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by LAURA TABOR
Lifestyles Reporter
Two lines of people advance toward each other on a dance floor, holding hands and stepping in beat to the old-time local music.
When the two lines meet in the middle, everyone stomps in unison, and the traditional timber structure of the Apple Barn shakes with the energy of the contra dancing crowd.
“It is the most
joyful dancing experience I’ve ever witnessed,” senior psychology major
Courtney M. Stiles said. “It is an entire community. I know people all
over the state just from contra dancing. We know each other on a
different level because we’ve moved together.”
She said the community of contra dancing is non-judgmental, accepting and a great recreation.
While
many types of dancing are performed to pre-recorded music, contra is
unique because it is done to live music, traditionally in the old-time
style.
“You have an interpersonal connection with the band,” Stiles said. “They feed off your energy and you feed off of theirs.”
It is
also a community dance, and every one from children to senior citizens
participates, lending an atmosphere that can be rare on a college
campus.
Contra
dances are held all around the High Country, but Boone Country Dancers
hold monthly dances at the Apple Barn in Valle Crucis.
The Old Cove Creek School also holds monthly dances.
The modern manifestation of contra dancing is a mixture of different traditions.
“[Contra
dancing] is derivative of the dancing done in the countryside of
England and France in the past few hundred years,” Warren E. Doyle
said. “It came over to New England, and has migrated down to the
Appalachian mountains.”
Doyle, a
caller for contra dances who has been dancing since the 1970s, is a
professor of elementary education and Appalachian studies at Lees-McRae
College.
While contra dancing has become quite the tradition in the region, it is not technically Appalachian dancing.
Some dance purists prefer square dancing and flatfooting, native dances of the region.
Quite often contra dancing is combined with these Appalachian dances and other dances like waltz and swing.
“The spirit of contra dancing is the same community spirit as that of the Appalachian tradition,” Doyle said.
Connie
E. Carringer is a community counseling graduate student and chair of
the Appalachian Popular Programming Society’s Appalachian Heritage
Council.
She had danced before, but it became a passion when she was working at the John C. Campbell Folk School, near Murphy.
“I
literally lived above a dance floor,” Carringer said. “I started
dancing once or twice a week and playing in contra dance bands.”
Carringer
said contra dancing got its name from the root of “contra,” which means
“across,” because you spend much of the dance across from a partner.
Rebecca
B. Jones, a senior communications major, became involved with contra
dancing after hearing about it in an Appalachian music class.
“It’s an
event where you can come together and join others who love to do this
kind of dancing. It’s like no other experience,” Jones said. “A lot of
people call it an amusement ride you create for yourself.”
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