That I've stated on this blog and partly explains my trepidation (and mostly explains my repulsion) that keeps me from visiting one of these events. I posted this video for the Sacramento group rather recently.
Some more videos of local groups:
2012 San Francisco Folk Fest Contra Dance
Palo Alto Contra Dance with STEAM
Palo Alto Contra Dance with Community Band! (pt.2)
From the mid-west, featuring Perpetual e-Motion:
(more from ITMDG - looks like I missed the opportunity to hear them in person at Felton Hall earlier this year. I hope they'll be back next year.)
If you take a look at the videos available on youtube for various Contra/ECD events in the U.S., dressing very casually for the dancing is the norm. (Some samples below.) On various websites for CD/ECD visitors are told that there is no dress code but to wear something comfortable since physical activity is involved. Shorts? Blue jeans? T-shirts? How many of those dancing are really presentable to others, not looking like slobs? Although the Sacramento group is rather fit, but this is not always the case. Obesity may not be the fault of Uhmericans, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't feel shame. (As opposed to guilt.) They should try to conceal it through their clothing, instead of revealing it, or worse, drawing attention to it through poor choice in clothing.
In order for it to be fun and welcoming, casual dress is tolerated and becomes the norm. Organizers don't want to turn people away because they need people to attend in order to keep the dances going. You don't want to stand out or appear to be too snooty by going semi-formal. But an you can associate with people with looser standards in dance? Even if you can ignore for the moment the standard in question, the sight of people adhering to disparate dress standards seems rather ridiculous.
Dressing the part in a historical re-enacment (or role-playing) looks much better by comparison:
The JASNA Regency Ball from last year:
Of course this may only make sense for English Country Dances, and not so much with American Contra Dance. Am I saying that ECD/CD enthusiasts have to dress up in Regency costumes or other attire from the 19th century? No, but simple clothing that is decent in appearance, a dress shirt and slacks, would be much more dignified than the t-shirt, shorts, and obvious athletic shoes. Some places may require certain shoes so that they do not leave marks on the floor, but surely there are "dressy-looking" shoes that meet this requirement? Actually, I would have no problems with them going barefoot, though this would make dances that involve some sort of clogging impracticable. Some may claim that going barefoot to a dance, while wearing "traditionally" more formal clothing is rather incongruous. What about dressy minimalist shoes, then?
Dressing too casually represents a failure to respect one's self and others. The music, the dance patterns, what the occasion represents all refer to a standard of order that we no longer have and yet some of us yearn for it, though perhaps unconsciously. They are tied to beauty, which is part of their appeal. And yet we don't see that casual dress violates the decorum that such dances represent, not only historically but even intrinsically, since they should be special occasions of festivity for the community. I suspect that when folk dances (square dances or contra dances or the like) were events for the community, no one dressed down for them, or as if they had just left the field or work. We, on the other hand, who have the money and the gas for such hobbies take the liberty of attending in whatever clothing we like. That is rather self-indulgent and narcissistic.
If ECD or CD is to become a dance for the "vulgar masses," we should expect people to rise about the vulgarity that is Uhmericanism? We need to understand that dances are more than a private hobby or leisurely activity. They need to be reintegrated back into some semblance of an authentic communal life.
Some might argue that since such dances take place in a gym or some other minimalist community place that it would be out of place to dress nice. But the solution isn't to dress down, but to spruce the place up with tasteful decorations and the like. A basketball court may not be the ideal place to have a dance, but if it is the only open area where people can congregate, then one must make do.
As for those groups that advertise themselves as being gay-friendly -- if there is a sex imbalance and you are alternating partners throughout a dance, you may end up dancing with someone of the same sex, with the other person playing the incorrect part. Now this happens now even when there are too many heterosexual women and not enough men, and may have happened in the past. Where does one draw the line between practical necessity (as in the case when women outnumber men) and an affront to traditional morals? When one removes distinctions or any reference to gender roles one has gone too far.
Youth Flock To Contra Dancing
Related links: Country Dance and Song Society
Some more videos after the jump:
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