westward, ho, to Montague

Robert and I consider our home dance to be in Jamaica Plain south of Boston, about a 50-minute drive away. It's odd -- there's a twice-weekly dance within 15 minutes of our house. I'm sure it's very nice, but the dance in JP is gender-role free, we've known some of the other dancers for years, and it's one of our most important communities. So we go a few times a month and always have a great time.

Last night, we drove less than half an hour more in the other direction, to the charming ville of Montague MA in the Pioneer Valley (western MA to those of us who live in the east, but I bet those who live in the Berkshires think of it as central Mass). There's been a monthly gender-role-free dance in Northampton for a while, but this year, they moved to the Grange building in Montague. They also moved up the hours to 7-10 for noise-ordinance reasons. The earlier hours combined with the new location and a free evening made us say "let's check this out."

Before the dance, we headed to the Montague Mill (home of the Montague Book Mill -- "books you don't need in a place you can't find") for a light bite to eat at Lady Killigrew's. We of course ran into contra dancers there -- about six of them in three different groups, one from Boston. Food and conversation were both great.

Back at the dance, we entered a tiny hall containing ten dancers and a caller who said her brain was fuzzy because she was coming down with a bad cold. Uh-oh. First thought -- it's a good thing we came; otherwise there would be eight dancers. Second thought -- thank goodness the band contained one of our own, Jared P, who plays one of my favorite instruments, hammer dulcimer. At least the music would be good.

Well, it turned out that the whole evening was fantastic. At one point, I counted about 40 dancers. The caller did well and provided some fun and challenging dances. Beginners came up to speed quickly. Someone new to me said this was one of the warmest, most welcoming dance groups she's encountered. And of course, we ran into all sorts of people we know from dance camps further west and dance visits to Boston. In fact, a favorite dance partner showed up -- he dropped out of dancing for medical reasons a few years back to the great dismay of many of his fans. But he came last night. We knew at least half the attendees, not bad for showing up at a new dance.

And the drive home wasn't too bad, though I realize that's easy for me to say since I wasn't driving. But it felt quick, not endless.

Bottom line, I can imagine making a habit of this dance quite happily.