Well, I just posted another anouncement about our Contra Dance on November 3, and thought I might say something here, too.   Never blogged before, except for a small note on MySpace.  Perhaps one doesn't have to worry as much about grammar and spelling in a blog??? 

I'm a musician, I play clarinet here and there, and I think music is pretty much as important form of human communication as any other.  When I was in college I discovered International Folk Dance as a recreation, as a way to be social.  I think it is good to be able to move, to feel confident in your own body.  It's the same thing we teach in athletics, in speech class, in modeling, in acting.  So I think physical movement is a form of communication, too.  The way people are put together, everything one does is part of the whole.  So it's not a stretch to me to say that music, dance, sports, reading, arithmetic, and even spitituality, all go together to make a person better.  Closer to God, if you will.

Wow, I get pretty effusive, sometimes.  Anyway, ContraDance is recreational dance, like Square Dance, it is descended from the European set dances that white settlers brought with them.  The culture's a little different from square dance in that there is not so much emphasis on couples, and that the music is always live, and that the steps are easy enough for beginners to catch onto quickly, but that the patterns (kept organized by the caller) are intricate enougth for non beginners to have a great time.  In cities where Contra is established and there is a dance once a week, the dances can be quite elaborate and interesting.  Experienced bands can somehow push dancers to a level of excitement that is amazing.  The first time I went to a Sunday dance in Santa Barbara (they have a 'sprung' floor there, built for swing dancers in the 30's) and I experienced hundreds of people doing this together, I was flabbergasted.   And the amazing thing is that in such towns, a beginner can join right in.  The experienced dancers hold the sets together in case a mistake happens, and mistakes do happen, of course...

As we build our dance in Tehachapi we don't have that core of experienced dancers.  But we have our own pleasure, because we get to watch the skill grow.  As a caller, I am getting better at teaching the patterns.   And I get to see us gel into a community.  Since the coming November 3 dance is also my birthday, I've invited Barbara Stewart to be guest caller.  She's from LA and she helped me from when I first started Contras over 10 years ago.  So I'll get to dance!  I'm really excited; it is the custom in most towns to have different callers visit regularly, as it is the custom for bands to visit, too.

Enough chatter for now.  Please comment.  I have talked this dance up a little more vigorously lately, telling friends that they are fools if they don't dance regularly.  I wonder if I'm being too strong with that language......    :)

Wayne