Old-time dance scene finds new life

‘How many places do you get to hold peoples’ hands, look in their eyes and smile in a completely safe environment? That’s the spirit of contra dance.’

–Emily Faulkner, dance caller

By DAVID GUNTER

Feature correspondent

SANDPOINT — There is a place, in our fair city, where smiles are given freely, where music floats through the air and feet — ah, yes, the feet! — glide across a well-worn wooden floor in time to a beat punctuated by easy laughter.

Now in its fifth year, the Sandpoint Contra Dance has become a friend-making machine for the more than 60 people who show up to share a piece of Americana that has roots going back to long before the Pilgrims crossed the pond.

Two of the stalwarts behind this monthly event are dance caller Emily Faulkner and Christine Holbert of Lost Horse Press.

Working in conjunction with Sandpoint Parks & Recreation, they have built a resilient, little scene where dancers and non-dancers alike find reason to gather.

“One of the surprises, for me, was that we have so many families, children and elderly who show up,” said Holbert, adding that older folks often attend just to listen to the music and enjoy watching the dancers. “And we have a lot of teens who show up looking for something to do.”

In a world where those demographics rarely meet, Sandpoint Contra Dance recaptures the essence of small-town life in days gone by, according to Faulkner.

“This is a group that’s not a group anywhere else,” she said. “How many places do you get to hold peoples’ hands, look in their eyes and smile in a completely safe environment? That’s the spirit of contra dance.”

That this dance community has stayed together and expanded might be due to the helpful nature of the dancers themselves. Then again, it could be the ease with which the dances can be learned. Regulars welcome newcomers with enthusiasm, making sure they feel supported as they get the hang of things on the floor. Before they know it, the beginners are dancing away with the group, not even realizing they might be laying down steps that wouldn’t have seemed possible a few minutes earlier.

“It’s like ‘group muscle memory,’” Faulkner explained. “Having that body of dance experience over the last five years really carries new dancers quite ably and quite comfortably into more difficult dances.”

Each month, the dance gets started at 7 p.m. with a beginners’ lesson and the first three dances are geared toward those just-learned steps. From there, the group embraces the newcomers, pulling them in and along to the infectious rhythm of live music.

Contra dance is nothing if not repetitive — a trait that makes it perfect for those coming into the fold — and gets much of its energy from the constant mix-and-match of everyone involved as they move through the structure of the dance.

“And the music supports the dance,” Faulkner said. “You learn the pattern and you’re dancing to the phrasing of the music.”

Sandpoint Contra Dance has now been around long enough that professional callers and bands from around the region have added it to their universe of dances they want to be part of. The music is a geographical mix of styles, with traditional New England contra dance music sharing the bill with French-Canadian fiddle tunes, old-time Southern melodies and tunes that have roots in Scotland and Ireland.

Among the bands that play for Sandpoint dances are perennial local favorite Out of the Woods, along with Arvid Lundin & Deep Roots, The Nine-Pint Coggies, Northern Shore, Red Herring, and Dog Paw. And while they play what is typically referred to as “old-time music,” these musicians are carrying their tradition forward, not keeping it trapped in amber.

“New dances and tunes are being written every day of the year,” said Faulkner, pointing to the confluence of different age groups that keep the art form alive “It’s a wonderful, vibrant scene. Your shape, your age, your dance experience don’t matter. You just get out on the floor and enjoy the dancing.”

“It’s nice that our little town is plugged into that,” Holbert added.

The soundtrack for all this merriment comes from the tunes that carry the dance along. Or is it the other way around? According to the caller, the dancers “play” the music as much as musicians inspire the dance.

“Not everyone can play for a contra dance,” she said. “A good band is really in tune with the dance floor. They watch the dancers, they enjoy the dancers, but they can also goose the dancers and push things along.”

Faulkner said her job as caller was harder when contra dance was first reintroduced to Sandpoint — there have been other, shorter-lived incarnations over the decades — five years ago. These days, with half a dozen strong bands and a list of other callers to choose from, she is having more fun than ever.

“I love calling,” she said, “But I’m just facilitating the joy in the room. The ideal contra dance environment is where the group irons it all out on their own. If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, we laugh and pull it through together.

“It’s a respectful presence, while you’re having a riotous, good time.”

Both Holbert and Faulkner hold up the partnership with Parks & Rec. as the reason these dances can be made so affordable — $5 per person or $20 for an entire family. There is also what they called “a background community” comprised of Andrea and John Kinney, and Bob and Janet Elliott, that keeps things running smoothly. Those associations, however, are unseen by the average dancer. It is the feeling of the group and the drive of the music that acts as a magnet to pull people in from as far away as Spokane, Wallace, western Montana and Canada.

They are willing to brave the elements to get to the dances and, in one case, even after they arrive.

“There was a time when there was a storm and the electricity blew out in community hall, but people wanted to keep dancing,” Faulkner said. “So the musicians played and I called until it was too dark to see.”

“That’s when the fiddle player led us all out onto the lawn and we danced for two more songs,” Holbert shared. “I think that was my favorite contra dance moment of all.”

Sandpoint Contra Dance is held on the second Friday of each month from September-July at Sandpoint Community Hall, 204 S. First Ave. The next dance will take place on Oct. 14, from 7-10 p.m.

Information: phone, 208-263-6751; or email, sandpointcontra@gmail.com