Contr dance filetype pdf

This page is devoted to listing resources about contra dances ranging from dance compositions to e-mail groups, to essays to miscellaneous sites. URLs and e-mail addresses are listed when available. New entries, additional information, and changes in information are always welcome. Links to other pages in the www.contradancelinks.com web site are listed at the bottom of the page.

New links are simply new to me, not necessarily new to the World Wide Web. Change in URL means that a link has changed its WWW address or URL.

• Greg Hopkins has produced a graphical contra dance designer. Warning: it only works with Internet Explorer. Way cool
• Scott Percic has designed a contra dance design tool that works best when viewed using Google Chrome and Firefox. Internet Explorer and mobile versions are on their way. New entry (August 5, 2017)
• The Contra/Country Dance Markup Language Project is intended to be a method of describing a contra dance (or other, similarly structured, folk dances) in a form that can be read and written by both humans and machines.
• CallersCorner is a new site, aimed primarily towards callers. It includes links of interest for callers: Choreographers, The Ralph Page Legacy Weekend, Michael Dycks index, various sites (among which you will find Contradancelinks!) and a great collection of terms. It is in Danish, but Google may help translating!
• Cary Ravitz presents Notes on Composing Contras by Al Olson, based on handwritten notes from 1988. New entry (June 14, 2009)
• Michael Dyck is working to index every contra dance ever published. You can find information on over 6000 dances at his site.
• Hugh Stewart has compiled descriptions of over 140 contra dances by various authors plus links to lists of other dance compositions.
• Russell Owen and Michael Richardson maintain the database known as American Country Dances On Line which contains over 290 dances by diverse composers.
• David's Dance Caller's Home Page is a web site is a forum for contra and square dance callers to share dances they have adapted or created. It includes dances by his friends including Keith Hunt, Peter Jorgensen, Amy Kahn, Bob Nicholson, Micah Smukler, and himself. Change in URL (April 4, 2019)
• CONNtra Dances provides information about contras created by Connecticut Callers. Change in URL (April 15, 2018)
• Kiran Wagle's site includes a page of dances by numerous authors.
• An American Ballroom Companion presents a collection of over two hundred social dance manuals, written between (c.1490) and 1929, at the Library of Congress.
• The University of New Hampshire Library has an index to dances printed in Ralph Page's Northern Junket as part of its digitized collection of the newsletter.
• The University of New Hampshire Library special collections include the papers of Ernie Spence including his time on the board of NEFFA from 1977-1984 and miscellaneous papers. New entry (March 17, 2018)
• While not contras, Bill Martin's A Look at Southern Squares has plenty of information about this close relative to contra dances.
• Jonathan Sivier, researching the manuscripts of the New Harmony Community in Indiana and Pennsylvania, writes about the dances contained in a volume called "Community Dances, 1826" which includes quadrilles or cotillions and longways set dances. Slight change of URL (September 27, 2010)
• Cary Ravitz had the largest index of links to compositions by various callers. New entry (February 22, 2017)
• The Austin Barn Dancers include 11 dances by Texas choreographers on their web site. New entry (February 22, 2017)
• The Childgrove Country Dancers in St. Louis, Missouri have compiled information and compositions of dances created by callers in the area. New entry (October 27, 2017)
• Connie Carringer and her colleagues are compiling a Southern Dance Collection, a collection of contra dances and short essays on Southern Contra Dance to celebrate and explore the unique and vibrant dance communities that have developed throughout the South. New entry (October 27, 2017)
• Michael Fuerst has composed a list of easy contra dances created by various callers. (rft file) New entry (December 30, 2017)
• Sam Whited's Contra Card project is designed to aid in the formatting and typesetting of caller cards for traditional square and line dances. The project comprises a LATEX package (contracard.sty) and a LATEX class (contracard.cls). The package provides the core functionality of Contra Card while the class file acts as a convenience wrapper for making calling cards. (starter file in pdf format) New entry (December 30, 2017)
• Contradb.com allows callers and others to explore contra dances using advanced figure search, choosing from hundreds of dances in a live, cloud-based, crowd-sourced database. New entry (May 7, 2018)

• John Chambers has a collection of abc music (alternate site). From Chris Walshaw's site: ""abc" is a language designed to notate tunes in an ascii format. It was designed primarily for folk and traditional tunes of Western European origin (such as Irish, English and Scottish) which can be written on one stave in standard classical notation. However, it is extendible to many other types of music. Since its introduction at the end of 1991 it has become very popular and there now exist several PC and UNIX based tools which can read abc notation and either process it into staff notation or play it through the speakers of a computer." Chamber's collection includes notations for a number of pieces used for contra dances.
