A couple of weeks ago the biggest square dance game in town, the twice-monthly Tractor Tavern square dance hosted by The Tallboys, asked if I was available to call their dance. "Of course!" I said. I hung up the phone (not really, this was all arranged by text) and started figuring out how exactly I'd make myself ready to call this dance. Calling a square dance is a cross between a wedding toast, a rap battle, and public karaoke. Full disclosure: I wasn't ready. I've writ

Over the weekend I got to play music for a monthly square dance at a nearby cafe. It's a good example of a community social dance, which is a rare thing for most communities these days (we're lucky in the Seattle area to have lots of social dance opportunities). It's hard to recommend social dancing enough. It provides for lots of interaction with people in your community, lots of face time and safe social touching, and lots of movement to music, all of which are little s

It wasn't hard to identify the house being warmed as I drove through the dark streets of a central Seattle neighborhood. It was a small house on the corner, illuminated brightly from within, with the whirling figures of dancers filling every window. I gingerly pressed open the front door until it encountered resistance in the form of a body inside, and slipped through the narrow opening. Inside the house was devoid of all furnishings. A group of musicians was standing pi