Contra Dancing!

Contra dancing?  I had no idea what it was 48 hours ago, either, when one of my roommates invited us to come with her on Friday night.  At first, I thought she said 'country dancing' and I thought, 'There is NO WAY I'm going country dancing with you.'  But we cleared up that misunderstanding, and we went and had a fabulous time!

So contra dancing is basically a cross between square dancing and Elizabethan Jane Austen dancing, which sounds a little strange, but what a fun new thing to try!  You stand with a partner in two lines and dance your way up or down with other pairs along the way.  Having never done it before, and missing the lesson beforehand, it was an adventure, but still a blast, or what some of the people there would probably call a 'hoot'.  There were hundreds of people in this huge ballroom at an old amusement park all dancing the night away.  I will definitely be doing it again.  Another random thing to add to my repertoire of possible Friday night activities :-)

After just one night, I am certainly not the expert, but nonetheless I have a couple tips to pass along to would-be contra dancers:

1. Do not wear heels.  Heels are great for some types of dancing, but not for the contra.
   
2. Do not drink before you go.  With all the spinning and twirling, you really don't need any other buzz to contribute to the dizziness.
   
3. There is (probably) no need to be freaked out by the questionably sketchy middle-aged men asking you to dance.  Some of them are gay, and the rest are just there for the 'love of the dance'. Probably.