• Lisa Sieverts has posted several reviews of contra music CDs.
• The Contradancers of Hawaii include a page of Sources of traditional music on the Web at their site.
• For some words of advice to musicians playing music at dances, try these notes by Eric Foxley.
• Matt McConeghy has produced a page of Rhode Island and southeastern Mass contra music and other varieties of traditional music.
• Along the River is an exciting collection of reels, jigs, waltzes, and other dance tunes written in the last twenty-five years by musicians of the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont and is edited by Susan F. Conger. A companion CD was released at the end of 2000.
• Great Meadow Music has a catalog of contra dance music, specializing in New England Contra Music, on CDs.
• Contracopia is where you can find contra dance music, CD's, and tapes from all over the country. Some music is available for listening on Real Audio or MP2 formats. They are based in Vermont. Change of URL (February 16, 2019)
• The Rambles Celtic music site includes information and reviews of Celtic music, which, as you might expect, adjoins the overall contra dance music culture.
• Ryan Thomson reviews music CDs that may or may not be limited to music to dance to. Change of URL (June 17, 2010)
• The Slowplayers has information about a number of Slow Play Seisiúns across the country plus files to help you learn the tunes.
• Green Man Review covers the roots and branches of folk and traditional music including works by various contra dance bands and musicians.
• CONNtra CONNection has a page of 91 tunes by Connecticut musicans from a book called The Connecticut Sound. Change of URL (April 15, 2018)
• The BBC has a Virtual Session web site with help from a number of prominent players from the UK whom you can play along with.
• Greg Anderson keeps track of the tunes that he has composed at various times.
• Jon Weinberg, of Wild Card, has several workshop handouts that are helpful for dulcimer players playing contra dance music and waltzes.
• The University of Aberdeen has a site devoted to the work of James Scott (J. Scott or J. S.) Skinner, aka the "Strathspey King" whose tunes are used at numerous dances.
• Michael Mendelson has sheet music for about three dozen tunes which he has written.
• Paul Giblitz has posted information on 160 of his tunes for download as PDF, Midi and ABC files.
• Lesley Nelson has created a site about Turlough O'Carolan, an Irish composer for the harp in the 17th and 18th centuries whose compositions are played at contra dances.
• Eric Anderson has a page containing examples of medleys and what works OR doesn't work with what.
• Eric Anderson includes notes on Cathie Whitesides' 2000 Workshop on Northern Fiddle Tunes for contra dancing.
• Jane Keefer continues to update her Folk Music - An Index to Recorded Resources which is a valuable resource for tracking down tune titles, bands, and recordings, especially for contra dance musicians looking for information about tunes from the old-time music genre.
• Alan Ng's exhaustive Irish Traditional Music Tune Index can help you track down recordings and tune information for the Irish part of the contra dance music repertoire.
• The Session takes a more wiki approach to a Celtic tune database with listings of recordings and tunes and plenty of discussion from its members.
• Archives of the list serve fiddle-l are available and searchable (if you are a member). Of course, the list serve covers a wide range of topics, but contra dancing comes up every once and a while.
• Greg Anderson provides information about at least 40 of his tunes.
• Pam Weeks rotates the sheet music for about three dozen of her tunes.
• Rick Mohr includes some of his musical compositions on his web site.
• David DiGiuseppe has sheet music for 14 of this tune compositions. Change of URL (April 4, 2009)
• Ethan Hazzard-Watkins lists more than two dozen tunes along with information about his tune book on his web site. Change of URL (April 10, 2018)
• There's a start to a list of contra dance music on CDs.
• Robert Cox hosts a biweekly radio show and podcast called Contracast featuring contra dance music.
• Richard Robinson's Tunebook is a collection of traditional tunes, and new tunes in traditional styles. Scots tunes, Irish tunes, Scandinavian, French, Balkan and more. Site has problems (April 4, 2009)
• Hetzler's Fake Book has MIDI files and/or sheet music for approximately 312 tunes.
• Otter's fiddle site includes a list of sites that include fiddle music with abc files, sound files, notation files, and lyrics.
