TRAVERSE CITY -- Back in its heyday, the Bayside Travellers Country Dance Society drew scores of people to its contra dances, mostly baby boomers and back-to-the-landers.
For a time, the group's popularity continued strong. But as the boomers began to age and their children showed little interest in following in their footsteps, it looked to some as if the group might eventually fizzle out and die.
"I've been here when there were 12 people," said mandolinist Bill Van Liere, who has played more than 100 Bayside Travellers dances since the group's inception in the early 1980s.
Now Bayside is enjoying a revival, thanks to outreach efforts -- in schools and to other dance groups -- and to a wholly unexpected source of new blood: "It's homeschool kids almost unanimously," said Colin Hoekje, 17, who grew up with the Travellers by virtue of mom Pat Hoekje, one of a handful of original members. "As a group they decided it's a fun thing to do."
Longtime Bayside dancer and sound technician Dave Goodwin said the rise in youth attendance began about four or five years ago with homeschool students leading the charge. But charter school students, Interlochen students, Glen Lake students and Northwestern Michigan College students -- many of them graduates of dance instructor-advocate Mykl Werth's swing lessons -- also are among the vanguard of traditional American country dance.
"The tide is kind of turning. It's nice to see," said Goodwin, a clogger whose college-age son has other interests despite being exposed to folk festivals while growing up. "Someone has to fill in for us old folks."
Goodwin said one of the dance's most appealing aspects is "the human contact when you hold someone's hand and swing" as opposed to the "isolation" of rock-style dance.
But there's much more in its favor, said Bayside Travellers president Julie Brown.
"One of the things I like is that there's no smoking, there's no alcohol, you don't need a date, you don't need a partner," said Brown, who seeks out contra dances wherever she travels.
For whatever reason, young people are attending Bayside dances in droves, encouraged by free or reduced admission. Some, like fiddler Ruby John and sound apprentice Josh Boomer, also are stepping up to plate -- and to the microphone -- as volunteers.
Ashley Larson has been coming to the dances for about two years -- with and without partners -- and was among more than 80 teens and others who filled Gilbert Lodge at Twin Lake Camp last weekend for the Travellers' second dance of season. Events are held October through June, on the second Saturday of the month, to live music featuring Irish, Scottish, French Canadian and old-time tunes.
"You just dance with whoever," said Larson, 17, a homeschool senior from Traverse City who met up by chance with friend Nathan Shattuck, 18. "It's more fun when you have the old and the young together."
A traditional American set dance that has its roots in 17th-century English country dance -- and its name from French court dances of the period -- contra dance began in New England before spreading to the rest of the country. Couples dance in formation with new neighbors as they progress down a line.
Shattuck didn't know what contra dance was until friends, many of whom grew up on farms and whose parents were familiar with the style, dragged him to his first dance. Now he's a regular who often drags others along.
"As soon as a couple people your age say they like it, a lot of people will come," said the NMC student from Kingsley.
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