Late to the dance

After eating a late lunch on Saturday I walked the pasture to check my gopher traps. I caught another one and found another trap sprung with no gopher. And I heard one gopher chirping a warning.

My trap check usually lasts an hour but I got distracted. I somewhat filled in an old area where I had burnt out a tree stump a few years ago, looked at the river now that the flow is above 500 CFS, dug around another tree stump for burning later, and discovered the strong winds from a few days ago snapped off another pine tree. It wasn't a massive tree, but - dang! - another tree down. And I haven't finished cutting the limbs off the previous fallen tree yet.

When I got back to the house I was a little surprised to find it to be 7 pm. Oh no! The folk dancing started at 7 pm and I still needed to shave and shower.

I was 45 minutes late to the dancing. There were only 10 of us dancing. Roger and his wife, now newly married, were there. Don and his wife made some cookies - which served as my supper as I hadn't time to eat before arriving. A few new people since last time. One woman was from Georgia and she was driving around the United States. I didn't talk with her much so I don't know why or her destination. She is into folk dancing and decided to attend our get together this week.

I danced most of the dances. Or tried to as the steps are harder than the contra dance steps. There is a pattern to some of the dances but I'm still not getting it. The sudden reversals in some dances throw me off. Some dances get into a pattern then the last third of the dance introduced a new pattern, which also throws me off.

But I joined the line and watched the others footwork and tried to emulate their steps. Since there wasn't enough people to form a circle I tried to be near the end of the line so as not to screw up the people after me in line. But everyone is really nice and are encouraging me, even if I feel like I have two left feet.

We learned a Scottish dance (I believe called 'Skinning the lamb') that seemed to be a cross between a folk dance and a contra dance. We stood in lines of two and had a partner and then danced with another couple. But instead of everyone dancing at once, the active (top) couple moved down the line dancing with the other couples one at a time until reaching the end of the line.

It was slow going for me as none of the steps were steps I had learned from contra dancing. I had trouble with the part where we passed right/left/right/left with another couple. Sometimes I did the lefts correctly and other times not. I was confused as I didn't know what I was doing wrong - or right.

When the dance was over they helped me practice that move and finally we figured out what I was doing right and wrong. When I was the active couple I did the lefts correctly and it was when I was an inactive couple where I did them wrong as I was starting in a different position in the foursome and I had to turn a different way when moving left. I know - clear as mud - but one doesn't always move around the person you are passing but moves in a way that forms a circle with the other people in the foursome.

Learning folk dancing is harder than contra dancing but I plan to stick with it for a while and see if I eventually catch on.

During one of the breaks between dancing a few people spoke about the national folk music festival in Butte this July. They spoke about their experiences there last year and where they stayed or camped. This is looking more and more like what I may do this year as it interests me.