contra dancing in Denmark

My love of folk dancing started with contra dancing. All the talking I do about the goodness of contra is already toned down so that I don't scare people by my over-enthusiasm. So if you were already thinking that I had a crazy huge amount of enthusiasm for contra dance, it is really probably ten times larger.

That said, it is a shame that there is no contra dancing in Sweden. But luckily for me, there is in our near neighbor, Denmark. Although I guess I use 'near' somewhat loosely.

Several weekends ago there was a full weekend of dance, so Greg and I finally made the trip to join the fun. We traveled by train, which I love infinitely more than flying. Train travel is just so nice. (Although I learned that the Monday after we returned there was a train derailment south of Stockholm, which had caused a lot of issues and delays, so we lucked out that it didn't happen before/during our trip.)

Here are a few photos from around the web:

Greg and I with one of the callers. (source)

The band from the US; they are completely amazing. (source)

General merriment. (I'm actually way in the back of this one.) (source)

7QT - bicycle repair, cooking, and other fun things

- 1 -

Here is an unexpected thing that I miss about my husband. He is pretty good at keeping me informed of big current events. I have always been terrible at current events. The weekly current events quizzes we were given in seventh grade were the worst.

So when my husband is living in a different country, I miss out on so many little conversations, including the ones about current events. Maybe I should care enough to seek out that information on my own, but I honestly don't see that happening.

I think if there was a blog that posted several times a week with the briefest of brief news summaries, that might be good for me. The other problem is that biased reporting really gets me down.

- 2 -

Although I do prefer to watch hockey games that have a sportscaster who is a fan of my team. It just makes things better than an unbiased sportscaster when there is agreement with me and the tv.

- 3 -

- 4 -

I got a flat tire on my bicycle this week. Punka is the Swedish for that, apparently. Punka, indeed. I watched this video on youtube (as well as a few others, but this one most resembles my bicycle) to learn what I needed to do to fix it.

Even if you don't watch the video, notice that it took this man less than ten minutes to complete the task. It took me about one hundred minutes to do the same exact thing. Not bad for my first tire change though! Although, full disclosure, I got a lot of help from my landlord. My progress would have come to a full stop at least once if not for his assistance.

Now I need to decide if I want to try to patch the hole in the tube or just throw it out. Does anyone have any experience with this and want to give me advice?

- 5 -

This is one of the more interesting blog posts I've read in awhile. It discusses the topic of the first known music video to feature contra dancing. Oh how I love the spirit of contra.

- 6 -

I also learned from that article the "electronic duo" The Knife is Swedish. I have been told several times that music is Sweden's biggest export, and that it happens so often that you find out a band or group is from Sweden, which you may not have known for years and years. I was slightly skeptical about the latter part, since that had never happened to me. Then I read the above article, and now I get it! And for reference, one of the greatest songs in the world, compliments of The Knife:

- 7 -

Last night I made a dinner that was inspired by this coconut chicken recipe. I changed a lot of things though, just because the original recipe is not possible for me in my current circumstances. For one I don't have a dutch oven. For two I'm not about to turn on my oven and leave it on for such a long time (my apartment is small and using the oven is like using a space heater... in the middle of summer). For three I just made this all in a frying pan on the stove and used two chicken breasts instead of a full chicken. For four I just noticed that it only wanted half of the pepper, but I used a whole one and it was yellow. For five I was not able to get cilantro. For six I somehow had it in my head that bok choy was leeks, so when I headed to the store I was planning to buy leeks (even though my list said bok choy). When I got to the produce section and saw the leeks I realized then that they were not bok choy. Somehow when I saw the Swedish word for leek, it dawned on me that it was not bok choy, even though I don't know the Swedish word for bok choy and could not tell you the word for leek.

Long story short, it was very tasty, and I am glad I have leftovers for three more meals!

- The End -

Linking up with Jen!

quick takes!

- 1 -

I got a Swedish dentist. It was a little confusing, but I managed to get an appointment for later this month. I actually called three different places. The first one answered a lot of my stupid questions about 'how dentists in Sweden work' and then they told me there was a six-month wait for an appointment. No thank you. The second one was the clinic closest to my house, but it is very small, and I had a very hard time understanding the woman, so eventually I just said something about how I would 'have to think about it' so that I could hang up. Third time's the charm.

