On 8/10/2011 8:11 PM, Greg McKenzie wrote:
John wrote:
that the term is not well defined and is used by anyone running a dance
to mean what they want it to mean, just like the terms "barn dance",
"ceilidh" and even "square dance" are used over here.
It is certainly true that the meanings of these terms tend to "drift" quite
a bit. That is inevitable and probably a good thing...though I do find it
odd that "barn dances" are seldom held in actual barns. That seems
somehow,...wrong.
If you want to dance in a barn, we would be delighted to have you join
us. http://www.fnal.gov/orgs/folkclub/
We call ourselves a barn dance and we dance in a real barn.
http://www.fnal.gov/orgs/folkclub/barn.html
Our dance shows up on some contra dance lists and we sometimes get pure
contra dancers who are disappointed by the mix of dance styles. Some of
our callers do almost all contras, others are partial to squares. But
if I go to an event advertised as a contra dance, I expect to do mostly
contras, but not necessarily exclusively contras.
