Friends + Strangers + Music

“You look ridiculous if you dance.
You look ridiculous if you don’t dance.
So you might as well dance.”
Gertrude Stein // Three Lives


On Thursday night, our barn was a rocking, rolling, dusty, dangerous, awesome, fabulous mess of people, lights, music, and dance steps.

It came to us on the Fourth of July. Somewhere between the bonfire, the fireworks, the sitting on quilts, the hamburgers, and the dancing to Keith Urban, my friend, my sister, and I got this beautiful brain child.

A barn dance.

Neither of us had ever thrown a barn dance before. What the heck… why not now?

Everybody allllllways has stuff going on every weekend in the summer, so we figured Thursday night would rock it – a before-the-weekend sort of thing. But until we met randomly in the Walmart at nine o’clock one hot July night, we didn’t put it into a reality. But then, we did. I whipped out my phone calender and we found the perfect date – August 16.

Just about three weeks away. Were we crazy or what?! We were. But we did it anyway.

The days FLEW by, until last Wednesday found Sarah and me up at the barn in the dark, finishing up the final touches. Like… ohhhh… weedwhacking. And putting up christmas lights, rinsing down the pebbly concrete, arranging 80-pound bales of hay for seats, and trying to untangle extension cords.

I don’t know how on earth and in heaven we didn’t wear ourselves out so incredibly that we couldn’t dance the next night.

ohhhhh wait. I do. “toNI-iiii-i-i-ii-i-ight, we are younnnngggg…” thanks, f.u.n., for getting that song stuck in my head, so we could blast it out loud in the dark at ten o’clock.

so bring it on. We were ready.

A lot of things happened in between, though. Facebook was busy with all the inviting going on. Cherie came over on Sunday afternoon and we sat around in the living room, listening to music and hopping up to try out the moves… trying to match a song to a dance and then putting it all in order.

Our poor old barn – accustomed more to the hum-drum of lazy summer farm life, was about to come alive.

So I came screaming into the driveway at 6:00 from work, mentally tying up all the loose ends and fluttering around getting ready to start dancing at seven.

At quarter til, our amazing sound guy (volunteer, mind you) showed up and got right to work. It’s so handy going to church with a musical family – such sweet and sharing people, too!!
(Luke… you’re amazing.)

So he did his thing as Cherie, Sarah, and I did our thing(s) – filling up water containers, spreading quilts, running back down to the house for the tablecloth, and, since we’d forgotten a table for the water cooler… turning over the stock tank and covering it up with a red and white rose cloth and nooooobody could tell the difference. right?

Somehow, we were ready…

When the people came.

And boy, did they come.

Let me just say right now that it was the PERFECT group. I couldn’t have asked, begged, or pleaded for a better group of dancers and friends. Dancers filled our barn and the laughter and chatter spilled out into the barnyard as people came together. It was like Mom said. More of a community than a random group of friends and strangers. We all had something in common… we were here to be with each other. And nobody expected more.

Leading off the dance with the Grand March – always one of my favorite things to watch. And to dance with a four-year-old.

As it got darker, we all got more comfortable with each other. Since Cherie and I both knew a few separate groups of people, it was so much fun getting to meet new faces and learn new things together.

I love having a loft to climb up in. It helps with picture-taking when the barn is full. 😉

I promised myself that I WOULDN’T take my shoes off. That I would be a lady and dance with my shoes on and be the picture of a perfect hostess. But that didn’t work.

Not to mention the very last dance, where I skipped a whole part in a group dance and totally looked ridiculous in front of everyone – including my reeeeeeeeally good dance partner – who thankfully is an extremely gracious dude. And we were able to laugh about it, even as we fixed our problems and I continued to turn a lovely shade of red. Oh dear.

(if you ever see this, Israel, know that you were way too nice, okay?) 

This, ladies and gentlemen, is NOT what you think. We don’t usually dance girls with girls and even LESS often guys with guys, but if you’ve never danced the ninepin, go do it. now.

Gahhhh, I love this one, too. Oh Johnny Oh. =)

Welllll, we kinda abandoned our list about halfway down. Oh well.

Virginia Reel, anyone?

mmmm, it sure was pretty OUTside the barn, too. Where some of the shy guys hung out… *cough*.

More reeling. I mean, dancing reels.

uh-oh, looks like the ninepin again. I guess we liked that one.

By the end of the night, I think we were all pretty good at what we did. uhhhhh… some of us.

Take a look at that tall dude and his niece. I love that. Cutest couple out there, right?! =)

And we finished out the night with yet another reel. Oh, don’t worry, I danced my share… Spanish waltz, South Carolina Promenade, swing, posties jig… my feet wore out, too, I promise you. Though I definitely wasn’t the most graceful or coordinated dancer on the floor… 

when we finally turned out the lights around midnight, it was worth it.