- 2 -

Next week I go to Austria for a conference. This is the 'big' conference of the year in Europe, similar to the big conference I used to go to in San Francisco every December. It will be interesting to see what kind of overlap exists between the two communities. I'm also excited to play tourister in Vienna. Anyone got any good tips for me?

- 3 -

OH MY GOSH THERE IS A CONTRA DANCE IN VIENNA WHILE I AM THERE FJAILENALEINKNZK.EKSIBNAEIL.NELIGNIALGN;AEI!!!!!

- 4 -

I also get back in time the following Saturday for a folk dance in Uppsala :)

- 5 -

The snow and ice are nearly entirely melted, certainly enough for me to safely ride my bicycle. There are maybe three ice patches on my commute though, so I've been holding off (mainly for fear of unforeseen ice patches while riding). I figure, I've managed to not ride my bicycle for this long, so I may as well wait until the risk of falling on ice is completely gone. Once I return from Austria though... then it is back on my bicycle!

- 6 -

I found this pin on pinterest which talked about choosing words to describe yourself (it also describes the process of how the author narrowed down the choices). I'm considering tweaking my 'about' page to incorporate the words I chose.

- 7 -

Just now, when I opened blogger, I saw that my total number of page views of all time was a palindrome. That made me happy.

______________________

THE END

Jen and others have got more!

Music and dance

Being away from contra dancing while living in Sweden has been really unfortunate. One thing I am so glad to have found is the group Philochoros, which welcomes non-students. And what I am realizing is that folk dancing is folk dancing and the people who enjoy folk dancing are the people who enjoy folk dancing. And I love the dance and I love the people, and those two things are not so different between my contra-world and my philochoros-world. One day I will write more on my thoughts on the types of people I find drawn to contra dancing, but that is for another time.

A thing I find interesting is that with Swedish folk dance (as with contra dance) you have events that focus on being traditional, where people dress in folk costumes and the mood is sort of historically-based (whatever that means). And then there are events that have a more modern-type mood. For contra dancing it would be like the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend versus a Brattleboro Dawn Dance. I absolutely love them both, but they have very different moods, and are thrilling in different ways.

In a week I think I will experience the Dawn Dance of Swedish Folk Dancing. The event is Grandkväll with Bollnäsbygdens Spelmanslag. Here is a video of them:



I have been listening to their music for the past week and will probably not be able to listen to anything else this week either. Needless to say, I am getting really super excited.

Two unexpected thoughts on contra dancing

This weekend I had the luxury of attending two contra dances. Saturday was my local dance, and Sunday was the Brattleboro dance. Each dance brought me one unexpected though.

On Saturday, a woman came to the dance who either had a mental disability or was on a lot of drugs. I never tried to talk with her or the man she was with, so I really don't know which one it was. All I know is that her mental cognizance was lacking. Severely. I honestly am not sure if she was aware that she was dancing.

The contra community is definitely different than any other community I have been a part of, or even seen or heard of. There is a sense of welcoming and openness to all that I think is very very rare in today's society. The usual joke is along the lines of: If you know the difference between your right and left, that will help, but it isn't necessary! And the community exhibits so much tolerance of every person who comes to dance. (Obviously there are exceptions, but the less tolerant people are also outside of the usual community-aspect of contra.) Every person who goes contra dancing learned it by going to a dance and having others help them out along the way. Most people are really encouraging of new people because they know what it was like. We've all been there.

But this begs the question: Is there actually some sort of requirement of mental cognizance required for contra dancing? The strange thing was, it was actually fairly 'easy' to dance with this woman as a neighbor. She didn't really move much, and for the one dance that she was my neighbor, it just worked out that the other three of us in our little group could essentially dance around her, and complete all the moves with the appropriate timing. She definitely was not a hindrance to the dance, but at the same time, she was certainly not an asset.

In the same evening, I danced with a man (self-described as middle-aged and over-weight) who came to the dance for the first time after hearing about them for a long time. He was not the quickest about picking things up, but he was having a Blast. In a later dance I was his neighbor, and he made the comment, "I keep getting lost! But I'm still smiling, so I think I'm doing it right!" Exactly! The fact is, he was having a great time, and even though we weren't doing the dance with a lot of precision, we were having a fun time dancing with him. And he was picking up on various aspects of the dance, so it was good to see him making progress, and then to realize that he was making progress. So often he started many dances as a bit of a hindrance to the precision of the dance, but generally that diminished as he started to pick up on what was going on, while at the same time, the smiles and fun he contributed were certainly an asset.

