quasigeostrophy | Musings on last night's dance... (Reply)

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.