If you have a minute, watch this social dance. Its nice. Its a great example of how folk dance is everywhere. It reminded me of contradance for a couple of reasons: 1. In the beginning of a contradance, two lines of people approach in the middle. Those lines are called sets. In contradance, a set can be proper (all the gentlemen on one side, looking across to their partners, the ladies, in the other set). If every other couple trades places in the sets, creating a he-she-he-she configuration, then these sets are called improper. This came from an era well before our grandparents time. 2. In this video, you can see couples perform a do-si-do, a very simple step you may have seen in square dance. I consider contra dance to be the mother of square dance; the former is more of a group effort. Contra is derived from the English term country dance, which the French corrupted to contre, which means opposite (applicable to the movements of the various formations in the dance). I am writing this, and I hope others will share it, because 2015 will mark the 100th birthday of the Country Dance & Song Society, which has selected Tucson to be one of a handful of Tour Stop cities (in fact, the FIRST tour stop at the end of April coinciding with Tucsons fabulous Folk Festival) after scores of cities applied for the honor. The CDSS covers North America and reaches across the Atlantic to its roots in the United Kingdom. All ages can easily learn and enjoy social dance in a wholesome environment. Check it out. I will provide links in comments to follow. I have been doing this since 2004. Its a very joyful and healthy activity. Just look at the faces of the folks in this video. That joy is typical. https://youtube/watch?v=2auPRV5bNN4
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 04:54:31 +0000
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