Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travelTo dance with delight
By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 05/12/02
|
|
||
|
Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travel |
||
Konesni describes the variety of folk dance as "like square dancing but not as hokey. There are no poofy skirts, no big sleeves. But you do dance with a partner, and there's a caller who goes through all the steps." Before long, contra became "one of my obsessions," she said.
Each week, Konesni, who is 22 now and an art education major at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston, would make the contra dance circuit - Concord on Monday, Cambridge on Thursday, and Greenfield or somewhere in Maine on Saturday, along with special dances in other states.
In early February, she decided to travel even farther for a dance, or rather a week of dancing, at the fifth annual Tropical Dance Vacation on St. Croix, the largest of the US Virgin Islands (84 square miles).
Carlton, who, as he did back then, lives in Maine, joined her, and they danced the tropical nights away to decidedly untropical music.
The trip is organized by George Marshall of Belchertown, a member of the band Wild Asparagus, which performs for contra dances. The getaway is publicized on fliers at dances and at www.wildasparagus.com (click onto "Calendar.").
"I knew people who had gone the year before and said how wonderful it was," said Konesni, who returned with a similar report.
Marshall houses his 180 guests (the cost is $950 each, which includes dinners) at three hotel resorts. With two others, Konesni and Carlton shared a large suite that "overlooked a sandy beach with palm trees and turquoise water," she said. Dancers came from across the country, many from Oregon and Washington, with New Englanders in the minority. Two dancers who met at the event four years ago were married on the beach this year. "Everyone was invited to go. They had a steel drum player, and a nice ceremony at the water's edge," Konesni said.
Each night, two bands would play, Wild Asparagus and Big Table, from Albany, N.Y., in an idyllic setting.
"All the dancing was in this beautiful tent on top of a hill. There's a breeze coming in right off the water," she said. "Every night we danced until midnight. Wild Asparagus does jigs and reels, but kind of jazzy and funky. Big Table was serious string instruments, more blue-grassy, and old-timey. It was great to have both." One night members from a local island band played calypso and salsa.
"Those of us who knew how to salsa or do that kind of dance would do that. Others would make it up. And a whole group of kids came over from a development across the street," said Konesni.
Also, a group of locals taught the contra dancers quadrille dancing, a drill dance done in a quadrangle formation that originated in France and hit the British Isles in the early 19th century. "The guy who came to teach it didn't speak English, so we would all follow him. The kids all joined in too, and we taught them all how to contra dance."
The nightly catered dinners were themed. "One night it would be Italian, the next Indian. One night a whole bunch of restaurants came so we could get to try everything."
"During the day, George had organized people from town for things like scuba, snorkeling, horseback riding, bike riding, even a massage therapist." A couple of times Carlton went body surfing "at a fabulous wave beach," and another day joined a sailing and snorkeling tour at the underwater park Buck Island Reef National Monument. "They have huge plaques underwater identifying fish and coral, with a trail that you follow." Konesni ended up at the back of the group and at one point found herself alone, except for a watchful barracuda.
"It was giving me this ominous eye. I quickly caught up with everyone."
Send suggestions to
ddaniel@globe.com.