First Person Singular: Eva Murray, 51, contra dance caller

Contra dancing is kind of like square dancing, but you don’t need a partner. And it is done in lines — but it is not line dancing, like country line dancing. To be a good contra dance caller, you have to be able to speak in public comfortably and confidently. You’re basically teaching a room full of people how to move through the night and negotiate a space with 200 or maybe 300 other people. You must have a thick skin. As the caller, you are responsible for the success of every single thing that is going on in the room: the music, whether they like the dances, whether they don’t like the dances, whether you teach it well, if anyone gets it, whether or not anyone has any fun.

I had no idea so much was resting on my shoulders when I started. I had a mentor who let me call one dance in her three-hour program. I practiced for three weeks for two hours, every day. The way I practice is by driving in my car, listening to the same tune all the way to work — a 45-minute drive — and I would call it in the car, as I’m driving and then all the way home. You have to know exactly what words you’re going to say, exactly when you’re going to say them, and be able to say the right thing in the right number of beats. I spent a lot of time in the car, because I didn’t want anyone to hear me. I’m an introvert, but I’m an introvert who can get up on stage and tell a couple of hundred people what to do.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

• 
• 

(Matt McClain/ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Eva Murray calls a contra dance in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Archive

More First Person Singular

The reason why so many different kinds of people do it? It’s a place to go to meet a lot of people all at once. You don’t have to have a lot of social skills; there’s no need to have an in-depth conversation. You don’t have to come up with a lot of conservation or be witty. You don’t need a partner. If it turns out you like someone, you can just keep asking them to dance — every Friday night. I mean, I’ve watched couples form on the dance floor over the course of weeks. I am in one of those couples. I met my husband dancing.

You can tell when it’s a bad night. There’s no enthusiasm on the dance floor. You have to repeat the walk-through a few times, and people still aren’t getting it. I’ll try to go to one of my safety dances just to get my confidence back and get everyone back, but sometimes you just gotta go home and figure out how to do it better the next time.

What I like is when things fit. You just feel it in the air. The band is just grooving, and the dancers are really whooping it up. At that point, you can just sit back and smile because you made that happen.