Students find old time groove
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Anyone heard of contra dancing? If you’ve seen those 17th century style movies with dancers usually moving in the space of parallel lines, in and back out, and sometimes twirling around, then you’ve seen it.
Students in the Arlee High School and Junior High got a chance to learn the steps with a weeklong training course during their physical education class last week. A Humanities Montana Grant paid to bring instructor Mark Matthews to the school to help the kids learn the dance. He travels all over Montana teaching the dance and he lives in Arlee.
Sophomore Mia Pierre-Stone practiced the dance with her class on Wednesday. At first, she didn’t want to dance, but after several days of practice she decided that it was kind of awesome.
“You get to learn how different cultures dance,” she said.
Physical Education Teacher Tim Morin applied for the grant.
“I want to let all the teachers know that they should give Humanities Montana a call and apply for grants,” he said.
He initially explained the dance to the students as originating in Europe. He said think castles and those long line dances. The kids got a bit of a history lesson and the dance fit the state requirements including exercise and social skill development.
“If you put effort into it you get a good sweat,” Freshman Aspen Peak said.
Instructor Matthews moved around the line of kids calling out instructions using a microphone so he could be heard over the Irish jigs and the Canadian reels.
“This is what I live for,” he said. He loves going to different towns and finding a contra dance. “By the end of the night, I have 20 new friends.”
He said dancing was once a celebrated social event, but in the 1960s, with the growth of the television and then the computer, dance started to die out.
“Contra dance is starting to take off again,” he said adding that people want more social interaction.
About four years ago, he was presenting lectures on the history of contra dancing in different forums.
“I thought, ‘why am I talking about this? We should be doing it.’”
From there, he started bringing the lessons into high schools with the help of the grant, and he still has time in his schedule for any schools that want to apply for the grant.
He said there is a dance club in Missoula that meets regularly if anyone wants to try it. Information is available at the Missoula Folklore Society.
