What is Contra dancing, and what can I expect if I am expected to addend one?
Good primer here, I used to attend dances here.
Contra dancing is group dancing…The dancers are grouped into sets, starting out in two lines that face each other. There is a caller, it’s pretty easy to pick up the basics. Each couple will move from one group to another as the music progresses.
The name comes from a French “bastardization” of the English “country” dance.
So, is it fun? Is it pretty much accepted and expected that I will look like a doofus?
I had a girlfriend at one point who was into contra dancing. She described it, and the people she knew who did it, in a fair amount of detail. I concluded that it was basically “square-dancing for hippies,” and said so. She wasn’t amused. Heh…
:eek: Great.
I dunno – contra dancing at least has * rules *, so it’s not as stupid as dancing was when I was in school which was merely going out on the dance floor and sort of waving your arms around randomly.
Yeah, it’s a form of line dancing, but then again, that encompasses a whole lot of traditions extending from square dancing up to rather formal English or Scottish Country dance. Contra dancing can actually be a lot of fun – it’s very energetic and, although the dances are seldom as complex as ECD, you do have to learn the patterns on the fly which is at least somewhat challenging. Basically, the dances are composed of standard moves such as the dosie-do (back to back with some gratituous twirls thrown in), heys, and swings.
People are usually friendly, and if you feel as though you look like a doofus, well, everyone else in the room is doing the same thing. The only downside (and for me, a significant one) is that it’s very spin intensive. So if you tend to get motion sick, it’s not necessarily a great entertainment choice.
If you do go contradancing, dress for an energetic activity – you’re going to get pretty hot by the time the evening is over, so consider layering with a short sleeve shirt.
Contra dancing is really fun, and I say this as a klutz. I’ve done it a few times.
The basic steps are called out as you dance, but I’m not going to lie, there’s definitely an element of baptism by fire. 
At every dance I’ve been to, though, those who know what they’re doing will try the best they can to help you find your way, and even when I’ve been paired with a partner just as clueless as myself, and we’ve somehow managed to compromise the fluidity of the entire line, some smart fellow dancers magically worked the kinks out.
You’ll have fun.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, Start.
I came here just to make this very same joke. 
Damn you old man!
Contra dancing is wicked fun! I go almost every weekend. Just relax and have a good time. The tradition is to dance with lots of different partners, which is a good way for a newcomer to learn, anyhow. There can be a lot of spinning, but it is possible to “negotiate” this down by how you interact with the person your dancing with at the moment. The important thing is to look at the other persons eyes, not the room. Flirtation is more or less part of the game, so eye contact is always good.
Other dancers will cheerfully help you out, but I encourage you to dance with an experienced partner the first few times if you can. At the very least, avoid dancing with a neophyte partner right next to another beginning couple who will be unable to help you if you get off track.
Each dance consists of several repetitions of a series of moves, each of which is very similar to square dance moves. (Square dancing is thought to be an offshoot of contra dancing.) You will do these moves with your partner or with people nearby in the dance line. At the end of each repetition, you and your partner will have moved up or down the line to dance the next repetition with new neighbors. This is what makes it so social – you dance with everybody. Generally (and always for the first several dances of the evening), there is a walkthrough of the dance sequence without music to teach the dance. Once the music begins and the dance starts in earnest, the caller will continue to call each move. Usually, after a few repetitions of the sequence everything is going smoothly and the caller stops calling, but a good caller will resume calling if it looks like people are getting lost.
Actually, I think people making small mistakes but getting back in sync adds to the fun because everyone is so goodnatured about it. Even experienced dancers will get confused, especially later in the dance when the caller hasn’t been calling for a while. For me, I often fall into a sequence from another dance and need a little nudge to remind me how the present dance goes.
So, it’s like a giant* Dance Dance Revolution*?
I think we all did. : sigh :
DAMN IT! :smack:
Seriously though, Binary I hope you have fun if you go!
I had never heard of it before this thread. Ignorance conquered!
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I’m a contra dancer, and I don’t get this joke. Am I just a doofus? Help?
Binarydrone, go contra dancing. You’ll have fun, although I second the “element of baptism by fire” comment. If you get tired of dancing, the music is usually very good (old-time string band stuff), especially if it’s live.
Most contra dances are based on a set of two couples (the “top” couple and the “bottom” couple). Several of these units are chained together to form a pair of long lines. After a series of moves, one couple moves toward one end of the pair of lines, the other couple moves toward the other end of the line (in a well-constructed dance, this just sort of happens, you’re not really aware of the progression). In many dances, the top and bottom couples execute the same movements, but in some dances each couple executes very different movements. This is important, because when a top couple gets to the end of the line they become a bottom couple (and vice versa). For your first couple of dances, try to start at the end of the line. With any luck, the dance will end before you get to the other end and have to turn around. That’s the part where I always get confused.
Wear comfortable shoes with clean soles that have a little stickiness to them, but not too much.
There is an old Nintendo game called Contra. The “up, up, down, down, etc.” is a code which gave extra lives. Screenshots.