Four More Years

A contra dance by Steve Recchia, of Reno, NV
from the CDSS (Country Dance and Song Soc) News

Four More Years
Duple Improper

Suggested tunes:
Poor Blood for Oil
Let Them Breathe Cake

A1
Circle Right

Circle Right

A2
Circle Right

Circle Right

B1
Circle Right

Circle Right

B2
Circle Right

Circle Right.
Face same neighbors.
Do not progress.
Ever.

An appropriate dance for January 20.

Note: Some dancers may wish to sit this one out.

Contra dancing has many similarities to square dancing. The dance is a fixed sequence of figures

, announced by a caller. Typical contra tunes can be divided into two parts, each of which is repeated. (Hence the A1/A2/B1/B2 divisions above.) One major difference between squares and contras is that instead of dancing with 3 other couples, you and partner progress along the set to dance with many other couples. The couple you are currently dancing with are your neighbors. (This dance does not progress.)
Also, while “circle right” is a simple figure, it often feels uncomfortable in the dance — it’s more likely than most figures to be part of a sequence that doesn’t flow well. (That just seems to happen to poor old circle right.) This dance is going to make some people dizzy

New article about contra dancing in the Smokey Mountain News:

Contra spirits: English cousin to square dancing attracts hard-core fans
By Zach Laminack

Shake your booty

Cathy and Ron Arps host contra dancing the second Friday of every month (except July and August) in the Old Webster School on N.C. 116 in Webster. No experience is necessary and all ages are welcome. A $5 donation is suggested. For more information, call the Arps at 828.586.5478, or call Kathy Calabrese at 828.497.4709.

Contra dancing is held at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown most Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. The school also offers a Learn to Contra Dance Weekend April 8-10, 2005. Call 1.800.FOLKSCH or visit www.folkschool.org for more details.

Just before Christmas, Cathy Arps was adding ingredients to several mixing bowls, whipping up a batch of goodies, but she couldn’t concentrate on the recipe — she had contra dancing on her mind.

“It’s to the point now that when we go on vacation we look up the local dance schedule,” she said with a laugh. “In fact, we’ve even led contra dance tours in New Zealand. We’ll do anything to contra.”

Arps and her husband, Ron, are organizers of a monthly contra dance held at the Old Webster School in Jackson County. A hodge-podge collection of contra die-hards, the Old Webster Dance group boasts live music and basic instruction for those new to the dance.

“The dance community in Webster is not large, but it is very loyal. There are always some veteran contra dancers there, but usually new people too. It’s not a big dance, it would be great if it was bigger, but it’s well established nonetheless,” Cathy said.

The dance itself bears similarities to square dancing — a comparison the Arps will often contest, as it often shares billing with more traditional English dances.

“It’s basically a group of people organized into two lines, men on one side, women on the other,” Ron said. “The person across from you is your partner. The first two couples form a group of four. This is called taking hands four. Then the second two couples below them form up, and so on. These groups of four then dance figures together.”

The four people in the group are called partners and neighbors, and a caller organizes the figures, a contra dancer’s word for the called moves. Before the dance begins, the caller tells the band to start playing, then gives the instructions for the dance in time with the music. For example, the caller might say “circle left,” then on the sixth beat of an eight-beat phrase, the caller might say “swing your partner,” allowing those extra two beats as time to anticipate the move.

“The dance that the groups of four do together usually has about eight figures or so because it matches 32 bars of music,” Ron said. “And the neat thing about it is that the dance is written so that the last thing the groups of four do is move up or down the hall. The couple facing down the hall moves down and the couple facing up the hall moves up. The first couple then would meet the number four couple in the original configuration, and then they would dance the next repetition and so on until everybody has danced with everybody else.”

This sharing of dance partners, is one of the two special ingredients that make the contra dance different from its square cousin. The other is the music.

“Contra dancing almost always has to have a live band. They could play any kind of music, really

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,” Ron said.

However, Cathy prefers to stick to the basics, drawing from fiddle tunes, old-time Appalachian music influenced by traditional Scotch and Irish jigs and reels. This adherence to tradition doesn’t necessarily hold true with all contra bands.

“Nowadays bands are becoming more eclectic in their selection,” said Bob Dalsemer, contra dance aficionado and director of the music and dance programs at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown. “You might hear Latin American rhythms, themes from TV shows, occasionally even classical music. It really runs the gamut. It can get pretty wild.”

The Folk School is another source where contra junkies can get their fix, holding a free introduction to contra most Tuesday nights and some week-long dance instruction classes.

But be warned, long-time dancers like the Arps — who have been hitting the contra dance floor for nearly 20 years — caution that an introduction to contra may prove all consuming.

“For some people it’s sort of like a religion,” Ron said. “There’s something about it that’s very connective. I teach the beginners that there’s a connection, physical of course, but after a while I think there’s a spiritual connection between people, a real oneness to it; even though everybody is doing variations of the moves all the time, there’s still a sort of gestalt that holds everybody together. You have to experience it to really feel what it is.”

Check out Step lively — give contra dancing a whirl.

I’m quoting it here, just in case it disappears:

FITNESS BOUND
Step lively — give contra dancing a whirl
The easy-to-learn folk dance is a bouncy, sweaty, friendly mix of movements.

By Jenny Hontz, Special to The Times

The sounds of live fiddle and banjo music instantly transported me back in time as I strolled into South Pasadena War Memorial Hall on a Friday night. I was there to experience my first contra dance, an American folk dance derived from English country dancing that has been popular since Colonial times.

