Dancing in Denver with Dick
Dick Riger here doing his civic duty and writing about Contra Dancing in other places. This dance was the third Saturday of May in the Denver area. The larger dances are usually on Friday night and smaller ones on Saturday night. They still alternate dance nights with Boulder. This particular dance was at the Scheitler Recreation Center. As a first-time dancer with them I danced free. I had talked my son and daughter-in-law into coming along and they sat and watched for a while. The music does NOT reach my son. Crystal likes it and has secured a promise from a lady friend to go with her to try out the dancing. The caller was a local gent who sat and called part of the time and danced part of the time while calling. The dance was lovely in all respects. The snacks where more substantial than ours and plentiful. This is part of the reason, I think, that the admission is higher than ours: $9.00.
The dancers were the same caliber as ours and as well-danced for the most part. They had a lesson before the dance, the same as we do, and had a good mix of different levels of dancers, about 50 to 60 for the evening. We did several English Country Dances that reminded me of the the more elegant ones we do on Second Sunday with Sets to each other followed by wide turns over the right shoulder, leading back into the center for a two handed turn, and then back to place. My overall impression is that most of our people and theirs are interchangeable between the groups on dancing skill level.
I wasn't the only visitor at the dance. A couple from Oregon or Washington was there and they where really good. They too enjoyed the evenings offerings, but declined the invite to a house party after the dance. My daughter-in-law, son and I accepted and had fun visiting with the local folks. We didn't stay too long because the kids were tired.
Most of my pet peeves still hold true, and I'm still guilty of some of them. Men trying to get that extra twirl or spin in, thereby making them and their partner late for the next move. Some couples dancing together too much, thus holding each other back from dancing with more experienced, skillful partners. Some young folks being too exuberant (ah, to have my youth to waste all over again) and taking up too much space or bumping into others. And last but not least, in fact my PET, people being late in a full hey for four across the lines, thus cutting into MY balance and swing. I would really pitch a bitch about this, except for the fact that somehow that evening I finally learned to do one variety of the cross kick balance. I don't know how or why, but it finally snapped while dancing with a young lady that I had met at my previous Denver area dance seven months earlier. She remembered ME and that blew me away; I had no idea that I danced THAT POORLY !!! It couldn't have been anything else could it?
After all of the cat calls are in from this blog, I'll send in another about this year's May Madness in Prescott, AZ, if I can find someone to format it and get it into some proper form. Keep spinning and twirling into happiness.
The dancers were the same caliber as ours and as well-danced for the most part. They had a lesson before the dance, the same as we do, and had a good mix of different levels of dancers, about 50 to 60 for the evening. We did several English Country Dances that reminded me of the the more elegant ones we do on Second Sunday with Sets to each other followed by wide turns over the right shoulder, leading back into the center for a two handed turn, and then back to place. My overall impression is that most of our people and theirs are interchangeable between the groups on dancing skill level.
I wasn't the only visitor at the dance. A couple from Oregon or Washington was there and they where really good. They too enjoyed the evenings offerings, but declined the invite to a house party after the dance. My daughter-in-law, son and I accepted and had fun visiting with the local folks. We didn't stay too long because the kids were tired.
Most of my pet peeves still hold true, and I'm still guilty of some of them. Men trying to get that extra twirl or spin in, thereby making them and their partner late for the next move. Some couples dancing together too much, thus holding each other back from dancing with more experienced, skillful partners. Some young folks being too exuberant (ah, to have my youth to waste all over again) and taking up too much space or bumping into others. And last but not least, in fact my PET, people being late in a full hey for four across the lines, thus cutting into MY balance and swing. I would really pitch a bitch about this, except for the fact that somehow that evening I finally learned to do one variety of the cross kick balance. I don't know how or why, but it finally snapped while dancing with a young lady that I had met at my previous Denver area dance seven months earlier. She remembered ME and that blew me away; I had no idea that I danced THAT POORLY !!! It couldn't have been anything else could it?
After all of the cat calls are in from this blog, I'll send in another about this year's May Madness in Prescott, AZ, if I can find someone to format it and get it into some proper form. Keep spinning and twirling into happiness.
posted by NM FolkMADS at 6:12 PM
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