I had a false start with 10 years between my first and second dance (age 18/age 28). At my second dance I swallowed hook, line and sinker, though the first few years of dancing were nomadic and dicey due to life events, including the pandemic.
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My first dance was at Glen Echo MD (DC) in late summer 2009 when I was 18. I went with my sister and her boyfriend and none of us had any knowledge or expectations. We were late, missed the lesson, were terribly confused, but I loved it and danced til the end, almost every dance with complete strangers whom I recall where kind and helpful. When I got home to Richmond VA, I looked up local dances and found that there was a series, but there wasn’t a dance until November. I put it on my calendar, started college at VCU, made friends who invited me to other things and the day of the dance came and went and it fell off my calendar and out of my mind.
Fast forward 10 years, late summer 2009 I’m 28, in Chicago, I’m in the break room at work and hear some people who I don’t know talking about the local contra dance. I recall enjoying the one I went to a decade ago. My sister and her family are coming to visit soon and so I ask about the dance. We all go. My sister and I have a good time, her husband and my boyfriend decidedly do not like it, the baby was as engaged as a baby can be. Of the five of us who attended, I’m the one hooked.
After that I attended every weekly dance for about a month until work uprooted me to southwest Virginia for the fall. Alone in SW Virginia, I looked up contra dances in the central to SW Virginia areas and traveled to every dance I could. Visiting family in Richmond, I went to the local contra dance, met a man whom I hit it off with (now my boyfriend). He joined me in dodging around to local dances that fall. We went to Richmond, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Blacksburg, Roanoke, Floyd and even went all the way up to NY for Flurry Festival 2020.
Only months later, the pandemic hit, I relocated to Richmond, VA; there were no contra dances for 2+ years in our area. About 8 months in to the pandemic, I cold emailed the then president of the Richmond dance, asking how I could get involved. There was a lot of changeover during the pandemic, and within 4 months of dances starting again, in fall 2022, I had joined the board… but that’s beyond the scope of the question.
Virginia
In Richmond, VA
On 11/10/2023 6:47 PM, Robert Matson
via Organizers wrote:
You all, I'm curious to hear YOUR first experiences at a
contra, whether when young or not.
As I think back, it took me three attempts over about 15
years, from young to less young, to get over the threshold and
really start enjoying myself (not counting those grade school
square dance classes). My first experiences stunk. Once I
got into contra, I was always concerned when I brought friends
who were new to contra whether they'd have fun. The most
perilous moments were 1) when they (or I) needed to find a
partner and, then, 2) absorbing the disapproval of hot shot
dancers when one messed up. Now, as an organizer, I'd like to
stay aware of the confusion and concerns of first-, second-
and third-... timers.
Would anyone mind sharing?
Rob
Dancing in Arkansas
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