Contra Dance!

How did it make you feel? How different from a night club? Would you go the event again? Why/why not?

The Contra Dance this past Wednesday was a favorite night of mine. I deeply appreciated the patience of the experienced dancers (around a dancer like me) and the inviting atmosphere of the event. The old-time music was at once iconic of folk activities/life and indexical to me of dancing as a small child to songs reminiscent of the old-time feel. I honestly could not stop smiling, it was like that small child had returned once again for a night. I felt so included, and also happy, which made for a very meaningful experience. Looking back, there are few moments that feel akin to this since entering adolescence.

This dance appears as though it is the polar opposite of a night club scene. From personal experience, at "modern" dances, I feel extremely inward and self-conscious. I don't believe this uncomfortableness stems from a lack of confidence so much as the pressure to match and fit in. For this reason, I rarely ever enjoy dances. In fact, this contra dance was the first dance I had been to in about a year--excluding prom. It's interesting to me how within a contra dance one is "matching" everyone by doing the same movements as well, but has such a different interpretation of the event due to the more participatory and compassionate frame. Because everyone is quite unconditionally included during a contra dance, there is little to no room for feeling this pressure to conform. I also remember thinking as I was dancing how relieving it was that no one was really seeing me miss a step because we were all so busy attempting to do our best. Even though we were focusing on ourselves while first beginning to understand a certain dance, we were also contributing to the partners/neighbors/groups. This dance felt like the proper venue to pay attention to and take care of yourself while simultaneously doing the same for others.

I genuinely want to return to the contra dance. It was an incredible source of enjoyment for me the level of respect incorporated into the dancing, balanced out with the fun of elaborative movements and hilarious mess-ups. My favorite dance movement was the "ladies turn" (which may or may not be the exact name...), and one of my favorite moments from the night was how Tripp and I missed so many steps in the very first dance, but improved a great deal by the end of the it. I learned so much about the few dances I was a part of in the two hours, and I loved every minute of it.

(Thank you Professor McDonald, this class was the best and the contra dance was too awesome.)

-Krista Schaarschmidt