Countercurrent Contra!
Mar. 26th, 2023 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressTonight was _stellar_.
I didn't necessarily expect it to be. But the dances for demo team are coming along pretty well and I had a nice time there. Dancing with my dance-sis1 is often a really good experience, and tonight felt really good...of course, part of what felt so stunning there was the bit of Village Reel, a dance we have done together literally hundreds of times for candidate class.
Then I went straight from demo team to BIDA! I started by sitting on the steps outside and eating a granola bar, since I know myself, and I know that while I can and often do enjoy contra dancing, I also sometimes get too snobbish for it and have less fun than I would if I could more easily turn off some of the more precision-oriented bits of my brain and just vibe. Eating beforehand will _definitely_ move the needle away from "grouch"2 and back towards "enjoyable dance friend". Eating a granola bar on the steps of BIDA means apparently quickly chatting with three different friendly acquaintances. Good shit!
I finished my food and went in to dance! And the dance...oh man! The band we had was called Countercurrent and _holy shit_. I am incredibly charmed to have looked up their website and found a blurb saying "How does so much music come from just two people?!” because I pretty much said exactly that somewhere in my second dance through.
I like dancing because I like moving, and the ways in which I can dance require pretty much any kind of music, including none at all. But it is a truth universally recognized that the better the music gets, the easier it gets. And this band was absolutely in the category of better. So I was set up already to have a very good time of things (from community and friends and loved ones) and then and then _and then_ it was just absolutely knocked out of the park by a caller who knew what he was doing, calling dances well that were interesting and fun, and accompanied by a band that repeatedly distracted me away from just dancing because they were _so good_ to listen to.
I am pleased to be trying to fit BIDA in on some Sundays after demo team, even if that does make for quite a lot of dancing. I know not every week will be this good, but I am so happy to have gotten this energy and joy to take me through this next week of work. I hope you are also finding things to make you happy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: For the first round of candidte class, the five of us decided we were siblings. So I have three dance -sisters and a dance brother. They're good people and I love them!
2: A (male) friend of mine was talking about a contra behavior that made him "grouchy" and while talking further I said something about my own responses to the same behavior being "bitchy" and I realized that that's a cruel word for many reasons. But actually, I think grouchy is absolutely the word I mean a lot of the time when I say I'm feeling bitchy, and so I'm gonna try and get serious about dropping the b-word from my vocabulary, because sluring women is kinda not cool and I shouldn't get away with it just because I caucus with them sometimes.
I didn't necessarily expect it to be. But the dances for demo team are coming along pretty well and I had a nice time there. Dancing with my dance-sis1 is often a really good experience, and tonight felt really good...of course, part of what felt so stunning there was the bit of Village Reel, a dance we have done together literally hundreds of times for candidate class.
Then I went straight from demo team to BIDA! I started by sitting on the steps outside and eating a granola bar, since I know myself, and I know that while I can and often do enjoy contra dancing, I also sometimes get too snobbish for it and have less fun than I would if I could more easily turn off some of the more precision-oriented bits of my brain and just vibe. Eating beforehand will _definitely_ move the needle away from "grouch"2 and back towards "enjoyable dance friend". Eating a granola bar on the steps of BIDA means apparently quickly chatting with three different friendly acquaintances. Good shit!
I finished my food and went in to dance! And the dance...oh man! The band we had was called Countercurrent and _holy shit_. I am incredibly charmed to have looked up their website and found a blurb saying "How does so much music come from just two people?!” because I pretty much said exactly that somewhere in my second dance through.
I like dancing because I like moving, and the ways in which I can dance require pretty much any kind of music, including none at all. But it is a truth universally recognized that the better the music gets, the easier it gets. And this band was absolutely in the category of better. So I was set up already to have a very good time of things (from community and friends and loved ones) and then and then _and then_ it was just absolutely knocked out of the park by a caller who knew what he was doing, calling dances well that were interesting and fun, and accompanied by a band that repeatedly distracted me away from just dancing because they were _so good_ to listen to.
I am pleased to be trying to fit BIDA in on some Sundays after demo team, even if that does make for quite a lot of dancing. I know not every week will be this good, but I am so happy to have gotten this energy and joy to take me through this next week of work. I hope you are also finding things to make you happy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: For the first round of candidte class, the five of us decided we were siblings. So I have three dance -sisters and a dance brother. They're good people and I love them!
2: A (male) friend of mine was talking about a contra behavior that made him "grouchy" and while talking further I said something about my own responses to the same behavior being "bitchy" and I realized that that's a cruel word for many reasons. But actually, I think grouchy is absolutely the word I mean a lot of the time when I say I'm feeling bitchy, and so I'm gonna try and get serious about dropping the b-word from my vocabulary, because sluring women is kinda not cool and I shouldn't get away with it just because I caucus with them sometimes.
no subject
on 2023-03-27 09:35 pm (UTC)