Musings on last night's dance...

[quasigeostrophy]

Once again, I had a lot of fun. In the middle of the evening, the band played a polka, and I actually got through it fairly well, having only been shown how briefly at J's party Saturday night (and I was with a partner who had never done one either). No toes were harmed in this production.

I have to conclude that the caller was having an off night (and I am probably being kind). While I've only been to around a dozen contra dances in my life, I heard much more grumbling from the more experienced in the crowd, and there were a couple of dances that nearly disintegrated. I'd never seen that. The Indy Tuesday dances usually progress from a fairly easy dance, getting slightly more difficult as the evening goes on. After two very easy dances, the caller picked one that included a diagonal Hey, followed by two consecutive Contra Corners, followed by another Hey on the other diagonal. It was a cool concept, but something was lost in the explanation during the walk-through or something, as we fell apart more than once. The caller stopped the music once to regroup, but it didn't last long.

The second 'incident' was in the next-to-last dance of the evening. Not as difficult, it included a long promenade around the set and back, and then across the set with neighbor. That was followed by a diagonal Right-and-Left Through. Some people got behind, and the caller started calling behind with them in order to help them catch up. This threw all of us off.

Oh well, it's just a dance, and much silly giggling ensued during and after each of the 'disasters'. I reiterate that I still had much fun.

Comments

[circumspectly.livejournal.com]

as long as there's silly giggling, it's all good. (and that's what makes it better than a good day at work, too) :)

Total Stranger

[jadoube.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a ball.(pun accidental) Whatever gets you up and into the world. By the way, what in the world is contra dance?

Re: Total Stranger

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Contra dance is great fun (for me, anyway). If you're familiar at all with square dance moves (do-si-do, allemand, swing, etc.), those also apply to contra dance. The difference is that in a contra dance, all the dancers line up in two long lines, the moves progress you and your partner through the line and back again, so that, if the music is long enough (and it usually is), you end up dancing briefly with every member of the opposite sex in the group. At most of the contra dances I've attended, the music is some variation on folk music, celtic music, and the like. Better/more information can be found at this link.

Welcome to my journal, BTW... :-)