Masha is one of the best callers in the country for leading a crowd of total beginners
through fun, traditional square, contra, and big-circle Barndances. Hire her for your
festival, fair, or party!
Masha learned to call traditional barndances from Fred Feild of the Chicago Barn Dance Company,
and later became
the main caller for the group. She lead the highly successful weekly dances at "Holstein's", a live music
venue in the heart of the city. Other favorite callers and major inspirations were Sandy Bradley,
Fred Park, and Worley Gardner from Morgantown, WV.
Traditional southern-style visiting couple sets in both square and circle formations,
early Western Square dances, and New England Contra dances are all included in a typical evening
of dance lead by Masha. With a huge repertoire of dances, she can also custom-tailor an evening,
calling all period dances for a historic or re-enactment group, or an evening of Irish sets,
or zesty contras, or whatever your group would particularly enjoy.
"I love calling for big groups of
beginners, like at a festival. It's sort of my specialty.
I really like calling different styles of dances in an evening, from different parts of the
country.
I'll call a Circle Mixer, followed by a couple of contras, then a couple of squares. I like
to plan an evening so that the simpler dances are first, then each dance might introduce a
new figure which will be used later on in the evening in the more complicated dances.
That lets me keep the teaching to a minimum, and helps the dancers concentrate on the
music and having a good time, rather than having to worry about what they're supposed to be
doing."
And then there's clogging...Masha has a pretty unique style that combines low-to-the-ground
traditional buckdance styling with lightning fast rhythms. "I really like to think of my
feet as a percussion instrument. The visual aspect is just sort of an added bonus, the
important part is the sound. I've never danced choreographed routines, it's all improvised
on the spot. I try to 'play the tune' with my feet, just as I would any other instrument.
Some of the most fun I've had is dancing along with just one other instrument, just a fiddle,
or trading rhythms with another dancer or percussionist, like I get to do in the 'Yeow!' shows."
She teaches improvisational clogging, as well, giving the dancers an overall feeling for the
style, with a repertoire of steps and movements that they learn to combine creatively, allowing
and encouraging them to develop their own style.
The barndances, squares, and contradances are all done with a simple walking step, nothing fancy, but it sure is fun!
Here's a late night dance with music by the Wronglers & Heidi Clare.
Watch for the dancers' reaction at the end.
Here's some fun footage from the Strawberry Music Festival.
With a band like this, how could you not have fun!
The fancy flatfooting & clogging steps below aren't needed for the barndances that Masha
calls. For traditional squares & contra dances, you're pretty much walking in time to the music.
If, however, you want to get fancier...
Here's some fancy footwork from the Stringband Festival at Clifftop.