• Mickey Koth has developed an excellent web bibliography of tune collections on the Internet. I'll be eliminating any duplicates from my list sometime in the near future. Change of URL (June 1, 2009)
• The Contradancers of Hawaii Web site have about 32 Tunes in abc format.
• Spuds, the house band for the Thursday night contra series in the Philadelphia area, provides plenty of help in learning tunes commonly played at contra dances.
• Dave Marshall has information about the Irish fiddle tunes played at his local session at Irish Heather.
• The New Mexico edition of Roaring Jelly has sheet music for many of the tunes that they play, in abc and pdf.
• Good Parking, a UK Band, has a list of tunes that the band plays in pdf and abc format.
• The Albuquerque Megaband has mp3 snippets of many of the tunes they play plus an archive of tunes in ABC format (pdf). Change of URL (April 10, 2018)
• The Lancaster Traditional Society's contra dance has built a Sheet Music Archive for traditional contra dance tunes.
• Paul Fackler's tune collection specializes in transcriptions of more than 200 Cape Breton tunes.
• The Slowplayers have compiled music sheets for more than 100 tunes (mostly Celtic) in various formats.
• The Folk Guitar site has listings of Chords for a wide range of folk songs including instrumental tunes.
• The Wandering Whistler has a large archive of music from various sources. Change of URL (September 27, 2010)
• The Dallas Area Contra Bands web site has music for about 36 tunes.
• The Grand River Folk Arts Society has some information about tunes (with chords) played at local jams.
• The British Columbia Kitchen Party has some mp3's and notation for tunes plays at its sessions.
• Graham McDonald of Australia has posted a collection of Australian dance music including set tunes, mazurkas, polkas, schottiches, varsonvianas and waltzes.
• Eric Foxley has a database of about 1200 folk melodies, mostly British & American. They mostly come from the repertoire over the years of Fred Folks Ceilidh Band, and are intended as music for dancing.
• Andrew Kuntz's The Fiddler's Companion along with extensive notes about thousands of tunes, has tune information in abc format for many of them.
• The Rum and Onions Band has sheet music in .tif and .gif formats for tunes which the band has played at various R & O concerts. However, you have to be/have been a Rum & Onions member to use the site. Search engine for tunes in the public domain. Added public domain search engine (April 10, 2018)
• Peter Yarensky has included a variety of tunes here from many sources including the Wednesday night jam session in Durham, New Hampshire and by the Lamprey River Band with any degree of frequency. He has included background information as well.
• While not specific to contra dance music, Fiddle Fork is an on-line fiddle community.
• The Nashville Old-Time String Band Association has tune packages which includes notation, chords, lyrics (when available), and mp3 and midi files.
• Martin Jenkins has a list of sites with printable music some of which may be of interest to contra dance musicians.
• Folk Fiddle in Florida has chords for tunes played at the Orlando Wednesday night jam. (Word document)
• David Kaynor has .gif files for tunes which he has composed. He also has abc and pdf files of a number of other tunes.
• Larry Unger includes abd and pdf files for 10 of this tunes on his site.
• The Cincinnati Open Band has files for the tunes that they play or are working on.
• The Monday Night All-Stars of Louisville, who play for the, wait for it, Monday night dances, have produced a list of the tunes played most often in mp3 format. New entry (January 25, 2017)
• The Tucson Open Band has sheet music, including chord notations, for many of the tunes it plays in sessions and at dances. New entry (August 12, 2017)
• Contra Dan's, the Houston Area Traditional Dance Society's open band, along with providing links to other tune source sites, has its own listings of tunes that it uses. New entry (October 27, 2017)
• The Big Round Band of Cambridge, England has a variety of tunes in a variety of formats including notations for bass players.
• The folks at The Portland Collection have an extensive list of web sites of the composers who have tunes in their tune books.
