SANDPOINT - Being a dancer gave Emily Faulkner a leg up when she started to call the moves at community contra dances. She took up the caller's mantle only recently, after deciding to spearhead the resurgence of the movement- and music-filled social gatherings, which had been on hold for about seven years.

Working with Sandpoint Parks & Recreation as a co-sponsor, Faulkner revived the dances in May, drawing 70 people to the first event. Attendance grew for the second dance in June - a trend the caller thinks will continue when the dancers get together on Sept. 9, after taking the summer off.

One of the biggest draws for contra dance - so named because participants often face each other in lines or in opposite sets of partners - is its complete lack of social baggage or the weird vibes sometimes found in other social dance settings.

"There is an ethic in contra dance to invite people you don't know to dance and to help beginners," Faulkner said. "That's the fundamental thing about community dance - you open the door and everyone's included."

That means grandparents dancing with children, middle-aged people mingling with teens and, when the gender balance is off-kilter, women stepping up to dance the man's part or vice versa. In contra dance, no one has time to sit in judgment, because everyone is too busy having fun.

The Sandpoint event, the caller explained, was designed to be as beginner-friendly as possible, since this corner of the local dance community is still in the process of rebuilding itself. As the scene takes root and grows, she hopes to attract callers and musicians from around the region to take part in the monthly sessions.

"You have to start at the beginning to rebuild a contra dance core and make it easy for other callers to come to Sandpoint and call a dance without the particular accommodations needed with a predominately beginner crowd," Faulkner said.

As a French teacher for grades 1-8 at the Sandpoint Waldorf School, Faulkner knows how to work with novices and understands the importance of simple instructions and sequential learning. As a dancer, she knows how to make her calls weave into the music and allow those in the hall to move as one cohesive group, not in disparate knots of separate dancers. It is a skill she sought after rediscovering folk dance after years away from the activity.

Having fallen in love with community dance at an early age, Faulkner grew into a 20-something hoofer who would drive great distances to get in on a contra dance. Children and work intervened for a number of years, but new life chapters opened the door for a return to the dance floor. Once there, she began to watch and listen to the callers more closely and noticed what a powerful effect the good ones had on the way people moved to the music.

"I started to think, 'I can do this,'" she said, adding that it wasn't long before she enrolled in a Spokane Folklore Society caller's class, followed by another series of calling instruction at a summer dance camp.

Wanting to dive deeper into these waters, Faulkner began to learn jigs, reels and other song styles on her recorder as a way to further investigate the mathematical and structural underpinnings of each dance form. That information, meanwhile, becomes transparent once she steps in front of a group and begins to call.

"I don't belabor the form, but you can tell them things like, 'There are eight steps in a phrase and every phrase can be heard in the music,'" she said.

According to Faulkner, it takes two or three times for most new contra dancers to get their bearings and gain familiarity with the cues and calls involved.

"But it's a very forgiving environment, because you get a 'do-over' with different people every 30 seconds," she said.

In a world where social networking has become analogous to updating your Facebook page, Faulkner paints contra dance as both a healthy way to interact with others and to come in contact with a cultural touchstone in the form of a dance that has long been used to celebrate, communicate and educate.

Ever the teacher, she offered the example of a song titled, "Hull's Victory" - originally written when the U.S.S. Constitution won a battle with a British vessel in 1812.

"It's living history," she said. "When the Constitution won that battle, somebody wrote a tune and a dance to commemorate the victory - and it's still danced today."

Faulkner's first encounter with calling came at a dance held as part of the Clark Fork Centennial celebration. There were more people on the floor at the end of the dance than there were at the beginning, which she took as a good sign.

One thing she has learned by standing in front of a group of dancers, rather than mixing it up on the floor with them, is that, when things are going right, the caller becomes part of the band, even as the band blends seamlessly into the rhythmic movement that surrounds it.

"When you match the tunes and the calling up and there are hundreds of feet hitting the floor in syncopated balance, it's joyous," the caller said. "It rocks the hall."

The Sandpoint Contra Dance is held on the second Friday of each month, from 7-10 p.m. at Sandpoint Community Hall, with a requested donation of $5 per person. The next dance is scheduled for Sept. 9. For information: (208) 263-6751