As a dance begins, long lines of women wearing flowing skirts stand shoulder to shoulder across from parallel lines of men in jeans, khakis and tie-dyed shirts. Ranging in age from 8 to 83, the dancers move in time with the band at the direction of a caller: “Swing your partner round and round, ladies do-si-do.”

The dance makes for vigorous exercise and initially looks complicated, but the basic moves — allemandes, sashays, ladies’ chains — will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried square dancing. Contra dancing is also easier than it appears because dancers repeat the same sequences of moves many times while progressing from partner to partner up and down the line.

Unlike square dancing, this means you don’t need to bring your own partner, and just about anyone can jump in right away without taking lessons. That’s exactly what I did. Within a few minutes of my arrival, a gentleman asked me to dance. I told him I was a novice and had no idea what I was doing, but he assured me I shouldn’t worry.

Sure enough, the caller walked us through the steps of each dance before the music began. During this mini-lesson, we swung with our partners, keeping one foot steady on the hardwood floor and moving the other around in a circle. When the band Swamp Mamas began playing, we sped it up, stomping, clapping and swinging to old-time music, weaving an intricate pattern across the room.

Contra dancing involves quite a bit of twirling your partner and circling in groups of four, holding one another’s hands, wrists or arms. I got dizzy almost immediately, which made it tough to remember where I was in the dance. “Look in my eyes,” my partner told me when I started feeling woozy. That didn’t really help, but I was having such a blast it didn’t matter.

Even though I got lost a few times, the contra dance community is extremely forgiving. The unwritten rule is that you switch partners every dance, so you meet a lot of great people, and veterans can help the newcomers along. By the third or fourth dance, I stopped worrying about the moves and just got into the spirit of it.

“When you get going, it’s almost like flying,” says Jim Spero, a caller and dance composer who co-edited the book “Southern California Twirls.” “It’s just so fun and energetic. People get a very good vibe out of it.”

The songs often tell a story or have tongue-in-cheek names such as the “male chauvinist’s jig,” which, incidentally, calls for women to take the lead at one point in the dance. I couldn’t stop smiling during one Virginia reel-like dance in which we sashayed across the floor and ducked under the arms of another couple.

Most people dance the whole night through, from 8:30 to 11:30, without sitting out a single song. Half-hour lessons are offered before the dances, which are held on alternating weekend evenings in Brentwood, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre, La Verne and Santa Barbara. The entire night of live music, dancing and a break of lemonade and cookies, sponsored by the California Dance Cooperative, costs $8. If you’re willing to let go and get into the good, clean fun of it, the experience is infectious.

A sign at the entrance to the dance says it all: “Warning: Contra Dance Is Addicting.” Once people start, they often move on to attend 12-hour, all-night “dawn dances” or weeklong dance camps. Contra dancing took off in California in the 1970s, and some of the hippie peace activists from that period are still at it today. My friend Janine, who introduced me to contra dancing, started as a child and has been dancing for 30 years.

Because contra dancing requires a steady focus on the present to keep up, it becomes all-absorbing, and people lose themselves. In fact, I didn’t realize how great a workout I was getting until I slowed down for the break and had to mop the sweat from my forehead.

Dancing burns about 200 calories an hour, and most people wear washable, loose-fitting clothing or bring an extra shirt to change into. “It’s a great way to get yourself in shape,” Spero says. “On New Year’s, you dance for six hours straight. That will take off the pounds.”

Barbara Stewart, 56, of Tujunga, lost 14 pounds when she started contra dancing a decade ago. “I had never done any exercise before,” she says. Suddenly “I was dancing once or twice a weekend because it’s so much fun.”

Spero actually trained for the L.A. marathon by attending a 12-hour dawn dance two weeks before the race. “It really helped build my stamina,” he says. “The most I ran before the marathon was nine miles, and I was able to run 26.”

You certainly don’t need to be a competitive athlete to dance, though. The walking pace of the steps makes it welcoming to people of all fitness levels. “I’ve obviously got osteoporosis,” says Ruth Bates, 83, of Alhambra, who wore a dress of green, white and red ruffles to the dance. “I’m supposed to be active, and I figure why not do it with something I enjoy?”

People tend to have such a great time that they go out together afterward or make movie dates with their dance friends. Stewart found the community to be as healthy for her psyche as the exercise was for her physique. Before she started contra dancing

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, “I rarely laughed,” she said. “Then I’d come here and be in hysterics.”

Romances are not uncommon either because the dance is “exceedingly flirtatious,” Spero said. One move, the “gypsy,” calls for dancers to gaze into the eyes of their partners, circling around each other without ever touching. Much like the dance, the romance scene appears to be one of wholesome, old-fashioned courtship, though, so the environment feels safe for those who just want to move.

“It’s a community that supports the general art of flirtation,” says Marcia Neiswander, 54, of Alhambra, who met her husband contra dancing. “They’re open to the idea that a dance is just a dance, flirtation is flirtation. If you’re single or married, it doesn’t matter. There’s an openness about this community.”

One piece of advice: Wear flat shoes. Most people go with Birkenstocks, sneakers or jazz shoes. I made the mistake of dancing in high heels, and my toes and ankles ached afterward.

But not even sore feet could sour the good times I had contra dancing. So grab a partner, jump right in and do-si-do till you drop.