“Won’t you walk a little faster?” said the whiting to the snail, “there’s a porpoise close behind us and he’s treading on my tail.” Lewis Carol

That line from Alice in Wonderland pretty well summed up my picture of folk dancing in general, and contra dancing in particular. So when my friend asked whether I was planning on coming down for the Contra dance Saturday night I was a bit non-committal. However, since this was our third conversation I had run out of excuses. Soon after, on a blustery Saturday night, I found myself heading into the old hall at Bayview Corner.

There was a crowd of about 30 people when I arrived. They were standing in two lines facing each other while a lady in black and white saddle shoes walked between them explaining the dance steps. As they followed her directions,

It did not seem so calm once the musicians started playing. The tempo was lively, the enthusiasm contagious, and the dancers were kept busy remembering the sequence as they went through the dance several times. The lady with the saddle shoes was Sherri Nevins, a well-known caller visiting from Seattle who “calls out” the moves while the dance is being performed. From my vantage point on the sidelines, it definitely looked like everyone on the floor was getting a good workout!

Between dances I had a chance to talk to some of the participants. Dick and Heidi had driven down all the way from Bow-Edison because of the band, which they’d heard was very good. “The dancers help the musicians as much as the musicians help the dancers,” they told me. I agreed the music was great, just as Kathleen came over to join conversation. “I’ve been coming to contra dances for 28 or 30 years,” she told us. “This type of dance can be as lively as you want to make it!”

Another old hand at Contra dancing, Will, explained how that works. “While it’s true that if you can walk you can keep up, some dancers add activity by spinning, twirling, and adding swings, which can make it more vigorous. Since each dance lasts 10 to 15 minutes, and there are 6 to 8 dances in an evening, you are doing a lot of moving!”

I was told that some of the dancers wear their pedometers. They found they are adding as much as 8 to 9 thousand steps at one dance. I started to say that would qualify as pretty good exercise, but found I was talking to thin air. Sherri had called for the next dance, and everyone was hurrying back to the dance floor.

Of course, Contra dance is just one of the many types of dance activity found on the Island. A few days later I had coffee with a friend who’d been bitten by the Tango bug. Linda, who also who also walks for exercise, and is a feng shui practitioner in her minimal spare time, told me she’s been doing tango for about four years now.

“What got you into Tango”? I asked her.

Linda: “I used to dance flamenco, but that is very performance oriented. It is more solo and less social. I prefer the more social dance now.”

Me: “Is Tango dancing lively?”

Linda: “ When you go to a Tango dance, you move the whole time.”

Me: “So you find it good exercise?”

Linda: “Yes. It’s good for several things, like balance. It’s very responsive, and is non-repetitive. You don’ know what’s coming next so have to keep physically aware. You can’t just set yourself in your stance, you have to be ready and alert at all times.”

Me: “How about the music?”

Linda: “Tango music is extremely rhythmic, but there are different tempos, from a tango waltz to a milonga, which is a very lively, bouncy tango rhythm.”

Me: “I thought it was pretty much just your feet that moved.”

Linda: “No, you’re moving everything from the waist down, and you’re moving constantly, so your heart is working, too.”

Me: “What did you mean when you said it was very responsive?”

Linda: “Very gentle hand signals are used to direct the partners. You have to develop a sense of your partner’s moves as well as your own and learn to respond quickly.”

Me: “Can you give me an example?”

Linda: “I went to a big dance once when I was new at Tango dancing. In fact, I’d just taken a beginning workshop, and the only person I recognized was another new dancer who’d attended the same workshop. We started practicing the very basic step we’d been taught that day, just dancing around the edges of the floor. For some reason we were really in sync. As we danced around the floor, all the other dancers backed off the floor, and when we stopped the entire ballroom applauded. Tango doesn’t have to be fancy to be fun!”

When I got home, I glanced at the local paper. I saw that here on the Island dance opportunities range from Hip Hop to belly dance. You can dance to teen garage bands, Dixieland, street bands and string bands. I read that dancing for 30 minutes can help you burn an extra 150 calories. It gets your heart beating and your muscles working. It’s good for balance and poise, it will keep your joints flexible and your spirits up. So if the golf course is too rainy, the trail too muddy, the bicycle too wet, and the mountains too far away, it may be time to hit the dance floor. As Lewis Carol’s Gryphon told Alice, “Turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.”

Article by Elaine Woods of WhidbeyWalks. For more information about WHIM, downloadable trail maps, and local resources, log on to www.whidbeyinmotion.org