From the Mic – Details, episodes & analysis

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From the Mic

Mary Wesley, CDSS

Arts

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/45d. Total Eps: 36

Host Mary Wesley takes you behind the caller's mic to explore perspectives from the people who choose to stand in that curious place between the band and a roomful of dancers. Featuring conversations with callers of American social dance forms (contras, community dances, trad squares). Why do they do it? How did they learn? What is their role, on stage and off, in shaping our dance communities?

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Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
08/08/2026
#97
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
03/02/2026
#90
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
02/02/2026
#62
🇺🇸 USA - performingArts
20/12/2025
#99
🇬🇧 Great Britain - performingArts
29/09/2025
#79
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
29/06/2025
#88
🇨🇦 Canada - performingArts
28/06/2025
#53
🇺🇸 USA - performingArts
02/02/2025
#100
🇺🇸 USA - performingArts
01/02/2025
#91
🇺🇸 USA - performingArts
31/01/2025
#90

Spotify

No recent rankings available

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https://cdss.org/podcasts/from-the-mic/
64 shares
https://www.cdss.org/
63 shares
https://cdss.org/podcasts/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/FTM_Tony_Parkes_Transcript.pdf
2 shares

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 58%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

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Episode 26 - George Marshall

Episode 26

Thursday, August 8, 2024 • Duration 01:38:02

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Show Notes

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

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Episode 25 - Maia McCormick

Episode 25

Monday, July 8, 2024 • Duration 01:35:52

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Maia Calls the dance Playground Stomp by Julian Bee with music by Not Enough Fiddles at NEFFA 2017 in Mansfield, MA
Maia Calls A Dance for Dan by Bill Olson with music by Callithump (David Knight (fiddle), Andrew Marcus (accordion), Paul Oorts (guitar)) at the Silver Spring, MD monthly contra dance in March, 2015.

Other links:

Check out Maia's excellent website! Including:
- Dance blog!
- Dance compositions
- She's even written a few dance tunes!

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Episode 16 - Catherine Burns

Episode 16

Wednesday, August 23, 2023 • Duration 01:12:45

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Catherine has deep ties with the Old Sod Society, the house band for the original Ottawa contra dance for many years. During the pandemic lockdown several community members collaborated to create an oral history of the Society, which you can listen to here.

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Catherine calling the dance Trip to Margaree by Sue Rosen at the Ottawa Contra Dance in 2012 with music by The Old Sod Band.
Catherine calling the dance Feet in Flight by Dale Rempert at the Ottawa Contra Dance in 2015 with music by Genticorum.

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Episode 15 - Luke Donforth

Episode 15

Tuesday, July 4, 2023 • Duration 01:40:06

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Luke calling the dance Homeward Bound by Andrea Nettleton at the August, 2019 Portland (ME) Intown Contra Dance with music by Shandy (Eileen Kalfass, Rebecca McCallum, and Jane Knoeck)
Luke calling his own dance, If You Can Walk, You Can Dance at the Feb. 2017 Mad Robin Contra Dance in Burlington, VT with music by Maivish

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Episode 14 - Steve Zakon-Anderson

Episode 14

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 • Duration 01:38:11

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

*Audio only* of Steve calling at the Concord Scout House - 2023 (recording provided by Steve)

Steve calling the dance Hillsboro Jig by Bill Thomas at the 2019 Memorial Day Dawn Dance in Brattleboro, VT with music by Polaris.

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Episode 13 - Louise Siddons

Episode 13

Wednesday, May 3, 2023 • Duration 01:42:19

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Louise calling the dance The Reminder by Louise Siddons at the London Barndance in London, UK with music by Portland Drive.

Louise calling the square dance Square Line Special by Gary Roodman at the Brighton Gender-Free Contra+ dance in Brighton, UK with fiddling by Linda Game.

More about Louise

You can buy Louise's book, Dancing the Whole Dance: Positional Calling for Contra here!
Louise has offered a number of online workshops related to positional calling, which are accessible here on her website (along with lots of other goodies!)

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. And the for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Episode 12 - Wendy Graham

Episode 12

Thursday, March 30, 2023 • Duration 01:34:45

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Wendy calling the dance Courtesy Promenade by Richard Wilson at the Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom in 2014 with music by The Fabulous Glen Echo Open Band.
Wendy calling the dance Another Nice Combination by Tom Hinds at the 2017 Christmas Country Dance School in Berea, Kentucky with music by Nathan Wilson, Alice White, Mara Shea, Dave Crandall, and Sam Bartlett
Wendy calling a square dance at the Albuquerque, NM contra dance in 2014 with music by The Thrifters

More about Wendy

Wendy talks about some simple exercises she does to help dancers stay alert late into an evening of dancing! See her demonstrate these moves and share other insights into her approach to calling English Country Dance in this web chat series: "Five Things Inside the Dancing Mind of Wendy Graham."

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. And the for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent

Episode 11 - Will Mentor

Episode 11

Friday, February 24, 2023 • Duration 01:40:08

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Will calling the dance Mad Slice by Rick Mohr at the Atlanta Contra Dance Weekend in 2017 with music by Nova.
Will calling the dance Gypsy Everyone by Seth Tepfer at Contrastock 2 in Glen Echo, MD in 2012 with music by Perpetual e-Motion.
Will calling the square dance Willis’s Route at the Looking Glass Festival in Lansing, MI in 2017 with music by Pete’s Posse.

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Episode 10 - Chrissy Fowler

Episode 10

Thursday, December 22, 2022 • Duration 01:31:47

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Chrissy calling at the Belfast Flying Shoes Community Dance in 2015 with music by the All Comer's Band
Chrissy calling the Sicilian circle dance ZOM Out by Zoey Phillips, Olivia Padovan-Merhar, and Molly McCracken (published in the New England Dancing Masters book Listen to the Mockingbird) at the Belfast Flying Shoes dance in Oct 2019 with music by Cedar Stanistreet, Jon Cannon and Ness Smith-Savedoff.
Chrissy calling the dance The Baby Rose by David Kaynor at the Concord Scout House in 2010 with music by Crowfoot

More about Chrissy and the Belfast Flying Shoes community

In 2018 Chrissy facilitated this panel discussion, "Teens Talk Contra" with a group of local, teen-aged dancers from her community
Check out this fun video featuring scenes from the Belfast community!
During the pandemic lockdown in 2022 the Belfast Flying Shoes All Comers Band made a group music video to mark the 15th anniversary of their dance series ♥️

Episode 9 - Sue Rosen

Episode 9

Wednesday, November 23, 2022 • Duration 01:39:48

See the From the Mic website for great bonus content, including pictures and audio, transcripts, and more. Click here to download the transcript directly.

And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.

Sound bites featured in this episode (in order of appearance):

Sue calling the dance “Beneficial Tradition” by Dan Pearl at a 2011 dance at the Scout House in Concord, MA with music by the Free Raisins - Amy Englesberg, Audrey Knuth, Jeff Kaufman
Sue calling the dance "Ashley's Star" by Bob Dalsemer at the 2011 Fiddling Frog dance weekend in Pasadena, CA with music by the Figments - Anna Patton, Owen Morrison, and Ethan Hazzard-Watkins.
Sue calling the dance “Handsome Young Maids” written by herself! At the 2011 Fiddling Frog dance weekend in Pasadena, CA with music by Nightingale - Jeremiah McLane, Keith Murphy, and Becky Tracy.

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From the Mic – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

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Apple Podcasts

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From the Mic – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Youtube80

Facebook4

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Youtube80

Facebook4