be a real tease.
• It’s probably worth a little extra instruction to get the Gents Chain across correct. Most people only dance one gender role. As such, they have difficulty when called upon to reverse roles. I suggest two walk-thrus of the Gents chain across. The first one suggest the traditional courtesy turn with the right hands on the waist/lower back. The second one suggest an underarm twirl. This will give the dancers a wider vocabulary of moves.
• Also, I would suggest that if the man is much taller than the lady, that they resort to the traditional courtesy turn rather than the underarm twirl to avoid injury. In this case there is a nice “whip” twirl where, if they take hands in front for the turn, at the end the lady can whip the guy for an unspotted spin (guy spins counter-clockwise) at the end. More advanced dancers will find this on their own.
• 12/30/09 - Made two corrections (B1 gypsy 1/2, B2 Actives only Cali turn) and expanded explanations.
• 2008: I’m starting to dance again, after developing (2004ish) and having surgery (Dec 2006) to remove a Morton’s Neuroma in my left foot from dancing in beautiful shoes that were too narrow; it’s hard to find dance shoes in a 11-4E. To celebrate, here’s a contra I wrote some years ago, which I first called at CCDS 2009.

dance

In high school I mostly played guitar, and in college I mostly composed music on the computer. Here’s a selection of that work.

Liquid Mazes, 1993 (High school)

I wrote (most) and recorded these songs while in high school. I played guitar, was significantly influenced by Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and JS Bach. “Joy” and “Satch” are probably my favorites. My mom was holding a dieing tape recording the the audience for “Satch”, which is why the speed and pitch both increase slightly over the course of the recording.

Computer Music, college (1995-1997)

Encore music composing software seemed pretty advanced, even over ten years ago, and enabled me to compose some simple multipart pieces. You can listen quickly from the “mid” link (for midi) and see the notation using “ps” or “pdf”. The first two and the last are probably my favorite.

music

C MPI implementation of waves equation on 16 processors, init + 10 time steps.

Thanks to Matthew Bohnsack for setting my site up on wordpress. Matt and I worked together on projects in CS 442 Introduction to Parallel Processing in Fall 2006.

He’s hosted my site since April, 2007, and there have been terrific benefits. First, the server is beautifully configured and fast, and he’s given me plenty of space. Working with him has allowed me to provide my SISUS software prototype, which is an R package which I haven’t released, yet. He discusses his implementation of the software needed in his blog post. He is quick to respond, works meticulously, and understands the big picture as well as the individual pixels.

Fun