Finished Object Dance

This entry is photo heavy, and the knitting content is at the very bottom. It's the day after NEFFA, and I can just feel myself running on fumes. It was another great festival and, even though we haven't been dancing much lately, nothing really hurts suprizingly.
1st photo is Himself and me lined up in the right side of the Main Hall waiting for the 1 o'clock start for the Sunday Contra Medley. We were surprized that they did not do the traditional "drop out now if you don't know these calls" ditty. It showed when they got to the part of the medley with contra corners and a number of people didn't know how to execute the figure. Jeremy (you'll meet him later) and I had a discussion in a later dance if the ditty had been recited, would those who didn't know have had the sense to leave the set then and would it have done any good. Not a big deal, but this particular session of the schedule is marked for experienced dancers, and you come expecting a level of competence. Contra corners is one of those things that will die out if they don't start calling it more, which would be sad because it's a neat figure.

2nd photo is the left side of the hall also lining up and waiting. Yes, it's crowded. When the ditty says dance space the size of a lentil, they mean it. Dance small, folks. By the way, we were in the tent for the Saturday night Medley and there was acres of room, while the Main Hall was even more crowded than this, from what was described. Downstairs my skirt had full room to twirl.

3rd photo is the left side of the hall in motion. 4th photo is me and Himself in motion. I think we're going down the hall and turning as a couple. Jeremy is the guy with the mustache in green whose head is where the 2nd line of the arrow would be.

5th photo is Himself on the side about to catch me into a swing. Sigh. He has a lovely swing and catch, too, for that matter. Not that other guys don't, but... well, you know.....

6th photo is every giving right hands to their neighbors for (presumably) a balance and swing, since I don't remember a grand right and left in this medley. (later edit -- nope, it's everyone reaching right hands to get into long waves up and down the hall, men face out, women face in, balance right and then balance left...)

7th photo is later on in the afternoon, down in the tent. The tent was a great idea for expanding the space. The only thing that could have made it better would have been weather about 10 degrees warmer on Saturday and not raining. And matting leading to the Lower Hall from the main building so we didn't have to walk on pavement and get grit in dance shoes' soles, but I covered that already....... 8th photo is a shot of the Lower Hall, for contrast. The space tended to get crowded, especially during the Waltz Time session. It was like dancing on Storrow Drive with cars (couples) trying to each move where they want to go, not get in each others way and then avoid the couple who's trying to move out of the other couples' way, etc. and no one really having space to make those lovely twirling steps around each other.

9th photo, Himself in the tent taking a break. I found dance two, sit one worked well for me, though by Sunday afternoon I was taking longer breaks.

Where are we? Below Himself sitting down, he and I are waltzing.

And I bought my 4th pair of dance shoes. The price was right, my other flat shoes have a small split at the toe and I figured if shoes felt good and the third day of a festival, they must be comfortable. Why the two guys from NJ with colorful shirts felt I should be named Imelda, I really don't know. Now I need to make a commitment to actually go out and use them.

Lastly, I did sit down sometimes. Here we have Consuelo and Stanley posing with the current perpetual sock, started Friday night on the way to NEFFA. Most of the sock was worked on during rides to/from the parking lot and home, on the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the site (excellent service as usual), and much of the leg in Lisa Greenleaf's session on fitting music to dance figures. I found myself unconsciously knitting in time to the music, most of which is done at 120 beats per minute.

As far as the goal over the next year to either use up or not consume 35,000 calories in order to lose 10 pounds, there's all this exercise vs. sharing 4 pieces of the Lithuanian folk dance group's bake sale cakes. The scale will tell us tomorrow morning which side won.

And the chicken may have a new name. I'm thinking Petronella, in honor of a lovely older dance not called much anymore but with a figure in it referred to as the "Petronella twirl" (to be performed with or without clapping at dancer's choice), but, given that the chicken has a rounded base and balances either right or left before sliding sideways, Himself is advocating naming it Rory O'More. Dancers will get the joke.