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Last night I went squaredancing. You can learn a lot about someone by how they squaredance.I remember reading a few years back about job interviews during which the interviewer would “unexpectedly” need to run an errand, and the interviewee would be asked to drive. The driving would bring out all sorts of qualities for the interviewer to observe: patience or hostility or composure. Squaredancing is like that.
For those of you who haven’t squaredanced since fourth grade gym class (and in fourth grade, squaredancing was my favorite unit in gym) a squaredance goes like this. A bunch of people show up, some in couples and some alone. There’s a kickass band with a violin and a bass at least, and there’s a caller who runs the whole thing. At the start of each dance everyone chooses a partner – traditionally not the one you came with, and a different one every time – and the caller does a quick rundown of how the dance goes. There are basic steps everyone knows like promenade, and special steps for certain dances you learn right there on the spot.
Then the music starts and you just kind of wing it. You try to listen to the caller and follow your partner and generally not knock anyone over.
Some people really don’t get the whole “partner” thing. With squaredancing you dance with lots of people and you’re friendly with them all and you look them in the eye, and all it means is that you’re dancing. But Americans aren’t generally well practiced at that. So sometimes you get a partner who is clearly trying not to look at you or touch you excessively, and who doesn’t smile too much. And it’s hard not to lean over and say to them, We’re dancing, so I’m not going to misread it if you hold my hand.
And some people are really bossy dancers. Sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not, but either way they think the goal is doing it correctly. They whisper things like Left when you step right. They watch the floor for skilled partners to ask next. They are often frustrated with the appalling level of squaredance incompetence. And I empathize with them, because this is how I was brought up. But somewhere along the line I was lucky enough to get the newsflash - Technical Mastery: Not The Actual Point.
And my favorite people to dance with, of course, are the ones who are having an unreasonably good time. They know more or less what they’re doing, but when it doesn’t go quite right they make something up. When you head in the wrong direction they put their hand just so, and suddenly you’re going the right way. When they mess up they just come find you again. And they know how to spin their partner, which is hands down the best part of squaredancing. Nervous and bossy dancers make terrible spinners. And without spinning I’m not sure why anyone would squaredance at all.
posted by tortaluga @ 10:05 AM
1 Comments:
this goes for all types of dancing. the bossy kind are the worst. even if you know a little bit about what you are doing sometimes they want so much to control what you are doing that they feel the need to MAKE you move the way you SHOULD be moving, spoiling all the fun that might be had, and making you trip over yourself in the meantime.
I went salsa dancing about a week ago, and I was sorely reminded of all the types of dancers. the ones that are having way too much fun, wether or not they can dance, the ones feeling uncomfortable, and the ones feeling way to confident, way to good to dance with THOSE people.
I love dancing. when can we go to rockin rodeo??
me
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