What is this?

Who is Caro?

👋 Hi, I'm Caro. I do software development in the day, and at night I play music for folk dancing (or dance to other people's music).

I play an unreasonable selection of instruments in a number of other bands, for a variety of folk dance styles. You might have seen me in Trip Hazard doing Contra, Portmanteau doing acoustic and electronic Balfolk, or Flying Cat doing anything. I've played everywhere from people's living rooms to major folk festivals.

I'm also embedded in the local dance scene in Cambridge, helping organise Contrabridge and Balfolk Cambridge.

I'm really excited about bringing people into folk dance (playing and dancing) who might not be aware how much fun it is, and this project is one way I'm attempting to do this.

What is live coding?

Live coding, as I do it here, refers to the process of using code to generate music, written and updated on the fly in an improvisational way. Here's a whole bunch of resources if you want to learn more. The language I use most is Strudel, a browser-based environment for live coding and algorithmic composition.

I love live coding as a medium for folk dance music, as it allows me to adapt my performance in response to, and in conversation with, the dancers as they are dancing, much as I do when playing traditional instruments.