Also in the same evening, I danced with a woman who must be grouped in the category of 'perpetual beginner'. This is the person that has been going to contra dances regularly for a year or more, but still just doesn't get it. It was actually incredibly challenging to dance with her. Since she has been to so many contra dances, she feels confident that she is doing the right thing, when in actuality, she often was not. For example, sometimes she would just start walking off in the wrong direction, and she would get so far away that it was hard to get her back into the right place. At the same time, you could also tell that she was sometimes unsure of where she should be going. She would always have a death-grip when you were holding hands, and it was hard to get her to let go of your hand. And if she was not holding someone's hand, she would start following the closest person who was moving somewhere. Needless to say, I had to somewhat alter some of the dance, so that we could get to where we needed to be. And until I had figured that out, the dance was turning into a disaster. So here is a type of person that it is really hard to get through to, who is often a hindrance to the dance, but can (on occasion) learn parts of the dance or at least smile a little and enjoy parts of the dance.

And I suppose I could go on and on about difference instances of people who are challenging to dance with for one reason or another. And I really think the contra community as a whole values the fact that all are welcome. But should an exception be made for a person who has no mental cognizance? I think if a person was totally drunk, I would definitely not ask them to dance, and probably get frustrated that they knowingly put themselves in a state that makes them unable to 'play by the rules' so to say. But what if this woman didn't have a choice in her state? What if she has a serious mental disability? I guess it would have been interesting to talk to the man who brought her. She didn't show any outward signs that the dance was enriching her life (like smiling, for instance). And perhaps the man knew that she was enjoying herself, and her life was being enriched. If that was the case, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a rare case of close interaction with other people. But from the outside looking in, it looked like a standing person with a blank face that we all moved around. In all the other cases of challenging dancers, I still (most) always felt like I was dancing with someone. With this woman, it never felt like that, and it seemed to never have the option to feel like that. My opinion on this might seem rude, but if no ones lives are being enriched by this person's presence, I don't really think it is appropriate for her to be there. I write the previous statement with care, because it is possible that her presence was enriching her own life, and I just wasn't aware of it. Or maybe it was the man's life being enriched, by being able to do this seemingly normal thing in life, when he might be living a life that is typically very far from normal.

Anyhow, enough on that. On to my second unexpected thought on contra dancing. I realized after the Brattleboro dance that the other people who show up to dance greatly influence my perception of a dance. Up to this point, I had kind of assumed that if you get a good enough caller and band, the dance will be awesome, no matter who shows up. But I learned that this is just not so. Last night I had the privilege of dancing to (seriously) some of the absolute best music and calling. Both were beyond amazing and beyond description with words. However, a good enough portion of the other dancers were just not particularly fun for me to dance with. It didn't even matter if I had a good partner who I enjoyed dancing with, because so much of contra involves neighbors and dancing with the whole group. It is actually kind of surprising that the musicians and caller could keep their energy going strong throughout the night. Usually the dancers and musicians and caller feed off of one another, so if the dancers don't have much energy it is hard for the musicians and caller to keep their energy.

It is still kind of mind-boggling, that if someone asked, 'how was the Brattleboro dance?', I'd have to say "the music and calling were out of this world! but the dance, it was 'meh'."

I want to be an old-world woman (who blogs)

Recently I heard the phrase "old-world woman" used on hgtv to describe how a room was being decorated. That phrase sounds so good to me. Even without knowing what that meant really, I knew I would love that style, and I decided I wanted to not just decorate in the style of old-world woman, but I wanted to actually be an old-world woman.

Lucky for you and for me, I don't have to try to describe what this means, because the hgtv website does it for us!

Not only do I strongly prefer the old world style, but I also have a deep love of contra dancing, and I am developing a new love for letterpress, and I think both of these passions help to qualify me as an old-world woman. Unfortunately, blogging about these things does not really add to the old-worldliness.

