It kind of escapes me how I grew up in Western North Carolina, had friends that contra danced, went through varying phases of being a hippie, and never once contra danced. Until today.
Something about dancing with a bunch of people I don’t know made me uncomfortable. Especially going when you don’t already have a built-in partner. I was one of the only ones in our crew going without a date. But I got over the new friends part, and dancing with strangers part, fast. The only thing I didn’t get over was all of the required eye contact. I just took being dizzy instead. I don’t make eye contact very often in everyday conversation (not dishonest; that’s just a strong suit of mine); so I wasn’t overtly excited about lots of eye contact with men I didn’t know while they twirl me all over the place.
A few hours later though, I was super happy I tried it and felt decently OK about how I did. I only stepped on one person’s toes and none of my partners left me mid dance. So I call that a victory.
Not to mention, all of the fun, celebration and fundraising was in support of one of the best reasons I can think of: our dear friend Charlie Cook.
actually on the line 