• The music book seller, Mel Bay has a wide selection of mp3s on its site. New entry (June 7, 2009)
• Brendan Taaffe more than of his 20 tunes and songs. New entry (June 7, 2009)
• Freds Folks Ceilidh Band has a connection to the Nottingham Folk Music Database which contains a wide variety of reels, jigs, hornpipes, waltzes and slip jigs (plus bunches of miscellaneous tunes. New entry (June 7, 2009)
• The Last Minute String Band has Dance Medley or Chord Charts for your personal use and educational purposes. These are public and for band members. They are to be used for "educational purposes." New entry (June 17, 2009)
• Princeton's Mixed Age Dance Band has sheet music in several different forms along with some MIDI files. New entry (June 21, 2009)
• The band, Contranella, has a tunebook of pieces composed by members of the band. New entry (June 21, 2009)
• Violinsheetmusic.org provides a pdf file of Ryan's Mammoth Collection, a well-known collection of fiddle music. New entry (January 17, 2010)
• Ceolas carries notation for several hundred traditional tunes, in various formats, along with music software and an index of most published tune sources and links to other sites with tunes and songs. New entry (February 19, 2017)
• Appcordions provides realistic sounding and playing irtual Accordion, Concertina, Flute, Whistle, Bagpipes, and Hammered Dulcimer apps that musicians can use to play and practice anywhere! New entry (February 19, 2017)
• There's a start of a catalog of contra dance music tune books. New entry (September 19, 2016)
• Seattle's Slower Than Dirt has posted its Slow/Beginner Jam Tunebook. New entry (April 6, 2017)
• A site to document the fiddling of Prince Edward Island in Canada with its strong fiddling tradition: a blend of Scottish, Irish and Acadian French influences, Bowing Down Home provides information and recordings of the tunes, music, and people associated with this style. New entry (August 13, 2017)
• The Montreal Session Tunebook is a resource for traditional music with a particular focus on music played in the Montreal sessions. This includes music in the Irish and Quebecois traditions as well as music from England, France and elsewhere. Many of the tunes are written as they are played in the sessions around the Montreal area and so might be slightly different from versions played elsewhere. New entry (November 8, 2017)
• Josh Turknett created Old-Time Jam which provides backup tracks to a number of old-time fiddle tunes so musicians learning the tunes can play along with the recordings. New entry (February 19, 2018)
• Tune db, the traditional music database is set up so that you can input the first few notes of a tune and learn which one it is. New entry (February 19, 2018)
• The sheet music for the tunes by Paul Rosen and recorded by Floorplay on the album, Block Party, are available the band's web site. New entry (March 17, 2018)
• Slippery Hill has hundreds of original source recordings of fiddle tunes available for streaming, including many of those published in the Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes and Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes by Jeff Todd Titon. New entry (March 24, 2018)
• Charlie Walden has provided transcriptions of almost 300 of his favorite tunes. New entry (April 10, 2018)
• Seth Houston has published the music for two dozen of his compositions. New entry (April 10, 2018)
• Melody Assistant is dedicated to music writing, printing and rendering. New entry (April 10, 2018)

• Charles Roth has a page of dance icons that he used in creating the Ann Arbor (AACTMAD) site. Problems with site (September 27, 2010)
• Noriko Takahashi in Japan has produced a fantastic page of animated square dance steps. Since many the steps are used in contradancing, this page can be quite helpful in learning some of the movements.
• If you are looking for musical Instruments, accessories, recordings, books, and videos relevant to contradancing, Elderly Instruments is a good place to start.
• McNeela Music is on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, with Irish flutes, bodhrans, stringed instruments, and concertinas for sale along with a number of other items.
• Looking for recipes? Try Ted Crane's newsletter Folk Stuff for the occasional treat. For a list of cookie recipes used at the Rehoboth, MA dances, visit Contra Cookies.
• The University of New Hampshire hosts the Library of Traditional Music & Dance as part of their special collections including papers of a number of individuals involved in contradance.
• Folk Roots a/k/a Froots is a U.K. magazine covering roots, folk and world music. Given their extensive listings, there is enough crossover to include them.
• The Lloyd Shaw Dance Archives, located in the Library of the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado, consist of books, periodicals, sound and picture recordings, callers' notes, dance camp syllabi, cue sheets, and special collections relating to square, round, contra, and other specialized forms of dance.
• Dance Books Ltd. is an international centre for books, CDs, DVDs & videos and sheet music on all forms of dance.
• Many of June Harman's paintings are illustrations of folk dance, including contra dance.
• The Old-Time Herald is a regular publication that celebrates the love of old-time music -- grassroots or home-grown music and dance.
• If you ever need a contra dance bumper sticker, Instant Attitudes may be of interest.
• The Folk Times supplies information about a wide range of folk music (from baroque and Renaissance to country and bluegrass) and dance in New York, Vermont, and western Massachusetts.
• Andrea Setzer has several short Quicktime/mpg movies of contradancing (from the VFW Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Check out the text of A Man Without a Country for a mention of contra dancing (about the middle of the story).
