I’ll add one other thought: contra expects or even requires very close contact with everyone in the room. Experienced dancers can sometimes swap with their partners in real time to avoid certain moves that prolong contact, and in large halls folks can try to stay to lines that avoid folks they prefer to avoid, but barring agreed-upon deals where, say, two folks only dance in different lines after a breakup, you should expect to be touching everyone in the room for potentially multiple minutes a night and have their face within 1-2 feet of yours for multiple minutes a night. I’ve even had a caller come and physically walk me from the line I was in to the line containing someone I had been trying to avoid.
I think this is relatively uncommon in other public situations, even other dance forms. Usually you have more discretion about who touches you or breathes on your face. An exception might be a very crowded bus or subway car, but in my experience skin to skin contact even there is fairly rare.
I think this expectation of universal semi-extended close contact does rightfully change the social norms a bit.
I’ll add one other thought: contra expects or even requires very close contact with everyone in the room. Experienced dancers can sometimes swap with their partners in real time to avoid certain moves that prolong contact, and in large halls folks can try to stay to lines that avoid folks they prefer to avoid, but barring agreed-upon deals where, say, two folks only dance in different lines after a breakup, you should expect to be touching everyone in the room for potentially multiple minutes a night and have their face within 1-2 feet of yours for multiple minutes a night. I’ve even had a caller come and physically walk me from the line I was in to the line containing someone I had been trying to avoid.
I think this is relatively uncommon in other public situations, even other dance forms. Usually you have more discretion about who touches you or breathes on your face. An exception might be a very crowded bus or subway car, but in my experience skin to skin contact even there is fairly rare.
I think this expectation of universal semi-extended close contact does rightfully change the social norms a bit.
Ah, this is really interesting and helps explain why low fragrence would become important in contra dance but not so important elsewhere!