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…