I got there a little after 7 pm and found a little over a dozen people there. People were still assembling. I left the requested $3 donation in a basket on a table by the entrance. This was to help pay for the rental of the place.
The organizers were thrown off a bit: there were more men than women there to dance.
That apparently never happens. Because usually more woman than men want to dance it is customary to have a box of loosely tied ties for some women to wear when they dance as the man in the dance. There wasn't anything in the box for men to wear to be the woman partner in the dance. But, ya know, us guys wouldn't go for that anyway and instead would sit out that dance.The organizers decided to have the first dance be of trios: two men and one woman. We made up five trios and they had to have one woman dance as a man in order to make the fifth trio. That confused a number of us whenever our trio danced with a trio that had this woman in it. "Oh yeah... tie. You're a man!"
Also confusing was the presence of the fifth trio. The dance was two trios facing one another. I guess the fifth trio was waiting and ready to join when it was time for new trios to meet. At the time I don't remember them explaining that.
The woman in each trio danced the do-si-do with the man to her right in the other trio. Then they danced with the man to their left in the other trio. Then each woman selected a man and danced a swing step with them. The remaining man then had to walk around and when another couple stopped swinging, form a new trio with them and then repeat the steps all over facing a new trio.
This forming a new trio was confusing as people wandered around and not all trios were quick to form and often you had one trio ready to go and then they had to find another formed trio. I was happy when the women selected me to swing with as that meant I didn't have to find a new trio, only to find a man to join us two. Some women were not used to be the one selecting a partner and were slow at doing so which also provided confusion as then the men were unsure whether to immediately wander and start looking for a new trio or wait to be selected.
Most of us were learning so it was chaos at times, but it was fun.
By the time this dance was over more people had arrived and the ratio of men to women was closer, though there still was one or two extra men that had to wait some of the dances out. I was able to find a partner for all the dances except the three waltzes. Those I am not comfortable dancing so I took those opportunities to get a drink of water, eat some of the homemade bars a few people brought, or chat with people.
In addition to the contra dances we danced one of the folk dances I had learned the week before. That helped me pick it up quicker this second time although I had to not always take the clues from the woman across from me as she would get some steps wrong. This was the woman who had first asked me to dance a few weeks ago in Whitefish, and was more experienced with the contra dances. This was her first time dancing this particular dance.
The contra dances tend to follow similar patterns with a few variations in steps between the dances. I learned a few new moves: "boxing the square" and the "weave" among them. I don't think the caller described the "weave" very well as some of us were confused on how to weave. I was dancing with the Romanian woman at that point and she was just as new - and confused - as I. We muddled our way through it and were kind of getting it a little bit by the end. Another couple, who knew how to do the "weave", at the end of the dance took time to fully explain the move to me and we practiced. Now I get it.
There was another woman who was wearing a brightly colored long flowing dress that flared out when she spun around. And she liked to spin even putting a spin in when "do-si-doeing". She was fairly heavyset but very light on her feet. I first encountered her when she was a part of another couple and I would get momentarily distracted when she spun around. So I later asked her to be my partner in another dance. I figured I would get my fill of her spinning and become accustomed to it. It worked. And she was a good dancer.
I also liked swinging my partner and preferred dancing with the women who seemed like to swing. Some women seemed to like to spin and others were older and maybe more fragile or tentative dancers. So I had to learn and try to figure out and adjust the swinging of my partner. As one ends up rotating through the line when contra dancing one has to be nimble in adjusting when quickly meeting a new partner.
There was plenty of swinging in some dances and a few times I got a little light headed. But that may have helped my dancing as being slightly off balance at times distracted me from letting my head get in the way of my dancing.
A number of women - usually the single ones - praised my dancing, and when I told them was only the second time I contra danced, they claimed I was picking up the steps quickly. I think they were being overly generous with their praise.
Four or five of the people I had met folk dancing the previous week were there.
I met a Romanian woman who was a single mom of a three year old boy. Initially she danced with him. So when she became one of the couples in your little subgroup it made it a challenge when dancing with her as she was also holding on to one of his hands. Fortunately for most of the dances he wandered around the room by himself and usually didn't get in the way. When the last contra dance was about to start he was tired and he began to take off his clothes. He was quick at removing his clothes and was down to his diaper and about to pull it down and off by the time his mother got to him. She had to forgo the last contra dance as she had to dress him again. Everyone got a big laugh when he was doing this.
She wasn't dancing when I came back in the room for the final waltz so I chatted with her. I only had an opportunity to say a few words with her previously while dancing and I had a feeling she was from another country. She came from Romania to marry a man from Whitefish but that did not work out so she is a single mom now. "Me-HIGH-la" is her name - which is different and may be the reason I remembered it and few of the other names.
The dancing ended at 10 pm. The three hours passed quickly. At the end Missy passed out some brochures about the national folk festival that will be held again in Butte, Montana this July 10-12. The festival is free. Missy and a few others attended last year and said they had a great time.
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