Dreaming of contra dancing

Somewhere. Somewhen.

When I started writing this little essay, I meant it to be a story about my first time contra dancing in more than a year. Then my calendar started changing. Life got darker. My return to contra dancing crept further and further away. Now … I don’t know when I will return to contra dancing. Firm dates on the calendar have slowly receded into uncertainty.

Where I started contra dancing: Appalachian State University. Specifically, a venue called “Legends,” highlighted lower left in the above photo. (Source.)

I started contra dancing when I was a student at Appalachian State, up in the mountains of North Carolina. Before that, I’d tried swing dancing. The swing club at the time was small, cliquey, rife with interpersonal drama, unfriendly to most newcomers, and danced to canned music in the corner of a gym. Most of the more involved members were more interested in training stunts for competition than dancing socially. The contra dances were large events with live music and friendly fun-loving people.

Later on, I contra danced living in the mountains of Virginia; when I moved north to Ohio; and when I moved back down to North Carolina. I danced whether I was single or had a girlfriend; I danced whether I was happy or sad. I danced in the cold and the hot. I even went to faraway dances and danced for whole weekends, sleeping in a tent or a hotel room or a hammock.