• For another literature quote that mentions contra dancing, check this section of Little Women.
• The Dance-A-Runi store includes contra dance T-shirts showing some of the various moves in a contra dance as different runes.
• In the United Kingdom, the Cotswold Music Supply has a decent amount of dance compositions and music for sale. Possible problem with site (April 4, 2009)
• Strum Hollow features a contra dance T-shirt in its catalog.
• Richard Albanese has produced several waltz videotapes. This is not the ballroom waltz, but the type of waltzing done at contra dances.
• For those who might end up at the business end of the sound board at a contra dance, the best starting point is Bob Mills' All Mixed Up which can be purchased at the Country Dance and Song Society. There is a supplement to the book and Andy Wilson has a few notes on sound reinforcement and Wes Maluk contributes his thoughts on sound. In addition to all that, Bob Mills has written about On-board mics. And there is a mailing list, the Contra Dance Sound Forum.
• David Cottle outlines ten myths regarding sound systems in PA Mythology along with a few rules of thumb.
• Dan Pearl writes of the The Annotated Ten Commandments for Contra Sound Engineers. New entry (September 7, 2016)
• Lisa Marie Lunt shared Shaun Wall's post of April 21, 2016 concerning high decibel levels for music and hearing preservation. New entry (March 30, 2017)
• The London School of Sound created a short video about How to Coil Cables. New entry (November 8, 2017)
• Jeff Kaufman wrote in 2011 about the contra dance sound system that he uses (there is an update from 2013. New entry (March 24, 2018)
• Australian Heritage Dance has information about Australian Bush, Colonial and Traditional Dances.
• National Public Radio's "All Songs Considered" has included music from two contra dance CDs, "The Portland Collection Vol. 1" and the "The Portland Collection Vol. 2".
• New Hampshire Public Radio featured an interview with noted musician and composer Bob McQuillen in this broadcast from February 2004.
• WERU in Maine features the Belfast Flying Shoes dance series in a radio broadcast in 2007 (look for the link at the bottom of the page).
• Caller George Marshall is interviewed at the 2009 Canberra National Folk Festival about contra dancing - what it is, where it is going today - with interviewer Malcolm Fielding, of Hobart. New entry (August 16, 2009)
• Peter Bull, Walter Daves and Doug Singleton are interviewed on WPPR about all things contra with an emphasis on the Sautee, Dahlonega and Atlanta dances. Look for "Community Life in NE Georgia" with a date of April 22, 2011. New entry (May 1, 2011)
• Reverend Chris Buice talks about Whirling Dervishes at the Contra Dance (Word document) in this sermon from August 15, 2010. An audio version is also available. New entry (May 1, 2011)
• In this episode of Real People, Real Stories on WFDD, the program examines how clear directions and toe tappin' music help one man overcome a life-long fear. New entry (May 9, 2011)
• WMUR-TV broadcast a story of contradancing in New Hampshire. New entry (May 9, 2011)
• Maine Public Radio/TV produced a story on contra dancing in Maine on March 18, 2016 featuring Dugan Murphy, Kim Roberts, Greg and Jessie Boardman and the band Henry Road. New entry (January 6, 2017)
• The Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society is the subject of this five-minute documentary on the revival of old-time music and square dancing among young people in Seattle. New entry (January 6, 2017)
• The Canadian Broadcasting Company produced a September 2016 radio report about square dancing in British Columbia: Square dancing making 'major comeback' on West Coast. New entry (February 27, 2017)
• Here's the link to the 2010 radio story on National Public Radio about contra dancing.
