On February 17th to 19th, a group of contra dancers from across North America gathered in Corvallis, Oregon to dance to Elixer and Countercurrent. I was one of them.

The magic of dance weekends.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, dance weekends were one of the most important parts of my social fabric.

Why? In isolated areas of North America, contra dance can sometimes feel like a very small (and sometimes a bit inbred) community. You dance with the same people week after week, and it can be easy to forget that contra dance is a giant community that spans from coast to coast of North America, full of dancers of many ages, races, and genders.

Dance weekends are the perfect antidote to this feeling. To attend a dance weekend, dancers will squeeze into small cars with near strangers and drive unreasonable distances. When they get to the weekend, they might have many friends or they might be a stranger. In either case, by the end of the weekend, they will have a whole group of new friends.

Corvallis Contra Weekend

During reading break, I drove with two of my best friends down to Corvallis, Oregon to dance at the Corvallis Contra Weekend. This was my first contra weekend since the pandemic and I was so excited. Two of my favorite bands, Elixir and Countercurrent, were playing the dance, and I was excited to meet and dance with some of the best dancers on the West Coast.

Although I hardly knew any other dancers at the weekend, I quickly got to know a few of the local callers and younger dancers.

Dancing to Elixir at Corvallis Contra Dance Weekend. I meant to take more videos, but I found that I didn’t want to miss a single dance!

Lessons From Corvallis

At Corvallis, I had the chance to connect with lots of contra dancers and callers from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From all of my conversations with them, I came away with a few lessons about the PNW contra community.

  • There are more dance weekends, dances, bands, and dancers on the West Coast than I thought!
  • It is so helpful to dance with dancers who are much better than me. I need to seek out opportunities to go to challenging dances whenever I can.
  • It is quite easy to tell whether experienced callers are interested in mentoring/ supporting beginning callers or not. Many are!
  • If you want to practice anti-racist and gender-free calling, you need to take that int account as you choose mentors.
  • Being on an island makes learning to call more tough because there are not many gigs on an island.
  • People at contra weekends are unbelievably generous. They will help you find somewhere to stay if you need it.

Gotta keep your strength up when you are dancing for a whole weekend!