Erik Erhardt, president of FolkMADS and a professor of statistics, said contra dances have been held in the SUB since September and will continue into the foreseeable future.
Contra dance is an American folk dance that has evolved from English country-dance, like those typically seen in “Pride and Prejudice”-style movies, he said. Newcomers are highly encouraged, with lessons for beginners starting at 7 p.m. and the actual dance running from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., he said.
FolkMADS is a folk music and dance society that has been in New Mexico for about 30 years, he said. Erhardt has been involved with FolkMADS and contra dance for eight years, serving on the board of directors numerous times before becoming president of the organization, he said.
“We’re very welcoming to beginners. You don’t really need to know anything other than how to walk and hold hands,” he said. “If we can get people exposed to contra dance here, we believe that they are going to love it and that we’ll soon grow very quickly”
The dance is performed in two long lines, hence the word “contra” or “across” in the name, Erhardt said. There are three main components of a contra dance: the live band, the caller and the dancers. The band usually plays old time, “fast, energetic fiddle and banjo” music.
“The caller serves as the interface between the band and getting the music and rhythm to the dancers’ feet,” Erhardt said. The job is “usually done by an already experienced contra dancer who is familiar with the methodology.”
Erhardt, an experienced caller himself, started a “Callers Collective” last year. The group allows burgeoning contra dancers to learn how to call and even compose dances during the events, he said.
Emily Ruch, vice president at FolkMADS and a caller in training herself, has been involved with FolkMADS for about a year. She said introducing contra to UNM is largely about trying to create a more cross-generational community with younger dancers.
“It is probably the most forgiving social dance you can do because you don’t have to come up with improvised steps as you’re dancing, you just have to listen to what the caller is telling you to do,” she said. “It’s very friendly for people who have no idea how to dance at all.”
Contra dance emphasizes the importance of physical contact and eye contact, she said — something we are somewhat starved of as a culture in this day and age. This fluid structure of contra dance is centered on a series of transformations on the floor where different sets of people move to different locations in time with the music and caller’s instruction, she said.
“There’s something so satisfying about dancing this really intricate pattern in such a fluid way, where everything just works,” Ruch said. “There is an infinite number of ways that you can combine all of these different moves into these new patterns, and the patterns are beautiful.”
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Erhardt said there is no dress code, but many dancers wear “spinny-skirts” for effect when they twirl, which happens often.
“Contra dance has given me an easy way to connect quickly with people where I live, and also when I travel. I know that if I go somewhere I can find the contra dance and immediately have a bunch of friends,” Erhardt said. “Almost all of my close, meaningful relationships in the last fifteen years have come through friends I’ve met through dance. That’s the sort of quality of connection that the contra dance provides.”
Erhardt said FolkMADS holds its own annual dance camp in Socorro over Memorial Day weekend, called “FolkMADness,” which draws between 200 to 300 people every year. FolkMADness offers not only contra, but also square dance, English country-dance, singing and even music jams for musicians, he said.
Currently, FolkMADS has to rent out space at the SUB for its monthly UNM contra, causing them to lose money in the long run, but Erhardt said he hopes that with the start of a student organization they can save more and put those profits into growing the organization.
They need enthusiastic UNM students to jump on board with the idea of getting a student group started to make that happen, he said. FolkMADS is now working with student groups such as HAPPI and the Celtic Society, trying to create joint-sponsored events in hopes of drawing support at UNM.
“My vision is to put the energy in now and get it started — to have a student group form and then have the students blossom and it become its own thing,” he said.
Contra dances are held on the second floor of the SUB in the South Mall, and so far attendance has been growing, with between 30 to 50 people attending each event.
Matthew Reisen is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