Style Tip

Last night I went to an amazingly abundant contra dance. Lately at the dances in Norwich there is a fairly constant amount of regulars and also always a handful of newcomers. Last night was a different story. There is a dance organizers conference going on in the Upper Valley this weekend, which brought over 80 dancers who dance often to the dance. Some would call them "experienced" dancers, but that term also has a lot of negative connotations, so we'll just say they were a large group of people who are quite familiar with contra dancing. There were also almost 50 high schoolers from the Mountain School who came to the dance. They have come to the Norwich dance before, and it is tons of fun to have so many people with such high energy. Most of these people would fall into the "beginners" category. Then there was also a larger-than-normal Dartmouth contingent, many of whom were at their first-ever contra dance.

Trying to call a dance for such a varied group is really an amazing feat. You need to choose dances that are easy enough for the first-timers to not get totally frustrated, but also interesting enough to keep the regulars from getting bored. Needless to say, the caller did a fantastic job. Fantastic to the point where it was announced that we were doing the last dance of the evening, and I couldn't believe that three hours had passed in what seemed like one. Last night was an incredibly fun dance, and I particularly enjoyed seeing so many people from the dances I travel to, all at my hometown dance.

However, all of that is not what I intended to focus this post on. Often callers will give "style tips" when they walk through a dance. For example, a common one is "look at the person you are balancing" because a balance is kind of like a greeting, so it is just nice to make eye contact with the person you are greeting and dancing with. There are plenty of other style tips that have been pointed out to me (and hopefully others) at the various dances I've gone to, which I find really helpful in enriching my dance experience by making me feel more connected to the other dancers. To me, a good style tip is just like a little nugget that isn't totally necessary, but if the tip is acted upon, makes the dance exponentially better.

One style tip that I have yet to hear vocalized is regarding eye contact during a do-si-do. I was lucky enough to somehow notice that sometimes during a women's do-si-do, the other woman was sometimes making these intentional moments of eye contact. So we would step into the do-si-do, twirl, make eye contact, step, twirl, make eye contact, and if there was enough time even a third time. Once I figured that little tip out, my do-si-do experience was revolutionized. Typing it doesn't make it sound like a huge deal, but it was. Just trust me. If I encounter a woman who will do this, our dance experience is totally different than when I encounter one who doesn't. The woman and I who make eye contact are dancing with each other. We are "socializing" maybe? The point of social dance is to connect with others, right? Whereas the woman who does not know this style tip is just off twirling as many times as she can, often while admiring her twirling skirt.

Sidenote: Last night after the dance I was so exhausted, and upon trying to comment on how I really liked the twirliness of my skirt which I hadn't worn before stated, "I really liked that squirrel."

So the thing that really surprised me at the dance last night was just how many women are unaware of this do-si-do style tip. The majority of women there, including those from the conference, never danced a do-si-do with me, but rather just danced around me twirling their twirly skirts. Booooorrriiing.

Don't get me wrong. I do love to twirl a twirly skirt, but I prefer to focus my social dance experience on the social aspect. It does make me wonder what other style tips I have not yet picked up on, and that no one is really vocalizing..

Ernie's Favorites

Last Sunday I was invited to go to a special contra dance. This event was called Ernie's Favorites, and it was a dance held in memory of a great dancer, who was quite well-known in the area. Unfortunately I never knew him, but fortunately this did not mean I could not go to the dance!

There was a star-studded line up of well-known dance callers and musicians. We did many of the classic dances, like Petronella and Rory O'Moore and Money Musk. I danced with the man responsible for making the Petronella spin be for four people instead of just two. That is a pretty big deal, if you didn't know.

I also got to meet the family of Ernie. His son is actually a well-known scientist in my field. And his wife was there and she was a very sweet old lady. At the dance they had about twenty matching outfits that Joan had sewn for her and Ernie for various occasions. They were auctioning them off to raise money for The Parkinson's Disease Foundation. And they were aMAZing. I told Greg that I was going to this dance and that I was planning to bid on one of these outfits for us. I saw some pictures of Ernie and Joan, and knew that the outfits should fit me and Greg perfectly. I also think that most of the people at the dance were not there to bid on outfits and also would not have fit into the outfits.

