The first night of dancing for the 'Palmetto Bug Stomp' weekend dance here in Charleston. Can't believe how fast the evening went but with two terrific bands and two wonderful callers how could it be anything but great. Besides, with a name like that.... you know it has to be a lot of fun.

   So the two bands are Ann's Banana's and Great Bear Trio and the callers are Seth Tepher and Beth Malaro. The only one new to me is Ann's Banana's and they sounded pretty darn good to me. But of course the big draw for me is the Great Bear Trio. They just seem to get better and better every time I dance to them. Let me give you a quick description of them first off. As one would suspect from the name there are three people in the band. You have Noah and Andrew Nordstrom (sp), brothers who are now likely in their late 20's maybe even early 30's for Andrew. They play any number of instruments but it is generally Andrew on electric guitar and Noah on fiddle, foot percussion and didgeridoo. On keyboards is Kim, their mother, a really amazing talent and one who fills in and fills out the bands sound. It is amazing to hear how much music these three people can put out there, and what variety they can perform. They are just a joy to dance to and they have become quite adept at playing the audience as well as they do their instruments.

   Lot's of nice dance partners this evening, some I am getting to know well enough that it is a lot easier to dance with them now. Everybody has a certain style that they dance to, how they swing, how they twirl, liking or disliking extra turns, it is much easier once you have an idea of what to expect. It is also nice to be dancing with a group of people who are, for the most part, very good dancers. There were still a couple dances that got all balled up because of people goofing up, but hey, it's folk dancing. To me one of the signs of a good dancer, isn't whether or not they make mistakes, cuz we all do that, it's more about how easy, or hard , it is to recover from a goof-up. Because the dance just keeps going on whether you want it to or not. The other thing that, for me, makes it rather enjoyable, is being able to dance no matter what style, or lack of it, a partner has. Of course, it is best when you have a dance partner who is good at it all, and lucky for me, everyone tonight was very good. Nearly 1:00 already so I must go get some sleep. Will need to be up a bit early tomorrow as I'm having lunch and going on a short trip to Folly Island with a friend of mine.

   For those of you, if any, who are new to me, this blog or contra dancing and are wondering what in the heck I'm going on and on about, let me suggest you go to 'Youtube' and look up this video: Type in,  Mr Plow - Great Bear Groove  and the 1st or 2nd one that pop's up should be the one you want. Watch it through and it should give you an idea of why I think this is so much fun. There are thousands and thousands of other video's to look at if you want, but most aren't all that great, unless you happen to be one of the people dancing in it.

   Also; found out today that I had the comments box blocked so that pretty much no one could make a comment if they wanted to. Not sure anyone out there has tried, but if you had and couldn't get through.... sorry. It "should" be fixed now, so let me know what you are thinking if you want.