• WKU in Western Kentucky broadcast this December 2015 story: Dancing Well Offers Veterans with PTSD and TBI a Way to Ease into Civilian Life about Deborah Denenfeld's program. New entry (March 19, 2017)
• BBC Radio Devon broadcast this report on Gender Free Dance on April 1, 2017 with Jeremy Child, Chris Ricciotti and Rachel Elliott. New entry (April 2, 2017)
• WMUA (UMass Amherst Radio) broadcast this story about the Wednesday dance series in Amherst in August 2015. New entry (April 8, 2017)
• North County Public Radio (NCPR) ran a story about Phil Jamison's visit to the Traditional Arts of Upstate New York in Canton in June 2017. New entry (July 24, 2017)
• The Monodock Summer Lyceum recorded this presentation on August 16, 2015 of Skip Gorman and Gordon Peery tracing the evolution of New England contra-dance music by discussing and performing examples of different genres that contribute to the New England style. New entry (July 30, 2017)
• WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina ran this radio story in 2015 The Music and Moves of the Cape Fear Contra Dancers. New entry (August 13, 2017)
• North Country (New York State) Public Radio talks with caller Beth Robinson in A contra dance caller talks moves and music as part of this 2015 radio story. New entry (August 13, 2017)
• NHPR speaks with one of the leaders of the contra scene in New Hampshire, and learn how the dance is living on through in the modern era in Swing Your Partner: Democracy and Change in New Hampshire's Contra Dance Scene from 2018. New entry (January 27, 2018)
• WBUR's "Radio Boston" spoke with Eden MacAdam-Somer and Larry Unger, of the band Notorious in 2010 in this radio interview. New entry (April 4, 2018)
• In 2008, Whitney Eulich produced a piece for NHPR called Forget the Safety Dance. It's Time to Contradance! after visiting a contra dance in Maine. New entry (April 4, 2018)
• Vermont Public Radio with ane Lindholm, Mary Williams and Sam Gale Rosen produced Square, Contra and Henry Ford: The History And Lasting Appeal Of Country Dancing in 2018. New entry (May 9, 2018)
• Rick Ganley of New Hampshire Public Radio goest on a Radio Field Trip: Contra Dancing (For the Very First Time). New entry (May 13, 2018)
• Judith Laura's 2003 poem called 'Contradance".
• David Quinn's 2013 poem called "A Contra Dance Rhyming Story". New entry (January 12, 2013)
• The Dance Ambassadors site provides information, resources and encouragement to help traditional dance organizers, callers, musicians and dancers to share the joy.
• Brian Schott has started a push-pin map (via Google) of dance locations to which dance organizers and others can add information. New entry (June 7, 2009)
• Datehookup.com provides some information on the History of Modern Ballroom Dance which is not quite the same as the waltzes, etc. that are done at contra dances, but the information is helpful nevertheless. Change in URL (February 3, 2019)
• Orin Nisenson created a poster to encourage dancing responsibly which the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield has available for sale.
• That Which Is Good sells dance related clothing inspired by contra dances held in Rindge, New Hampshire. New entry (December 7, 2009)
• A study was done in 2010 concerning contra dancing and neurochemicals. New entry (April 19, 2011)
• DanceFlix rents out instructional DVDs for dancing, including waltzing. New entry (July 16, 2011)
• Contredanse, a novel by Kenneth Cohen, includes contra dance events as part of the novel's background. New entry (November 28, 2011)
• WMMT (Whitesburg, Kentucky) in its broadcast of April 11, 2016 looks into whethersquaredance is a mountain tradition we want to put the resources of time and money toward saving in our communities? New entry (February 24, 2017)
• West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Inside Appalachia produced an episode in 2015 about Mountain Music Young and Old including stories of square dance junkies who are fanning the flames for a new generation of old time music fans, young indie rock musicians who hope to challenge Appalachian stereotypes in West Virginia and banjo players who are teaching age old tunes to young musicians and more. New entry (August 12, 2017)
• Noc na Tanečku (Night at the Dance) is a 2011 short film which profiles Sefcik Hall, in Seaton, one of the last true Czech dance halls in Texas, and the elderly folk that still come there each Sunday to wax the floor and dance the polka, even as they struggle with old age, illness, and in some cases, death. New entry (August 5, 2017)
• Dance Socks are a "sock" that you wear over dance shoes, sneakers, etc.
