I've always been a reader and a dancer. While the route from
reader to librarian was a fairly straightforward one, I had more
trouble finding my dancing niche. Finally I discovered contra
dancing, then English country dancing.
If you don't know what
contra dancing is, here
is a description. (Hint: It has nothing to do with either country
line dancing or Central America.) Here's
another interesting description of contra dancing.
As for
English Country Dancing, think Jane Austen. Think Henry Purcell. Or
read this article.
Contra dancing and English County Dancing are cousins. But the
Americans (contra) emphasize energy, independence, and personal
contact (also know as "touching"), while the English
emphasize style, elegance, and grace. (And long-distance flirting.)
Both types of dance are addictive!
What does a contra dance
caller do? He or she teaches the dance, walks through it with the
dancers, and then calls it: that is, calls out the figures just
before the dancers have to do them, while the music is playing.
Square dance callers use a lot of "patter," or chanted,
sometimes rhyming, fill-in words, so that what they say is a steady
stream of speech, almost like rap. English dance callers, or cuers,
try to be as unobtrusive as possible, just gently reminding the
dancers of what comes next. Contra dance callers fall somewhere in
between, saying more, with more rhythm, than the cuers, but without
the patter of the square dance callers. An important job of all kinds
of callers is to know the dances and the figures.
Check out my
dance links for more information.