Thanks, everyone, for showing up at the February 4 Albuquerque contra dance. Nancy Ford reports that “Officially, the count was 96. “ That is an AMAZING number of dancers. Forty dancers filled two lines during the newcomer’s class. A bunch of them were in their 20’s and 30’s, yet another shocking development. We oldies are thrilled, of course, to see some young ‘uns (at this point anyone under 50 is young to me). We still wish more of the dancers were men, but there were fewer women sitting out this time than at the last dance. Maybe word will get out and even more guys will show up next time. All we want is a little gender balance.

If we can’t have that, I would be willing to teach a “how to dance as a man” workshop for women. We might invite the men too and let them dance as the women. A few women have asked me about doing this because they’d rather dance the man’s part than sit out and miss the fun. We could do the workshop one Saturday afternoon, have a potluck dinner, and then attend the regular dance and show off our newly learned skills.

Hands Five got rave reviews for their interesting and lively tunes. They wove creative trills and accents into the tunes, including a snippet of “Hava Nagila.” The fiddler’s wife was even spotted kicking up her heels on the dance floor!

We still had two lines of dancers at the end, including several of the brand new dancers. But the finest compliment of all came from a woman from New York. She was passing through New Mexico with her teenage granddaughter, who also danced. At the end of the night, she came up to me and the band and said, “Thanks for a wonderful evening! I never expected to stumble upon such an excellent dance in New Mexico!” I guess we have known all along how fun and friendly we are. It’s nice to know that out-of-staters are finding out too.

If you missed Saturday’s dance, Hands Five and I will be doing Santa Fe’s contra dance on April 8, 2006.