Folk dancing

Tonight, Saturday, I went folk dancing. I thought I was going contra dancing but I discovered after I arrived that they meet next Saturday. So much for the contra web site being accurate. Apparently the contra group has been infrequent this winter due to insurance concerns and other organizational issues.

The Saturdays that the contra dance group doesn't use the Salvation Army Church the folk dance group does.

The group is small, apparently around a dozen regular members. There were an equal number of men and women. Tonight there were ten people there. The group was all excited as last weekend most of them attended a folk dance class in Calgary, Alberta. So tonight they were going over many of the dances they had learned. That was good in that they went slow as they were learning/re-learning. And bad in that it was a bit stop-and-go as they were trying to figure out the steps.

For music one person brought his laptop computer with many folk dance tunes as mp3 files. Add in very good speakers and the music was great. A few times they replayed the song in order to do the dance over.

When I arrived they were in the middle of a dance and Marvin came over and talked with me and explained things. Marvin is a pretty neat old guy. He looks much younger than his age. He is 85 this year and looks and moves like he is 70. On top of it he recently had a stroke that weakened his right side but seems to have quickly recovered and is back dancing.

Also at the dance was the husband of the first woman I had danced with at the contra dance in Whitefish as few weeks ago. His wife wasn't there.

Everyone was very friendly and helpful and encouraging. After a bit I tried to join. Initially I would dance behind everyone so I could watch and mimic what they were doing. Usually I joined the half circle and tried to dance along while watching others around me. It was a bit tricky as I would be a half step behind everyone.

I still suffer from being left-handed. That is my explanation why I often want to lead with the wrong foot. Also, I am so used to being on my own and doing my own thing it is a challenge to tailor my movements to others.

The first dance I joined was tricky. There were two rows of people, and even after they taught me the steps, I found myself mimicking the person across from me when I needed to mimic the people beside me. I ended up doing part of the dance moving left when I should be moving right and right when I should be moving left. Of course it took me until near the end of the dance before I started getting the hang of it - and then the dance was over.

I learned (or am learning) a move used in a number of the dances: the grapevine. It is not a difficult move but for a person ''dance challenged'" I am still working on it.

Most of the dances this night were from Eastern Europe as the Calgary dance class was by a person who had recently been to Bulgaria. We danced a number of dances from Bulgaria, Albania, and Turkey. The dances seemed to be variations of one another and I think once I get the hang of it I will learn various dances quicker. Although the Israeli dances seem to have a sudden a reverse pattern that throws me.

We took a break halfway through to have cake and ice cream. It was Roger's 57th birthday. Also, he and another woman dancing (forgot her name) are getting married this coming Thursday. As we ate the cake and ice cream the group shared their various border crossing stories from when they went to Calgary.

They were all very encouraging and said I was doing good for my first time - even though I don't think I was doing that good.

The dancing went from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. I think I may attend a few other folk dance sessions and see if I can get the hang of this type of dancing.