Dance, and dance, and dance

[fivemack]

Would anyone be interested in going to a contra dance in Cambridge on Saturday evening? It's at the Emmanuel URC on Trumpington Street, 8-11pm; it's like a ceilidh (so there's a caller, you change partner after each dance, and the music is fiddle and bass), only faster, twirlier and more American.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I might go along depending, I went to one before.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Contra is the best thing in the world. You should go.

[tea-cantata.livejournal.com]

That sounds fantastic. If I'm not dead or whatnot at that point, I think I might. How much are tickets? Who's putting it on?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It's £8 or £5 for students, it's organized by the Cambridge contra-dancing mafia (which has many members in common with the Cambridge any-other-kind-of-dancing mafia) and the band is http://www.stickshiftcontra.com/

[angoel.livejournal.com]

There is a possibility of my going, but I'd need to work out whether it was possible for me to crash somewhere thereafter.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I don't think we can get to dances in Cambridge (though Stick Shift Contra are playing Cecil Sharp House next month) but this is just a post to say that if Andrew Swaine is involved (and I can't see how he wouldn't be) he really is the finest caller of his generation and is becoming awesome.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Yes, Andrew's calling, and he is indeed excellent.

[simont]

Curiously, I just this moment received an internal work email which had someone called Andrew Swaine on the recipient list. I wonder if it's the same one.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It is definitely the same one; I know he works for your employer.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

He called my wedding ceilidh :-)

[simont]

For some reason I mentally pronounced this as "He called my wedding silly", and was briefly tempted by "Well, it was" as a response ;-)

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

FWIW, that's the first reference to contra dancing in this country I've yet seen; it took me some time to make the contra dancing - ceilidh connection based purely on mentions I'd seen in the US. (Not to say that it should have taken me any longer than, ooh, one Wikipedia article.)