Residents teach and learn contra dancing

From the quiet Hunter Avenue sidewalk you can sometimes hear the gentle twang of a fiddle or a banjo floating through the air on a Wednesday evening. 

Once a week, Bloomington Old-Time Music and Dance Group sponsors a contra dancing event with live music in the Harmony School gym on East Second Street, parallel to Hunter Avenue.

Contra dancing is a type of folk dance similar to square dancing, but it is done in lines in a large group rather than with a few people.

“It’s a great social dance,” said Stan Curts, Bloomington Old-Time Music and Dance Group member. “In the course of one song you get to dance with everyone.”

Inside the gym, dancers trickled in throughout the night. Beginners often arrive right at 8 p.m. to learn the basics with Ken Gall, who has been contra dancing for 20 years. Regular dancers often join in later.

“There’s certainly a regular crowd, but there’s also a rotating crowd of new members,” Curts said. 

While the events are mostly made up of older dancers, a few IU students have discovered the experience. IU freshman Adam Nichols has been coming to contra dancing nights every week with a friend since the beginning of July.

“Every Wednesday it’s a nice break to remember, we’re not doing homework, we’re going to contra,” Nichols said. 

Every week there is live music played by local Bloomington music groups. Often the groups feature fiddles or banjos, but sometimes there will be an accordionist. They play jigs, reels and old-time Appalachian music, Gall said. 

It is not difficult to learn the dance moves, Curts said, because there is a caller who stands on stage with a microphone announcing the next step in each dance.

Even if a dancer messes up a step during the sequence, no one cares because it’s all just a chance to have fun, said Jerry Reynolds, who has been to the dances three times. 

“If you make a mistake, don’t ever say sorry,” one dancer said as the twangs of the fiddle began for the first song. “Just keep dancing.”