Heber Valley’s footloose have a wooden floor, all-ages opportunity this Saturday night.
At 6:30 p.m., DJ Butterfly Cari and Sleepy Sun Studios are hosting a community contra dance set to traditional and folk tunes at Timpanogos Valley Theater in Heber City. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children with sliding scale payment available. The evening kicks off with a half-hour beginner’s workshop then two hours of guided dancing with Butterfly Cari calling the moves.
Butterfly Cari is the stage name of Heber resident Carrie Dayton-Madsen, who runs the nonprofit dance organization Sleepy Sun Studios with her husband, Ray Madsen. The couple attended their first contra dance in Salt Lake City 16 years ago, and Butterfly Cari is now seven years into serving as a caller between Salt Lake City, Logan and Pocatello, Idaho, gatherings while working to develop the Wasatch Back’s local scene.
According to Dayton-Madsen, there are two rules to remember when contra-dancing: “If you can walk, you can contra dance. If you laugh, you’re doing it right.”
Contra, an ancestor to square dancing, is a social dancing style that emerged in the 17th century and migrated to America, where it is sometimes known as Appalachian or New England folk dance. Each dance features a caller leading the crowd, split between left-side larks and right-side robins, through a slower song to introduce the steps before a second, speedier sequence. Dancers need not bring a partner, as the progression down the lines assures a steady stream to new faces following the figures.
“Sometimes people get intimidated because they think it’s a performance thing,” Dayton-Madsen said. “It is not. It’s a participatory art. There’s no contra dance police. I’ll guide you. It’s really important for a caller to match the level of difficulty to the people who show up because I want to set them up for success so we feel good about what they’re doing.”
Emphasis on engagement makes contra dancing accessible for everyone, strapped babies and spectators included. Beats-per-minute pacing in the low 100s provides an up-tempo pulse similar to workout music and taking a break is entirely acceptable. Popular standards include “Wizard’s Walk” and “Turkey in the Straw,” plus others that might feel familiar even without knowing their names.
“You want to still be able to talk. It won’t be so fast that you can’t do the moves,” Dayton-Madsen said.
Circle left and circle right are foundational steps, along with the allemande, which involves hands raised in a high-five position. Do-si-dos are circling with a partner. A robin’s chain brings a chance to practice courtesy turning. Throughout, the caller and general flow provide a chance for learning on the go.
“I’m just trying to make it an easy entry to move to music,” Dayton-Madsen said. “Hopefully, you laugh with people, laugh at yourself, laugh at everybody else, be kind to yourself and just enjoy being on this Earth in this body.”
While music and movement initially drew Dayton-Madsen to contra dancing, the relationships and community-building have become her reason to return.
“It’s almost like diplomacy to get people to see each other and see past our religion or politics and just be with other people, the way people used to do,” Dayton-Madsen said. “I think it’s so important for the social fabric to keep people connected because we get so disconnected in this day. I love technology, but I don’t love the way it isolates us. I feel like we’re losing some of our humanity if we don’t pay attention and just be with each other.”
Dayton-Madsen referred to herself as a “contra-vangelist” in her passion to introduce people to contra dancing, yet has found familiarity in some surprising places.
“I told my grandmother the first time I went to a dance,” Dayton-Madsen said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so fun,’ and she said, ‘Oh, we used to do that all the time.’ I thought, ‘Where did it go?’ I always wanted to dance with people, not in a bar where alcohol is always involved. I’m like, ‘Aren’t there any places where you can just dance and just interact?’”
Wasatch TAP grants to support Sleepy Sun’s programming and Timpanogos Valley theater provides its facilities at a non-profit rate, which Dayton-Madsen sees as benefiting community mental health at large.
“When I interact with people dancing, we start to act like kids again,” Dayton-Madsen said. “When you come to a dance, you put a lot of stuff aside and meet each other where you are.”
Sleepy Sun Studios is also hosting another contra dance on April 25 at Timpanogos Valley Theater. Further programming information is available at SleepySunStudios.net.