Another foray into dancing with straight folks. James had noticed a listing in Showcase for a "Barn Dance" at Asbury Woods Barn for tonight. We figured that we would give it a whirl. It seemed quiet when we first got there, and I was worried that we might have the wrong place. Since we were already there, we walked up to the second floor into what looked like a rural version of a dance studio. (Wood beams, mirrors on the walls.) I briefly visualized Baryshnikov in overalls or something. Upon seeing that the band consisted of 2 fiddle players, a mandolin and an electric accordion, I momentarily made a chain of square dance/rustic instruments=not gay-friendly=was this a bad idea??
I should have taken my own advice and not even assumed anything. The dance teacher noted that that if some were dancing in a same sex couple, that we should work out who would take the men's part/lead, and who would follow. It turned out not to be technically square dance, but contra dancing, which is a slightly later descendant of English Country Dance that I knew and loved in SCA. I spent much of the evening basically thinking things like "Hmm, circular hey, was that Hit and Miss we did that in?" and "mutant sort of Strip the Willow" or "variation on Sellinger's Round" so very happy to do that. (And not need to have felt guilty about skimping on exercising earlier in the day, because we got a work out.
Everyone was nice, and one woman who was there with what might have been a son or brother with what looked like it could have been Down's Syndrome made a point of coming over to say Hi to James and myself. Even though the guys probably hadn't danced much with other guys, none seemed to have a problem dancing with James. (I ended up leading, which is what I usually do.)
At one point, we were in a line of couple with half the couples facing down the hall, intermixed with the other half facing up with genders alternating, rather than a line of men on one side with women on the other. The dance instructor referred to this as "improper couples", which I oddly remembered from the SCA dances. She noted that we very briefly started out proper but "that once you become improper, you don't go back" I rolled out my best Harvey Feirstein rasp and said, "honey, can * I * sing a few bars of that." It got a laugh.
Most of the dances were for couple or groups of couples. However, one dance was for groups of threes. (As jokes about doing threesomes ran in the back of my head. Down boy!) The mix of genders didn't matter for this dance, and I noticed that James and I were not the only all male group, and again, no one particularly had a problem.
The teacher was very good at being fluid and trying stuff. At one point, she was leading us in kind of a line with snaking line across the dance. She probably doesn't know anything about Pagan stuff, but James and I smiled at each other, because it was basically a Spiral Dance as has been done in circles. I was careful not to slip in a "Blessed Be!" at the end.
So, who says you can only dance with another guy at a gay bar??? We've danced in not-particularly-gay surroundings in 2 locations/styles this week, plus the mall earlier. "Live, live, live! Life is a banquet and most poor SOB's are STARVING to death!"
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