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Contra Dancing

T-B and I went to FolkMADS Saturday night; I felt like some aerobic exercise, and I certainly didn’t want to put on a dress for the relatively mild aerobics that I’d get dancing to Ed Kremers at Allemanders, not to mention that I didn’t have a partner. The dancing was fun, as always.

But I was struck again (as I am every time I go to a contra dance) how often the flow and hand usage would be considered unacceptable in modern western square dancing. For example (and I’ve seen/felt this one at just about every contra dance I’ve attended), consider bend the line to a ladies chain from a one-faced line. This is lousy for the couple on the left-hand side of the line; it’s a direction reversal for the belle. However, after a few times through, the dancers start to smooth it out…the left-hand couple, knowing what’s coming next, doesn’t bend the line; they just wait for the right-hand couple to bend and start the (smooth) ladies chain.

Contra dance as religion: The Tao of Contra Dance