A Contra Dance for Thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving feast is fast approaching as we wrap up our second to last week at Sólheimar. We have projects and presentations layered for a continual stream of work, but as each completed work falls to the background, plans for our final celebration gain momentum and evoke excitement. Next Wednesday, less than 7 days away, will be the culmination of our very last project, and albeit hard to conceptualize, our last real day in Sólheimar.

               Included in the plans for this celebration are: a repeat reenactment of selected Egil's saga skits, a brief history of Thanksgiving (potentially in story form), a day of cooking enough food for 100+ people, and, what I want to talk about, the possibility of a contra performance! I say possibility because with all of the things we have left to do, there is no guarantee at this point that we'll pull it together, but in my personal opinion it is entirely doable...so I'm 87% sure it's going to happen.

               Contra dance is a form of line dancing evolved from traditional English country dance. As Americans began to develop their own traditions diverging from the original folk cultures brought with Europeans, contra dance was created in the rural communities of Appalachia. Though its origins are in interactions between seldom seen neighbors, as a social event that engaged everyone during a time when people lived far apart, contra still brings people together in cities and small towns across the U.S. Generally, Contras are line dances, that involve one pattern repeated to progress couples up or down the line. Most of the dancing happens in a set of four, with one couple being you and your partner, and the other being your "neighbors" – who will change throughout the dance as the progression happens. It is quite a sight when a whole room of dancers are moving together in one complex pattern, interacting with everyone for a brief moment of the rotation. Because of this intermingling, where dancers are constantly changing neighbors, dancing with their partners for only a fraction of the time, contra is a very community oriented dance. It is whimsical and creative, mentally engaging, and also provides the opportunity for individuals to add personal touches as they develop more skill. You don't go to a contra with a partner, nor do you only dance with people you know; partners switch between dances, and strangers of both sexes initiate a request to dance with any other person in the room. In this way, dancing a contra is dancing with the whole community, it brings people together to enjoy themselves.

               The contra we are hosting here is a bit different, unfortunately not the whole community will be involved – it is more of a contra sampler. A demonstration of a traditional folk dance from the U.S., that, in line with the community premise of Thanksgiving, involves a group of people collaborating in an artistic way. Everyone seems to be excited about dancing, and even a couple of the interns will be joining us for the performance! The three dances I'm thinking of trying are Lady Luck, Cure for the Claps, and Through the Looking Glass. Hopefully after trying them there will be a dance that everyone likes the best for our Thanksgiving show, as we will perform just one.

Lady Luck
A1: Circle Rt. 3/4 (8), Ladies allemande L 1x while men orbit counterclockwise 1/2 to meet their neighbor (8)
A2: Neighbor balance and swing
B1: Men allemande L 1 & 1/2 to their partner (8), partners swing (8)
B2: Long lines forward and back (8), Circle L 3/4 (6), men roll away ladies with a half sashay (2) (to face new neighbors)

Cure for the Claps
A1: Balance, petronella (8), partner swing (8)
A2: Balance, petronella (8), neighbor swing (8)
B1: Down the hall in lines of four & turn alone (8), down the hall to bend the line (8)
B2: Circle L 1x (8), balance, California twirl (8)

Through the Looking Glass
A1: Circle L 3/4 & pass through up & down (8), new neighbors swing (8)
A2: Men pass L to start a 1/2 hey (8), men allemande L 1 & 1/2 (8)
B1: Men keep L hands, pick up your partner & start a promenade across, butterfly whirl to face in (8), ladies pass right to start a 1/2 hey (8)
B2: Partners balance and swing (16)

Update: A contra dance is definitively part of the Thanksgiving feast schedule! For anyone who understood the contra notes above, we will be dancing Lady Luck to a song by Perpetual e-Motion.

Laura