sunflowerpub.com
27
spring 2014
“D
o one thing every day that scares you.” This advice for the good life, attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, came to mind on a recent Saturday night when I sweet-talked My Most Significant Other, Bob; my BFF from high school, Alice; and her husband, Tony, into joining me for an evening of contra dancing in the gym at New York Elementary School. “It’ll be great: an $8 per-person night on the town with live music and crazy fun dancing. It’s the reel deal,” I crowed (puns are our love language). I may have said something about tripping the light fantastic, too, but that would have been unintended foreshadowing. “It’s accessible, aerobic, joyful and playful. Just come,” a contra-nista friend had lobbied. “You can do it if you know right from left and can count to eight.” “Well,” Bob said, “Alice can do that. And you can, too, with help. Let’s go.”
Three Decades and Still Spinning Members of the Lawrence Barn Dance Association have been doing their thing, do-si-do-ing, twirling and allemande-ing, since 1982, when University of Kansas students—among them current Lawrence Barn Dance board member Brad Levy, as well as former longtime caller and past Lawrence Mayor Mike Rundle—organized a group of students to dance. In addition to the regular Saturday night dances suitable for beginners, the group offers monthly dances—called Bloo Moon Dances—reserved for more advanced dancers. For more information, tutorial videos and entry costs, go online at www.lawrencebarndance.org or call (785) 749-1356.
And so we four filed into the gym. The caller for the evening, Lisa Harris, welcomed us for the free lesson always offered before the Lawrence Barn Dance Association’s third-Saturday contra dances. She gave us a brief introduction to the form, which is descended from the traditions of English and French country dancing. “Contra,” we were told, doesn’t mean disagreeable, as in contrary—which we four could have done really well. “Contra” means “opposite” because couples face each other in lines or squares. The Lawrence events welcome both single dancers and couples to their lines, though couples should lighten up and enjoy a whole line of partners throughout the evening. We started slowly, joining in our lesson with two lines of eight to 10 other newbies practicing turns and promenades, and my personal fave, gypsies: “Just make deep and constant eye contact as you circle your partner,” Harris explained. In case you’ve never gypsied a stranger, it’s a pretty effective icebreaker. The focused eye contact is useful as well, I learned, to stave off nausea when the twirling gets intense. I was happy as the night unfurled to have a series
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