While I was talking to Penelope Weinberger, Dance Chair of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington and founder of the Contra Sonic series, I asked her about the T-shirts she had begun to sell earlier in 2012 with the dJ improper logo on the back and big block on the front reading, “Dance with who’s comin’ atcha!”
“Those are a completely independent, [non-FSGW] thing,” says Penelope. “But here’s what the shirts are: so I’ve been contra dancing for a really long time, and I’ve seen...you know, when you come to the Friday Night Dance at Glen Echo, you have this lesson that has like eighty people in it, and every week that’s true, but the dance doesn’t grow by eighty people every week. So something’s happening with those new dancers...they’re trying it once and they’re not coming back. I think that contra dance does attract young people -- not at a really great rate -- and a lot of the young contra dancers are the children of older contra dancers.”
“There are two parts to the shirts: one is the part where there are new dancers that end up on the wrong side accidentally -- like right when they progress and they end up in the wrong position. And I have, so many times, seen experienced dancers who think they’re being helpful reach across to try to pull them into the right position instead of just dancing with the person who’s in the position that you’re supposed to dance with next. And so the shirt is about dancing with the person who’s in the position you’re supposed to dance with next, whoever they happen to be, whether they are there accidentally or whether they are there intentionally. And I think that old-school contra dancers, or mid-range contra dancers, tend to be a bit uncomfortable dancing with whomever they are confronted with or whomever they are presented with. And the ‘dance with who’s comin’ atcha’ notion is that it’s about dancing, and dancing contra is about being in the right place at the right time, and if you’re at the wrong place at the right time, then that should become the right place. If you’re dancing as a new couple and you open up in the wrong direction, and the woman is on the left, then you should dance with the oncoming person. There are a lot of places in a figure to fix that, and right when you’re meeting up with the next person is not it.”
“Just let people figure out what they’re doing -- if it’s a new couple and they’re dancing with each other and they end up dancing up the whole line in the opposite position, oh well. That’s the dance, that’s how they danced it. Either they’re going to dance that way forever, or they’re going to fix it on the next dance, or they’re going to fix it somewhere in the line, or they’re going to fix it on the next couple, or they’re not going to fix it. But the bottom line is, this is figure dancing, and when you dance the figure, you dance the figure with the person in the position that you’re supposed to dance it with, and you don’t take that extra time, or make people feel awkward, or scowl at them, or condemn them, or condescend to them because they screwed it up. Just smile and dance. So part of it is about dancing with people and welcoming them in a more graceful way.”
“It’s also partly about gender-imbalanced dancing. It’s mostly about how the dance is for dancing, and it’s not for proving your knowledge or our superiority or your expertise. So that’s what the shirt’s about, and you know, it’s fun.”
“We [Penelope’s household, including graphic designer Dennis Fleming, who also designs the Contrastock artwork, the Contra Sonic flyers and Facebook avatars, and the dJ improper logo] all kind of collaborated on it...and it was originally this gentler thing, and I said no, I wanted this bold design and so it ended up like this Parental Advisory block and something that appeals to all of us as something we recognize as a statement, not a suggestion.”
“Those are a completely independent, [non-FSGW] thing,” says Penelope. “But here’s what the shirts are: so I’ve been contra dancing for a really long time, and I’ve seen...you know, when you come to the Friday Night Dance at Glen Echo, you have this lesson that has like eighty people in it, and every week that’s true, but the dance doesn’t grow by eighty people every week. So something’s happening with those new dancers...they’re trying it once and they’re not coming back. I think that contra dance does attract young people -- not at a really great rate -- and a lot of the young contra dancers are the children of older contra dancers.”
“There are two parts to the shirts: one is the part where there are new dancers that end up on the wrong side accidentally -- like right when they progress and they end up in the wrong position. And I have, so many times, seen experienced dancers who think they’re being helpful reach across to try to pull them into the right position instead of just dancing with the person who’s in the position that you’re supposed to dance with next. And so the shirt is about dancing with the person who’s in the position you’re supposed to dance with next, whoever they happen to be, whether they are there accidentally or whether they are there intentionally. And I think that old-school contra dancers, or mid-range contra dancers, tend to be a bit uncomfortable dancing with whomever they are confronted with or whomever they are presented with. And the ‘dance with who’s comin’ atcha’ notion is that it’s about dancing, and dancing contra is about being in the right place at the right time, and if you’re at the wrong place at the right time, then that should become the right place. If you’re dancing as a new couple and you open up in the wrong direction, and the woman is on the left, then you should dance with the oncoming person. There are a lot of places in a figure to fix that, and right when you’re meeting up with the next person is not it.”
“Just let people figure out what they’re doing -- if it’s a new couple and they’re dancing with each other and they end up dancing up the whole line in the opposite position, oh well. That’s the dance, that’s how they danced it. Either they’re going to dance that way forever, or they’re going to fix it on the next dance, or they’re going to fix it somewhere in the line, or they’re going to fix it on the next couple, or they’re not going to fix it. But the bottom line is, this is figure dancing, and when you dance the figure, you dance the figure with the person in the position that you’re supposed to dance it with, and you don’t take that extra time, or make people feel awkward, or scowl at them, or condemn them, or condescend to them because they screwed it up. Just smile and dance. So part of it is about dancing with people and welcoming them in a more graceful way.”
“It’s also partly about gender-imbalanced dancing. It’s mostly about how the dance is for dancing, and it’s not for proving your knowledge or our superiority or your expertise. So that’s what the shirt’s about, and you know, it’s fun.”
“We [Penelope’s household, including graphic designer Dennis Fleming, who also designs the Contrastock artwork, the Contra Sonic flyers and Facebook avatars, and the dJ improper logo] all kind of collaborated on it...and it was originally this gentler thing, and I said no, I wanted this bold design and so it ended up like this Parental Advisory block and something that appeals to all of us as something we recognize as a statement, not a suggestion.”
Want a shirt of your own? They’re available from Penelope -- contact me and I’ll pass along her info!
