barn dance!

[rm]

One of my earliest memories and, in fact, my first memory of magic, of serendipity, of doing my will in the world is from when I was five, and my mother and I went with my father on a business trip to Chicago. It was the summer, and a terrible one at that -- 105 every day we were there, so that my mother and I sat in the hotel room while my father was at work because it was too hot to go out.

But on one of the nights, they took me to a bar to hear Irish music. It's an odd thing, considering that most of he oddities of my childhood were entirely different from this sort of thing, that my parents were always taking me to bars and casinos and whatever inappropriate for a child places you could possibly think of if there was some sort of cool music to hear.

I insisted in dressing up in this fancy, gauzy skirt and top my aunt had bought me, and when we got there and I heard the music, I got up to dance in that way children unselfconsciously do. A fellow got up, handsome as hell, black hair, thin and grinning and with not a shred of condescension for me, and bowed to me and started doing a jig, slow at first so I could imitiate it and then faster and faster, and then people were clapping in time with the music and had formed a small circle around us and when he bent down and grabbed my hands to swing me around, I saw the that circle had doubled in size behind us and everyone else was now joining the dance. After, he bowed to me, all solemn, and told me I was a faerie princess, not in the way you tell girls who want to be pretty, but in the way you tell girls who are quite serious and undeniably strange. It is my perhaps silly and vain belief that other people who were there that night still tell this story too.

Tonight, when I arrived at the Barn Dance a dance was just starting up and I ran out to join but had no partner. The caller hollered for me to come up to the top of the set and he'd dance with me. And so I did, dived right in with a live Irish band and footwork that just makes itself up and my perfect little swinging skirt and my hillarious boots and no damn clue what I was doing and rocked it, and while the whole night was fun, that first dance was oh so much just like when I was five.

The band, back there in 1978 in Chicago, btw, was The Chieftains.

Meanwhile, all of you are on notice that you're coming to the next Barn Dance. I don't care if you don't dance. It's so charming and fun and exciting and magical and any of you who write anything not set in this where/when will be assailed by plot bunnies due to this sort of thing. I swear to you.

Also it was delightful to move my muscles in an agressively casual but structured way. It felt of a theme with fencing, but also a necessary antidote. I suppose maybe I can do frivolous too, as long as it's with intensity.

Comments

[ekatarina.livejournal.com]

That is a wonder memory and a fabulous image. I love the notion of the man knowing that you were one of the wonderfully odd ones.

I so *gotta* take you out for coffee when I am in the big city.


(Maybe even this summer. Heh heh. Gotta pick my holiday hours soon.)

Thank you for the this story.


Ekatarina

[rufus.livejournal.com]

ooooh The Chieftains. I went to one of their St. Patrick's Day shows when I first moved to NYC, and it was fabulous. But I bet barband!Chieftains were pure magic.

true confession: I took a few years worth of Irish dance classes and danced in a couple of parades. I can still do my threes and sevens and half-manage one of the solo set dances i learned. I kind of miss it, truth be told.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Pure magic, and I still have the vinyl record of whatever they had out at the time that we bought at that gig.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

This sounds really amazing; I'll have to check it out.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I am the broken record that says " I wish I could have been there ".

And the Chieftains. Yum.

I can't help but wonder...

[espidre.livejournal.com]

if it made your mom smile and laugh to see you dance when you were 5...

Thanks for remembering that story..stories of summer always make me happier.

[mizg.livejournal.com]

That's the awesomest thing ever.

I'd like to go to the barn dance but it's on a Thursday, which is hard for me. However, I am going to the contra on Saturday. I've never been to the ones in the city before, have you?

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

If I can dance next month, I think I shall go with you.

What a great memory; it makes me smile each time I hear you tell it.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Keep me apprised, I think I want in on this.

(I was interested in going, but last night I participated in an entirely different sort of magic: I went to see Pan's Labyrinth. My reaction? O_O)

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

If you mean the ones on 13th St, they're lovely.

I miss them, as I've been too busy to go for oh...a year and a half, now...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Honestly, until last night I'd never done contra. I have some interesting impressions about leading and what the issue is in our classes in that regard, as an aside -- for those dances that require it.

Tell me about this contra thing Saturday. I am planless, and since I'm addicted to physical activity right now, maybe I'll go.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Are you at the point where you may be able to dance next month? That's so exciting!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Pan's Labyrinth is amazing. My main frustration with it, is "how do you market it?" Among other things, the studio hasn't solved it any better than I have.

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

What a lovely memory. Isn't it wonderful, those moments when we were children and an adult truly saw us?

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Were it a book, I'd call it "Historical speculative fiction."

But it's not a book, sadly, and that kind of description doesn't really fly with film...

[rm.livejournal.com]

It also has that very Latin magical realism factor, but I think that dismisses the seriousness of Ofelia's experience.

[mizg.livejournal.com]

http://www.cdny.org/contracalendar.html

I'm going to go. I rarely get the opportunity, since the boyfriend tends to co-opt my Saturday evenings, but as he is in Israel, I have time. So, yes, I'll be going. You can get the info about it at that site. Would you like to join me?

[rm.livejournal.com]

I realized, while at work, that I picked up a flyer for this at teh barn dance yesterday, and I need to do something and write it up as a "ongoing NYC event review" for my gig for Gather anyway, so yup, I will so be there.

[mizg.livejournal.com]

cool, I'll see you there. I haven't done Contra in a while, I hope I don't suck too badly :)

I had a cruddy evening this evening so I must force myself to do stuff tomorrow to potentially make myself feel better.

[rm.livejournal.com]

:( No crud.

It'll be fun. I'm always forcing myself to go do things when I'm not in the mood and it usually pays off. Unfortunatley, tonight I have to force myself to doo laundry.

[rm.livejournal.com]

oh and hey, any interest in food first?

[mizg.livejournal.com]

sure sure. You'd have to pick since you have foodie thingies.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's actually weirdly easy for me to eat out, as long as it's not Italian and I preplan (so i can bring gluten-free condiments).

[mizg.livejournal.com]

Well...I don't know the food over near 7th down there...we could just pick a time to meet at teh station...

[rm.livejournal.com]

Okay, hrmmm. I'm trying to think of what is Not Evil. Oh hey... do you eat Mexican food?

[mizg.livejournal.com]

I do. I'll just have to be careful about what I choose to eat just before dancing ;)

[rm.livejournal.com]

hahahah good point. I never eat beans anyway.

Anyway -- why don't we meet at 13th and 7th (in front of the church) at... what? 6:30? There's a good mexican place about a block from there, and it's on a stretch with a bunch of other pretty good pretty cheap places if we want to go a different route.

[mizg.livejournal.com]

sounds like a plan. see you at 6:30!