* Between The Sea (the Med) and The Alps -- {Pronounce: ontruh la mair eh lay zalp}

Monday, December 22, 2014

Having a country Christmas

Country Christmas 01Our village has an annual Christmas market; and ever since the country dance class got started, they always do a little demo during the market.  It actually was in watching them one year that we got interested in that being an activity for us to try.  Too bad we hadn't started when they did originally, as we'd be a lot more advanced now. 

We had a party instead of a lesson our next class time after the demo, and I thought I'd share how we try to have fun sometimes!

Country Christmas 02
Don't Worry Be Happy

This is our third year taking the class, so this is the third time we've performed at Christmas.  This year our class did two dances, while the advanced class did three others. 

This demo is always a real big hit at the marché, it's the only local dance class that does one.

If you care to see a bunch of locals having fun, you can check out the videos.  Our teacher kept changing the program, and I ended up having the wrong dance in my head for our first one, so I really messed up in front of everybody!   This is a medley of all five dances.  But if you just want to see the ones we were in, these can be seen independently.

A little bit country

A little bit Christmas

Country Christmas 03
It's party time!
Country Christmas 04
Belles of the ball
Our teacher loves to party and dress up in costumes, and Christmas was no exception.  She even dressed up her partner, who is also a dance teacher.  So you can possibly imagine the ambiance we experienced all evening.  Some of the rest of us added to the ambiance ourselves.

Country Christmas 05
Let's dance
While we had plenty of time to just hang out if we wanted, we did do a lot of group dances.  We were a combination of several classes, not all of them country, so there was a bit of learning going on besides known steps.

Country Christmas 06
Coordinating everybody
As none of this comes naturally to me, I was always watching somebody else to see what to do.  However, we did our demo dances, too, and I did our first one perfectly. Of course, as nobody was watching me!

The French love doing a conga line when they party, and we've even gone in and out of bedrooms in tiny apartments in one.  This time was no exception.  They managed to drag Doc Leo into it, while I escaped to take pictures!

Country Christmas 07
We can do a conga line
Country Christmas 08
Well, sort of

Country Christmas 11
Time to eat and drink
Country Christmas 10
Enough apple pies?

As with any party anywhere, everybody brought food. 

While there is usually a bit more diversity, this time just about anybody who didn't bring a quiche brought an apple pie.  There were four of them! Chocolates are always good, too.  I'm American, I took cupcakes!

Country Christmas 12
Breaking out in song

Our village offers a number of different classes one can take, and several in our group also are involved in a chorale.

They finished off our little party with a spontaneous mini-concert, which was an enjoyable ending to an enjoyable evening.

I hope you are also having a great wind-up yourselves to this joyous holiday season.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds fun and a bit of exercise to boot!

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  2. You did mess up, but only at the beginning. The rest of it went fine. You also weren't the only one that struggled with that song. I was watching it, thinking that even once you recovered the steps, you still looked a little tense and not really having much fun. Then I watched the second one, and realized that there were a lot of tense people in the first one. The whole crew was relaxed in the second one and were obviously enjoying themselves so much more.

    *sigh* I'm tired of working all the time and having no life. I miss doing fun things like this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You look so cute and you caught up and did great. I think it's amazing that you can get Craig to do this with you. Everybody looks like they're having the best time possible.... and a great party afterwards!

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