Good List Week 5
Contra dancing
Oh, what fun - wholesome smiling sweating moving dancing - I had at my first contra dance this weekend. I was invited by a friend, and because my girlfriend is a dancer, I suggested we go - nervous as I am, as someone with little dancing experience. I expected something stiff and ballroom like, something like I've seen in old English country dances in the movies.. all my expectations were cast aside, as I was thrown into the spinning and twirling.
Contra is a social event, incredibly welcoming to newcomers. Dancers partner up each dance, asking or being asked, in a friendly way. Each dance is composed of a series of moves, e.g. do-si-do and balance and swing, that repeat in a fluid motion up and down the dance line, changing matching partners every set. The structure exposes the dancer to interact with just about everyone else at the event.
For me, I really dig the structured dance. For one, it's a forcing function that exposed me to interact with just about everyone else, hands-on and face-to-face, quite the difference from the interpersonal distance I'm accustomed to, with strangers nonetheless. For another, the structure isn't total, with dancers improvising and playing, adding their own style to the mix. Finally the energy of a room of friendly people dancing to live music was just infectious; I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I walked out the door.
I've never seen so many smiles on so many faces for something so wholesome.