For The Good Times

Barn dancing in Amersham :-D

Weeell, last weekend I finally got my first opportunity to experience life in the British countryside and it was quite eventful... :-D

I had applied for this project called the International Students Weekend in Amersham where, together with another 32 students from 18 different countries, I was placed with a host family for the weekend and participated in an old Amersham tradition – barn dancing. Me and Elham, an Iranian girl on an English language course at one of London's colleges, were hosted by the chairman of the organizing committee of the project, so we got to help out with the final preparations of the hall where the barn dance was taking place. This, of course, was very interesting for me, as – naturally – the barn dance is a sort of an event, so I got to see how it was done.

The Amersham barn dancing developed from the Scottish dancing tradition and is a predecessor of the American line dancing, which is very popular in the American West. It was quite different from anything I had ever experienced before and it was great fun – especially since the explanation of the dances took about 10 minutes, whereas the actual dancing took about 2-3 minutes all in all. LOL! :-D

The thing is that all the dances are performed in formations of 4 or 8 dancers who perform the moves according to the instructions from the Masters of the ceremony – in this case a couple who are leading the event. It was particularly funny seeing people messing up the steps and the moves and going in the opposite direction from the one they should be following, and although this caused quite a confusion, somehow it didn't matter – everyone – and I mean EVERYONE was having an amazing time!

Other than dancing, of course, we went out and did some sightseeing of the Old Amersham and we also went to a methodist service on Sunday morning, which was a great experience to contrast to the regular catholic services I am so used to attending (not that I have attended any in the last couple of years, but still...). For all interested, pics are in my online album and you can find it at http://picasaweb.google.com/palachinka/BarnDancingInAmershamMarch24252007.

So I want to thank again Eileen and Jerry – my hosts for the weekend – your kindness and hospitality are greatly appreciated and I hope someday to be able to return the favor. A big thank you also goes to reverend Fiona Weaver, the chaplain at my University, who was organizing the trip for the London Met students – without your effort we would not have had the opportunity to have such a great time! :-D

So there...

posted by Ivna R. @ 10:02 PM