5 Dec
2013
5 Dec
'13
10:03 a.m.
One of the advantages of the old-style "active & (genuinely) inactive"
contra dances is that the new dancers in old-style dances have the
opportunity to observe everyone while inactive.
I think one of the challenging aspects for people new to dance, or new
to contradance in the present era of
post-1970s-all-are-symetrically-active-all-the-time dances is the lack
of opportunity to observe other dancers, in anticipation of becoming
active, while in the dance.
The present stylistic regime of contradance typically requires the
dancer to participate all the time, often without a break, which is
quite a step up from not knowing anything about contra dance.
~Mark