fun in the backwoods

we had quite a fun weekend, particularly last night. our friend emily, who we know from the bsu at georgia tech, called this week to see if chris & i wanted to get together this weekend. she is interning in greenville for the summer, and her boyfriend jordan (also one of our good friends) was visiting for the weekend. the four of us had dinner at monterrey's on friday & hung out afterwards at our apt. then saturday emily invited us to a dance that she heard about through her friend who is a recent graduate of furman. when we agreed to go, all we knew was that the dance style was contra which is a blend of swing, line, and square dancing.

we met jordan & emily for dinner at olive garden and then met emily's friend at furman to follow him to the dance. i assumed it would be similar to some swing dances we used to go to in the ballroom at the georgia tech student center. typically, there would be a lesson beforehand for beginners followed by a dance with some sort of jazz/big band combo playing. even though chris & i are not the most avid of dancers, we always enjoy live music. plus, chris is totally free to dance like the white guy that he is when the style of music involves line dancing!

anyway, we followed emily's friend out past traveler's rest (a sleepy little highway town north of greenville), until we were on a windy two-lane road going up a mountain in the middle of NOWHERE. after what seemed like forever i was thoroughly lost, and we arrived at what appeared to be a barn: our destination. i was pretty skeptical (read: scared), particularly when emily's friend told us that according to barn dance etiquette we couldn't turn anybody down who invited us to dance with them. i was imagining creepy older men loitering at the periphery, ready to pounce the moment a girl took a break (probably because this was the scenario at the gt swing dances!).


so we get inside (i use the term loosely because it was really just a roof & walls with no air conditioning), and there's the band - complete with fiddle and announcer calling out steps (think "swing your partner round and round"). we missed most of the lesson, but fortunately contra (which i would say is heavier on the line & square styles) involves repeating the same patterns over and over as you move down a whole line of people facing each other. basically, you move with your partner down the line but do-si-do & swing with other dancers along the way. this partner switching was actually a good thing, because i discovered that the more "mountainy" the man looked the better he could show me what i was supposed to be doing. i have to admit, i had a pretty excellent time but felt like a city girl out of her element. as jordan put it, "this is fun and i hate it, all at the same time!" i got a pretty decent workout, from all the movement and probably from so much laughing, too. i only wish we had brought our cameras (the picture is from their website - yes they have a website!). i don't think we'll make this a regular outing, but chris & i are are definitely thinking about going back sometime. now if you come visit us in greenville, we know where we can show you a good time!