Every May, hundreds of dancers converge on Prescott, AZ for a dance weekend that is called May Madness. At May Madness, hundreds of spirited and energized people came together to dance the weekend away. The dancing begins on Friday evening and continues almost non-stop until late Sunday afternoon. So, where is Prescott Arizona, why have a dance there, and what the heck is Contra Dancing?
On May 12th a couple of my friends and I drove to Prescott, AZ to attend an annual Contra Dance weekend called May Madness. No one can appreciate the energy and vibrancy that fills a large hall, until he or she has been to a Contra Dance weekend. Similar dance weekends happen all over the country. Each venue is scheduled at the same time each year so that dancers, callers, and bands can follow the circuit. It is dancing in a relaxed atmosphere with active, friendly people of all ages. In the west, there is, on average, one large contra weekend per month. If one had the time and the stamina the circuit could be followed with dancing to exhaustion at each venue.
Denver is called the Mile High City, but at a little over 5200 feet above sea level, Prescott is another mile high city. When you look at a map, it is nestled in the mountains south of Flagstaff and north of Phoenix at almost the exact center of the state. When Arizona was a territory, Prescott was the capital. Although, the capital was later moved to Phoenix, it remains the County seat. People usually equate Arizona with an arid climate, soaring temperatures, and a desert landscape. However, Prescott does not fit that mold. True, like most of the western states, it does not get much precipitation, but the climate could be classified as mild. In the summer the average high temperature is in the upper 80’s and in the winter, the temperature rarely is below freezing. Granted, it is in the mountains, and they do get snow, but it usually melts the same day or within a day or two. Prescott has three lakes nearby: Goldwater, Watson, and Willow. There are golf courses, parks, museums, campgrounds, and nature trails. It has become a Mecca for retirees. Prescott is proud of its “wild west” heritage that it exhibits in its “Whiskey Row” (a row of saloons that are across the street from the Courthouse, its many Victorian era houses, and antique shops.
Believe it or not, Contra Dancing has been around for at least 300 years. If you saw the movies “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility,” or Emma” you saw actors performing English Country Dancing (ECD). Contra is an American version of ECD. But before I can explain Contra, the reader needs to know a little bit about ECD. It utilizes grace and elegance. There are literary references to ECD as early as the 1400’s. ECD was popular in all levels of society and was shared with the rest of Europe. The French elevated it to the Aristocracy and utilized livelier music than the English had used. In 1710, Feuillet, published “Recuile de Contredanse” which provided instruction about ECD footwork in French. In addition, Beethoven and Mozart wrote music for “Country Dance” which is still played today.
In ECD the dances are usually written to go with specific tunes, so each time a tune is played the dancers perform exactly the same dance steps, over and over. There is variety in meter; some dances are in waltz time, polka time, minuet time, as well as other options. The tempo varies from dance to dance. The dancer is encouraged to "dance to the phrase of the music," starting and finishing figures when the music says to do it. ECD utilizes old ballads, folk tunes, stage music and even classical music. ECD is considered a “proper” dance because the partners are usually across from each other with the males in one line and the females in another line. ECD commonly uses a wide variety of figures. Two hand turns are more frequent than partner swings -- although in England, partner swings are used. There's a lot more emphasis on eye contact than on physical contact, which makes flirting a bit subtler, but just as much fun. Even though, ECD still exists in Europe and North America, Contra could be called it rambunctious offspring.
Contradance was brought to North America with the European settlers and quickly evolved into the Contra Dancing we know today. Some people call it New England Contra Dancing, but it is still the same. There are two schools of thought about how Contra Dancing got its name. Some think it is a French mispronunciation of “Country” while others believe it is because the dance is performed in two opposing lines (contrary lines or aux contraire). Contra dancing is livelier than its English relative.
As with ECD, Contra dancing is performed with couples facing other couples in long lines, or sets. Each dance consists of a sequence of moves that ends with couples having progressed one position up or down the set. The sequence repeats, and couples go on to dance with other couples in the line. Since the music is livelier than ECD an additional benefit is that contra dancing has the benefit of being an aerobic workout.
As in ECD, Contra Dances are usually performed with partners across from each other in long lines. ECD use this formation, but unlike Contra also utilize three, four, and five couple set dances, some in circles, squares, or other formations. Colin Hume says that the “US uses a much higher percentage of long-ways dances than the UK.” I guess that is what makes it uniquely North American. Another difference is that all Contra dances have a caller. Oftentimes when people hear “called” they think that it means square dancing. However, that is not the case. Some people contend that Square Dancing is the third generation with ECD being the parent, Contra Dancing being the child and Square Dancing being the grandchild.
Unlike ECD, the moves in Contra are not memorized and associated with a particular piece of music. The moves are “called” and danced in time with the music being played. People frequently say that if you can walk in time to the music, you can do Contra. Each dance is designed with 8, 12, or 16 beats to a movement with a series of movements that are repeated frequently during the dance. Dances are usually done, to medleys of jigs and reels, chosen by the band. Tempos are usually consistently fast throughout the evening (about 120 beats per minute). The caller selects the moves that will go with a particular piece of music. The moves in all three styles have similar names that go back to their English roots with many having French names. The caller determines how long the dance continues. If the line is short, the caller may allow the first couple to progress all the way down the line and back up the line before ending the dance. The tradition is to change partners at the end of every dance.
To see what Contra Dance looks & sounds like follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr5tZ6jeYXs Now that we know what it is, it is time to explain who is doing Contra Dance. Whenever I have been at a dance weekend I see small children and I see seniors with every age in between. There is no alcohol allowed at dances so families feel comfortable having their children around. Some of the best dancers have been doing Contra all of their lives. A contra Dance weekend is an opportunity to meet new people and see faces that you have not seen since you were at the last dance weekend. Almost every large community has a folk dance and/or Contra dance community. If you Google search “Contra Dance” you get too many choices, well over 100 choices. The search has to be refined by adding your city/town. Here are a few of the choices that I found:
The park is located in the southwestern corner of Utah. We entered Zion from the south, taking Interstate 15 exit 16 to Hurricane and then following the directional signs. There is another entrance: The Kolob Canyons Road at Exit 40 but due to the lack of time, we did not visit that particular part of the park. Maybe we can go there the next time we visit. Everyone we talked to about visiting Utah this late in June was not the time to visit Utah. They said it would be too hot, but we found that the temperatures were in the mid 70’s the entire time we were in the area, so we lucked out. The Rangers indicated that they had an abnormal amount of snow this past winter so the late thaw was keeping the temperatures milder than usual.
We chose to take the approximately 40 minute tram ride. The views are spectacular! As we wound our way down the scenic drive, we noticed people walking along the tops of the canyon walls. Our tram driver indicated that there were numerous trails that could be climbed and or accessed from the North entrance. It is important that hikers are aware of the indigenous wildlife, such as mountain lions and rattle snakes, in the area.
