Settling Slowly

Chapter 32 - Barn Dancing

He called out all the movement as we danced. I looked at my feet to begin with to make sure I was doing the right thing and moved when Grigory did trying to match his stride length as we moved to the middle of the circle and then on the way back out. Then there was a clapping sequence to learn which was really easy – right hands, then left, then both hands on your knees and then your hands together. Then we did all that with music. After that it was the dance move that every child knew instinctively. The one where you lock right elbows with your partner and skip around in a circle to the count of four and then swap with the next person in the circle. When you met your new partner you began the dance again. The dance as a whole lasted until you got to the person you started with but even so, it wouldn't last long.

Once we'd learned the steps and run them through with some music a couple of times, each time going back to our original partner at the beginning, we then had a go with someone else so that we got used to doing the movements with someone new. I ended up with Dave. He was olive skinned and a full foot taller than me, but his smile was relaxed and he moved with ease no matter what he was doing. I knew that he'd danced before, even without the shoes I would have been able to tell, there was just something about him that screamed dancer.

"You got this?" he asked, his accent perfectly Oxford.

"I think so," I said.

The music started up then and the count into the music began.

"Sorry if I kick you," I said quickly.

He chuckled. "I'm used to it."

As the dance begun we both fell quiet and concentrated on what we were doing. I got through the whole thing no problem and then I was passed off to a woman and we ran through the dance again before being called to a stop.

"If you want to go back to your original partners we'll move onto the next dance. Another easy one before we move onto some more complicated things," Simon said. "This one's called 'Oh Susanna'."

And so the next couple of hours lasted. We practiced a dance in segments, put the segments together, added music and then ran through it a couple of times with different partners. Because we didn't spend long with the music I wasn't getting what the fascination with the dance form was, but I had to admit, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. With it being an old dance style I had imagined it as something like you'd find in Pride and Prejudice, the kind of dance with little to no beat that you couldn't sink your teeth into, but this... it had bounce. You literally bounced everywhere.

"We've got potatoes being cooked outside –"

"We get to eat now?" I asked far too loudly. Then my stomach rumbled really loudly too.

Everyone laughed.

"Oh the stomach of a teenager," Simon said wistfully. "Well, there's food outside and we've got a bonfire going. In an hour or so we'll properly go for it with the dancing as well." He put the mic down on top of one of the speakers and we all headed outside.

Round the back of the barn was a circle of hard packed dirt and the fire was in the middle of it. Hey bales had been set a safe distance away but still within the fire's warmth for sitting on. A couple of people, a man and a woman, were routing around in the hot ashes and pulling out balls of foil.

"They did the potatoes in the fire?" I asked Grigory.

"Looks like it," he said and squeezed my hand.

"That is awesome," I declared and we got into the queue.

Just out of the warmth of the fire were a couple of tables with dishes of fillings, salad and juices. I was given a huge potato and I filled it with beans and cheese. It was accompanied with beets, lettuces and some pasta and it all only just fit on the ceramic plate I was holding. To drink I had raspberry and apple juice from the small bottle which had been sitting in ice. We sat between Jose and Harvey, the gay couple who were in their forties, and a teenage couple called Alice and Matt.