At first I bid on one nice brown set that was a dress for me and a vest for Greg. The dress had some nice lace features that I was a big fan of. But as I sat there, admiring the other outfits, I started to really really love this Arizona-themed outfit. I put a bid on it (which made me currently in the lead for two sets, woops!). Someone else outbid me on the first outfit, but I did end up winning the Arizona outfits. I was and still am So excited! And I think the family was pretty excited that I was so excited. And just like I thought, they fit us perfectly :)

Hopefully in the near future I can get a photo of us wearing them to feature on the blog!

Dancing

Dancing is an amazing amazing thing.

When I was maybe ten, I remember being invited to go to a wedding with my cousin and her family. I specifically made sure that I would not have to dance before I agreed to go. And then I got to the wedding, and my cousin and I were doing just fine, resisting all invitations to go dance. At some point, she decided to join, but I stayed sitting on the side, quite content.

But then..

These people just decided that I must be having a terrible time sitting on the side, and they pulled my chair right into the middle of the dance floor.

That was a pretty uncomfortable and unfortunately memorable thing for me. I have lived most of my life with a great aversion to dancing, in any form.

Something major happened, which changed every thought or feeling I ever had about dancing.

It was contra dancing.

A lot of people (I guess) think I'm pretty crazy with my enthusiasm for contra dancing. I will try to explain how dancing makes me so enthusiastic. Because there is really just something about contra dancing. This thing, it is something you can't fully know without actually experiencing a contra dance, but I do think it is possible to at least begin to explain with just words.

The reason I ever agreed to go to a contra dance was because I was told I would "absolutely love it" or something, but mainly because in a contra dance you are told what to do, and you don't have to invent any of your own moves. I still have an aversion to free-form dancing, like what you find at most weddings, like what my 10-year-old self found at that wedding. This was my first great discovery about contra dancing: It is possible to do a type of dance that has specific moves, without actually knowing anything, and without actually needing to take time to learn set moves.

If you have ever thought to yourself: Wow that flash mob looks so awesome, and I wish I could be a part of one some day, except that it is probably too hard, and it would take me forever to learn that dance choreography, but still, it is just SOO cool!!
If you have ever thought that to yourself, you should probably just start going contra dancing regularly.

Another major thing about contra dancing is that the community is absolutely amazing. I know of no other situation in life where people of literally all ages are interacting in healthy and happy ways. There are people who say you need some number of hugs a day. I don't know how many the number is. And I don't know who started saying this. And I don't know if there is legitimate research on this topic. But I am in total agreement that there is something about the human touch, that physical touch. I absolutely do not mean anything inappropriate. I mean holding hands with people and dancing with people, in healthy and appropriate ways. I think I first realized the connection of a need for touch to contra dancing when I read a line in a book that was something like "we all need the human touch, that physical touch." I think this is also one of the reasons why I meet so many science-types at contra dances. These types of people are often just socially awkward and don't know of any other way that is appropriate to get that human touch. So they go contra dancing. And the caller tells them "join hands in a ring and circle to the left." And then there they are, connected to these people.

Another reason I, along with other science-types, enjoy contra is due to the structure. The structured choreography of the dance sequence, the repetition of the dance, that corresponds to the repetition of the tunes. It is all quite pleasing.

And generally speaking, contra dance bands are just awesome. It is an awesome privilege to hear so many amazingly talented musicians who play for contra dances. And it is even more awesome to be given the outlet of dance to be able to fully enjoy the music.

I feel like the grinch, like I can literally feel the size of my heart swelling.

These and many more dancing thoughts have been steeping in my brain, so it was time to put them into words. I'm sure I have more to write on the topic. I'm actually curious to look back and see what I have written before.

Yellow skirts are for twirling

Hooray for a summertime contra dance! My local dance has gone on summer vacation, so now when I want to dance I must travel. Last night Greg and I made the trek down to Brattleboro for their spectacular dance. The music and calling were so spectacular.



Don't pay attention to the fact that I'm not actually doing what the other people are... despite the fact that this is supposed to be all choreographed and whatnot. Also, I might look like I'm about to smack that guy, but it is really just dancing. I promise.



That is a photo of Greg's blurred shorts and my blurred skirt in the foreground. The two gents in the background were visiting from Australia. These are my kind of people -- finding a contra dance in every place they go.