Contra dancing, a style of dancing that was first popular in New England in the 1700s, is experiencing a renaissance fueled in part by the energy of America’s youth.
Chelsea Moehlenbrock, a UF sophomore, has teamed up with the Gainesville Oldtime Dance Society to bring a Contra Dancing Club to UF.
The club, which will hold its first dance in the Rion Ballroom on Sunday, was created to bring a more youthful element to Gainesville’s contra community, said Moehlenbrock, the club’s founder and president. There will be an introductory workshop at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and the dance will last from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. It’s free for UF students or $5 for people under 21 and $8 for people 21 and older.
Contra dancing features a live band, two rows of dancers continually trading partners and a caller guiding the dancers through the patterns. That social atmosphere is one reason Moehlenbrock thinks the style is gaining popularity with younger generations.
Rules aren’t very rigid in contra, and neither are social standards. JoLaine Jones-Pokorney, adviser for the Contra Dancing Club and an e-Learning support specialist at UF, said that was the thing she noticed most when she went to her first contra dance 13 years ago.
She liked that there was no competitive atmosphere, no stress about being pretty enough and no stress about whether she was moving in the right way.
“We’re here to have fun,” Jones-Pokorney said, “and if you’re smiling, then you’re doing it right.”
