Mind Game?

I was emailing with Greg just now about what it was that made Sunday's contra such a fantastic experience for me. He asked if it was "Gaye's calling? The complexity of the dances? The great music? The competent dancers from all over the US?" My answer was "all of the above"--it's a synergistic kind of thing, of course.

One of the dances in particular stands out for me. I think it was the one called "Lost in Space" (or it might have been the one right before or after that one). Those of you who were there will probably know which one I mean--it has you doing an allemande with your neighbor, I think, then pulling by your partner, the next person, turning the next one left and coming all the way back.... Something like that.... (Can you tell I'm not a caller yet?)

Anyway, the point is that the energy of that dance was so high that I wasn't the only one yipping and shouting for the sheer joy of it. And I wonder if Gaye, our fabulous caller, pulled a little trick on us to set us up for that experience: As she taught the dance, she kept saying that she'd seen it break down many, many times, and that we'd do it until somebody fell down, and then she'd ask the band to quit. She actually said that about a couple of dances, as I recall. At the time I wondered why she was "scaring" us, but now I wonder if she was deliberately adding to the anticipation, and to the exhilaration when we actually did it right. I mean, she knew she had a hall full of really good dancers who could more than likely pull it off....

What think, you all?