So...our first dance was the fourth Saturday of April. Yesterday was the fourth Saturday of May and you might have noticed that we did not have a dance. There were a few reasons for that!
At the end of the dance, someone pointed out that the fourth Saturday of May is part of Memorial Day Weekend. Then I remembered I'd already realized fourth Saturdays would always conflict with Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. At the dance, I also learned that there's another regular dance (ballroom and swing) happening on fourth Sundays! Very awesome and we don't want to conflict. So I went back to the drawing board, checked out other regional dance schedules again, and we're now shooting for SECOND Saturdays. June's dance is a little up in the air because so far, we don't have a caller. I'm still working on it and keeping my fingers crossed! Thank you for your patience!
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A huge thank you to DNACA (the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness) for taking contra dancing under your organizational wing. Contra dances aren't complicated events, but they still require insurance, a bank account, and occasional contracting and other back office stuff. We are very grateful for DNACA's willingness to help get Crescent City contra dancing up and running by providing us a home.
When I lived in New York's Hudson Valley, I spent a lot of Friday and Saturday nights (and many more summer nights) sweating with a bunch of other people to music. I contra danced! It was great fun, great exercise, and I met a lot of great people.
I miss those nights of dancing. About a year ago, I started having conversations with other people who moved to Del Norte County from places with contra dancing and they miss it, too. So I started dreaming about how to bring it here. Contra dancing requires four things: a caller, a band, a big space, and a group of dancers. The caller guides dancers through the dance by "calling" out each dance figure in turn. The band provides lively music with a good beat. The big space allows many people to dance together. And without the group of dancers, nothing else matters. Watch this space for details of our first dance, now in the early planning phases. Once we have a date or time, I hope you'll come give it a try! |
AngelaI love and miss contra dancing and I decided to do something about it by establishing a regular dance in Crescent City. Archives
May 2019
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