Hello New Contra Dancers,
Congratulations on coming out to Contra Dancing 101. All of you did great.
If you know anyone that would like to join us, they can still come out next week. They can sign up here
http://dept.sfcollege.edu/ce
Alternatively, they can just pay $10 per class.
We are in no rush. This is a beginning class for new dancers. We will be going at a slow, comfortable pace that everyone can keep up.
The schedule has us planned for a Contra Dance on Sunday February 5 from 3:30 to 5:30. However, if that is too soon, we will postpone our
field trip to another date.
If at times you are confused while doing exercises, do not worry, that is part of the learning process. Everyone gets confused during Contra dances at some point or another. It will happen to you too, so we need to practice being confused so we can figure out how to recover.
Here is what we learned this week.
1. Structure
- Two long lines facing each other
- Up the hall is toward the music, Down the hall is away
- Hands Four to join two couples down the line
- First couple is the Ones or Active couple, second couple is the Twos
- Two couples dance together for 64 beats of music
- Couples switch places after 64 beats of music
- Ones progress down the hall, Twos progress up the hall
- When a couple gets to the end, they come back as the other couple
- As a general rule, the woman is on the man’s right
2. Formations
- Proper : men on left facing up the hall
- Improper : Actives cross over
3. Partner Skills
- Everyone maintains their own balance
- Everyone does their own dancing
- As a general rule for holding hands in Contra, men have their palms up and women their palms down.
- Dance with your hands at waist level so they are available for your partner.
- For open position, the man makes the connection by joining hands with the woman, or the man presents the connection to the woman and she puts her hand in his.
- For closed position, the man puts his hand on the woman’s shoulder blade and the woman puts her arm over the man’s arm.
- No pushing, no pulling, no grabbing, no reaching, no using force, no thumbs
- We learn to dance without giving weight
- The man leads and the woman follows
- Lead means the man goes first only.
- Lead does not mean direct or guide.
- The man positions the couple on the dance floor.
- The woman should let the man initiate every movement and she should move with the man so you are dancing together as one
- If the man does the wrong thing, the woman should follow the man
- Sometimes the man might get confused, so since the dances are choreographed, as a general rule, the woman should give the man two beats of music to figure out what to do before assisting by starting the pattern
- The man always makes the movements easy for the woman and takes the long way for himself, so when crossing over or changing places, the woman goes straight ahead on her line and the man gets out of the woman’s way and moves back in front of her when done
4. Group Skills
- As a group, the men are still the leaders and the women the followers.
- When two men or two women are together, the Actives are the leaders. The Actives take precedence, so in hand holds, the Actives do what they normally do and the Twos adjust to the Actives.
- When circling or doing other movements together, keep up with the person in front of you and do not worry about the person behind you.
5. Figures
- Actives Cast Down the Hall, Twos Move Up
- Circle Left and Right
- Star Left and Right
- Swing
Here is a list of Contra Dance figures
www.cdss.org/elibrary/dart/appendix_b.htm
Happy Dancing,
Andy