Best dance caller

One thing about dance calling: You can't claim that people never listen to you. Chris Kermiet knows the down-home business better than most, and it's no wonder, considering his pedigree: His mother was a member of the singing Ritchie Family, and his father was a dance-caller before him, so you could almost say he was born with the old-time music and square steps in his bones. After more than thirty years of calling at traditional community dances throughout the region -- most often under the auspices of the Colorado Friends of Old Time Music and Dance -- Kermiet received a Colorado Council on the Arts Folk Arts fellowship award this year, deserved recognition for a guy who knows where to put your best foot forward.