Becca Molaro prances in a circle at the Family Dance, holding hands with an adult on each side and gazing way up to their approving faces. A few moves later, as the live band strikes an up-tempo Celtic frenzy, she surges onward to explore the next people.
Becca, who turns 6 in May, has contra danced since she was two weeks old—going along for the ride in her mother Beth’s papoose. Since age 2, she’s danced on her own.
She is, by nearly a decade, the youngest participant in the area’s regular contra dances. She also enjoys the monthly Family Dance that introduces children and beginning adults to mountain dancing—including contra’s more basic square-dancing moves. Set dance formations are in circles, squares, “scatter mixes,” plus basic contra. (In contra’s subsets of four, a couple does a sequence of square-dance moves together and with another couple, then rotates to other couples along parallel lines.)
Local dad Richard Hudspeth bravely admits: “Usually the only thing we do together as a family is to watch TV. Here, everybody participates.” As Noah Selig, 9, notes: “It’s fun, and people like Mom get their exercise.”
In its fourth season, Family Dance is anchored by regular families and a growing sense of community (there’s a potluck meal, and parents take turns watching children in the side room), says Diane Silver, the event’s founder and main caller.
“People know each other. The trust and comfort level is there. There’s a friendly, no-pressure atmosphere.”
In Family Dance numbers, partners swing as equals, rather than as leader and follower. That lessens “boy-girl dynamics,” as Silver puts it. Youngest children typically dance with their parents, then with same-sex friends. Boys and girls gradually acclimate to each other socially through such dances; Noah says he felt “kinda nervous” the first time he held a girl’s hands while dancing.
Not now. He’s danced for three years.
He is also among the young soccer players who appreciate the dance’s athletic challenges. As Silver notes, it develops motor skills. Noah also likes trickier-patterned moves, such as “serpentine hay” or the well-known do-si-do.
Rachel Laity, 10, says it’s “amazing how everyone can coordinate” to keep the dance flowing. Basic moves include shaking hands, then pulling by the person across from you, four people circling with hands joined in a “star,” and an “allemande” hand-grasped turn.
To give weight for swinging or circling, dancers lean back slightly for merry-go-round centrifugal force. It’s deja vu to early frolic, says Silver.
“Just think when you’re 5 on the playground—lean back, and whirl each other around.”
[Freelancer Pete Zamplas lives in Henderson County, and has contra danced for seven years.]
The monthly Family Dance concludes its season Saturday, April 14 and Saturday, May 19. Admission is $5/adults, $3/youth 2-16—or $15 per family. Dances run 6-7:30 p.m. in the Calvary Episcopal Church hall in Fletcher, near Ingles. Call Diane Silver at 298-7084 or check www.diane-silver.com/familydance.html for more info.
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