Strap on yer dancin' shoes, pack a picnic or a snack, BYOB, and kick off Labor Day weekend with White Memorial Conservation Center's favorite Robert Messore and his colleagues AKA O'Wryly! Tonight our Activity Shed will undulate with the gleeful sights and sounds of Contra!
Contra is danced to Celtic, Quebecois, Old Time, New England, Southern Appalachian, Jazz, Blues, and all sorts of other music played by live bands, either from Atlanta or elsewhere. In a contra dance, parallel lines of dancers stand opposite -- or "contra to" -- their partners. A dancer and his/her partner form a couple.
Bill Fischer is our caller! Through his instructions, each couple interacts with the couple next to them to form a four-person "set" and each set interacts with the sets on either side of them. Over the course of a dance, each couple moves up and down the hall, interacting with every other couple in their multi-set "line."
There is no fancy footwork involved (that is the other sort of line dancing) but the instructions given by the Caller do form a series of repeating figures that dancers eventually memorize. As this happens, the Caller provides fewer and fewer prompts until he drops out entirely; leaving you, your partner, and the others in your line to finish the dance, accompanied only by the exciting, lilting, haunting, and/or pulse-pounding music provided by the band.
White Memorial Foundation is located on 80 White Hall Road in Litchfield. This event is 7-9 pm in the activity shed and member cost $15, non-member cost $15. Call 860-567-0857 or click here to register online
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