Last Sunday, Jenny took me to the church on High street, here in Santa Cruz. We went for the Contra dance there! :) I had a real good time! Knowing that I was beginner, everybody helped me a lot to get hold of the steps. Soon I was dancing away to glory! We danced so much, until our feet begged us to stop. I really enjoyed the dance because of the great fiddle music, the dance movements and symmetry followed during changing positions, the spirit of the young and old dancing together and also because it was a great exercise..A note on Contra dance:
English country dancing gained a certain legitimacy in the 17th century. The French, who thought that they invented country dancing (as well as anything else culturally significant), and who were miffed at the notion that the English should receive credit for anything, converted the name 'country dance' to French contredans (which conveniently translates as 'opposites dance'), then turned around and claimed that the English term was a corruption of the French!
Later, the French term evolved in the young U.S.A. into "contra dance."At least this is one theory.
Contra Dancing is a form of American folk dance in which the dancers form a set of two parallel lines which run the length of the hall. Each dance consists of a sequence of moves that ends with couples having progressed one position up or down the set. As the sequence is repeated, a couple will eventually dance with every other couple in the set. Contra Dancing was all the rage in 1800.
Many of the basic moves in Contra Dancing are similar to those in square dancing (swings, promenades, dos-à-dos, allemandes). A square dance set comprises only four couples whereas the number of couples in a Contra Dance set is limited only by the length of the hall.
I highly recommend Contra dance to people who love dancing away to a great tune, even without any prior experience in dancing..! I loved it :)
