There is lots of Contra Dancing, some English Country Dancing, other activities - dancing and not, lots of shmoozing and hanging out with other dancers - some of who I see regularly and some just at these dance camps. There were 110 of us this time out in Western Mass at a YMCA camp.
We Contra Dance gender free - using Larks and Ravens to refer to the two roles which are traditionally Ladies and Gents so people of any gender can dance either role. In English Country dancing we use placement of the people to identify who does what.
Group picture by Chris Chin:
Among other things we have a variety show and I usually do an act as Doctor Professor, giving a "scientific" report on something important. This time it was from medical science. I explained that bacteria when they get into your bloodstream just wander around and if they happen to encounter a blood cell they invade it. Suppose there was a way to control their movements? With gene editing they can be taught a contradance and then they will be busy doing that and avoid running into blood cells. Although there is no music (they don't have ears so it doesn't matter) there is a beat: hearbeat so they can dance in time. The dance they were taught was The Apothecary Reel. a dance written by Ted Sannella who has written many dances and this one when he graduated from pharmacy school.
The Saturday night event is dress-up and I wore a lovely red dress. We also had a TRex dancing with us - in addition to being gender-free we are species-free.
A video by Doug Heacock, one of our dancers:
I am also one of the organizers and among other things I am the treasurer.