There was a point in my life when I really needed to find a social group outside my work life. Some friends I met playing music at an open mic-night thought I’d like the Indy Contra-dance at 421 E Vermont St.in Indianapolis, IN. It was a group that danced traditional square-dancy dances in straight lines with live fiddle music.
They told me contra-dancing was easy to learn. Every dance was taught by the caller in a ‘walk through’ before dance started. Everything was explained, what you were going to do, which way you needed to travel, and how the dance progressed. Even folks like myself who were convinced that they had no aptitude for dancing were welcome and could quickly figure it out.
So I went, and found something fun to do, and people who were fun to hang out with. It was the group I needed to find. Decades later most of my friends are contra-dancers, and just about anywhere I go there is a contra-dance community nearby and a dance to attend.