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First Folk Dance of the Year!
June 23rd, 2005 11:13 amLast night was wonderful -- I went folk dancing at the weekly dance on the wooden platform in the park, under the stars. Summer is definitely here! During the year it's just harder to get out -- I feel responsible for being there while Kidlet is diligently doing homework, or else (it being on Wednesday nights), we're all watching Lost and Alias.
It was fun to see old friends and make new ones. My BF and I get rather silly with our dancing (because we are such old-timers and so experienced and cheeky because we're good at it) -- pretending to tango during the Greek line dances, etc. Wonder what the newbies must think? The oldsters are well used to it by now.
We close every dance night -- in fact, folk dance gatherings *everywhere* close with it -- with the folk dancers' version of "Good Night Irene", a lesnoto medley wherein we dance in a circle with joined hands. I know the song so well I hum along (it's in some unpronounceable Balkan language, so of course I don't know the words!), and look across the circle at all the familiar faces, and smile a lot, and last night I felt the strongest rush of affection and nostalgia as I realized that I've danced with most of these people for 30 years, off and on. Thirty years! There were Ricky and Rob, who have barely changed; David and Kathy, who brought their two small daughters to the Old Gym on Friday nights in the 70s when there were 200+ dancers and let them sleep on piled-up blankets while they danced -- one of their daughters dances with us now and plays in the new make-shift band. Luis, the Mexican goat farmer who somehow tuned into Balkan music and dancing and has aged through the years with us -- the last birthday we celebrated for him was, I think, his 75th, and that was several years. Bob and Doris, ranchers from the valley who have moved to town and are going to open an ethnic restaurant soon -- maybe with dancing? Bruno, a few years older than me and still one of the show-off guy dancers who do the hard-stomping, fast-footwork, sexy macho dancing -- yes, that's true! Macho folk dancing is *not* a contradiction in terms! Jana, of Central European heritage herself and with much experience in professional folk dance groups, dancing with stateliness and *correctness* (and a little too slowly for me). My BF, a whirlwind of enthusiasm and grace and energy.
*Happy sigh* A colorful group, yes?
It was fun to see old friends and make new ones. My BF and I get rather silly with our dancing (because we are such old-timers and so experienced and cheeky because we're good at it) -- pretending to tango during the Greek line dances, etc. Wonder what the newbies must think? The oldsters are well used to it by now.
We close every dance night -- in fact, folk dance gatherings *everywhere* close with it -- with the folk dancers' version of "Good Night Irene", a lesnoto medley wherein we dance in a circle with joined hands. I know the song so well I hum along (it's in some unpronounceable Balkan language, so of course I don't know the words!), and look across the circle at all the familiar faces, and smile a lot, and last night I felt the strongest rush of affection and nostalgia as I realized that I've danced with most of these people for 30 years, off and on. Thirty years! There were Ricky and Rob, who have barely changed; David and Kathy, who brought their two small daughters to the Old Gym on Friday nights in the 70s when there were 200+ dancers and let them sleep on piled-up blankets while they danced -- one of their daughters dances with us now and plays in the new make-shift band. Luis, the Mexican goat farmer who somehow tuned into Balkan music and dancing and has aged through the years with us -- the last birthday we celebrated for him was, I think, his 75th, and that was several years. Bob and Doris, ranchers from the valley who have moved to town and are going to open an ethnic restaurant soon -- maybe with dancing? Bruno, a few years older than me and still one of the show-off guy dancers who do the hard-stomping, fast-footwork, sexy macho dancing -- yes, that's true! Macho folk dancing is *not* a contradiction in terms! Jana, of Central European heritage herself and with much experience in professional folk dance groups, dancing with stateliness and *correctness* (and a little too slowly for me). My BF, a whirlwind of enthusiasm and grace and energy.
*Happy sigh* A colorful group, yes?