• Dancing Into Retirement is a group of dancers/musicians in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC, that have been researching and educating each other about options for people who want to live in community and enter old age dancing and making music together. New entry (April 8, 2017)
• Dance Kaleidoscope provides animated choreography for a number of types of dances including a few contra dance. New entry (July 30, 2017)
• Will Loving published a series of photographs of Info Signs from Seattle and Elsewhere about dance etiquette. New entry (July 30, 2017)
• The Wednesday contra dance series in Amherst published a history, based on notes from lydia ievins, David Kaynor and Ralph Sweet of the Contra Dance Birthday Round, sung at dances in Rehoboth and other locales. New entry (July 30, 2017)
• April Blum created the Periodic Table of Contra purchase of which helps fund scholarships for young dancers at FootFall. The CDSS has a blog entry in which she discussed how it was created. New entry (July 30, 2017)
• Want to get a geographic perspective of where contra dancing is popular in the United States? Jeff Kaufman produced this Heat Map in 2014 showing where the dance concentrations exist. New entry (October 27, 2017)
• The New England Folk Festival Association is mentioned in the this 2013 Pearls Before Swine comic strip. New entry (November 29, 2017)
• The goal of Ask Me to Dance is "Furthering Consent Culture in Dance Communities". New entry (January 4, 2018)
• The Old Farmers' Ball in Asheville, North Carolina has archived its newsletters from 2006 to 2011 along with a few essays. New entry (March 17, 2018)
• There is a Google document of information about possible spaces for dances in the Boston area last updated in 2016. New entry (March 23, 2018)
• Doug Plummer writes about Dance Photos that Don't Suck--a work in progress which was preparation for Take Great Dance Photos. New entry (March 24, 2018)
• Part of a longer program produced by Jane Lindholm and Sage Van Wing for Vermont Public Radio in 2014 included a story called Why We Dance with the concept that dance is just another form of movement. New entry (March 24, 2018)
• In this article about David Mogk and three collaborators from other institutions winning a 2009 Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) it is mentioned that he uses contra dance and other old-time dances to teach abstract concepts in mineralogy. Teaching Symmetry Using Kinesthetic Learning–An Exercise Using "Old Time" Dances. New entry (April 10, 2018)
• Several people and organizations have compiled quotes about dance:
  • Annabelle
  • Jane Austen
  • Peter Y. Chou
  • Cyber-Nation
  • Dancers in Motion
  • Dancing with Words
  • Rhod Davies
  • D Duncan
  • Emily
  • Patri Friedman
  • Leslie Hyll; (my favorite place to start)
  • Scott and Kristy Nilsson
  • Professor Tom
  • Quote Garden
  • Toronto Social Dance
  • Yasmina
  • rec.folk-dancing.
  • Probably the fullest explanation, certainly the one that has the most links to it among all the contra dance pages in the world, is Gary Shapiro's What Is Contra Dance?
  • A Contra Dance Primer by Les Francey and Farrell Boyce of the Hamilton Country Dancers [Ontario, Canada] provides answers to some basic contra dance questions.
  • The Folk Project of New Jersey includes George V. Otto's Contra Dancing Explained.
  • Hugh Stewart has a brief description of What is Contra Dance at the Cambridge, England web site.
  • Jonathan Sivier's Introduction to Contra Dance is an adaptation of the New England Folk Festival Association's essay.
  • David Smukler and Mike Miller, from the Syracuse [New York] Country Dancers, include What is contradancing? at the Syracuse site.
  • Terms You Need to Know (& Understand) For English Country Dancing from the Country Dancers of New York [City> site provides descriptions of various moves in English Country Dancing. They many not be exactly the same as in contradancing, but still may provide some help.
  • Elements of English Country Dance from the book by the same name by Hugh Stewart, includes plenty of information on contra dance moves including the California Twirl.
  • Rob Lindauer What's Contra Dance? provides an answer to the question.
  • John Gustin supplies instructions on how to dance the Hambo, the Schottische, and the Polka, all of which are sometimes danced during an evening of contradancing.
  • Jim Battisson supplies A Glossary of Dance Terms, written for International folk dancers in Australia, many of which are used in contradancing. Change of URL (July 6, 2019)
  • Chip Hedler includes information on contra dance terms, basic figures, history, and manners in his It LOOKS like they're having fun, (but what the heck are they doing?) site.
  • Steven Nagy of the Hamilton (Ontario) Country Dancers has written Contraculture: An Introduction to Contradancing.
  • Sharon has a page of text, music, and photographs about her experience in learning to contra dance. The text provides a good introduction to what it is all about.
  • The Old-time Music & Dance Network has a variety of articles and lists of links on various elements of old-time music, contra dancing and related forms.
  • Marcia McKenzie explains the various forms of Traditional Community Dance. Slight change of URL (April 4, 2009)
  • The BBC tries to explain the basics of contra dance in a short article.
  • Larry Jennings presents Almost All You Need to Know to Enjoy a New England Style Dance.
  • Jonathan Sivier lists The Top Ten (plus) Things That Make a Good (Contra) Dancer.
  • Bob Peterson provides some guidance for first-timers, with Contra Dancing 101.
  • The Two Dog Waltz dance series lists some of the basic Contra Dance Steps and Moves pdf file Change of URL (June 9, 2007)
  • The Miami Valley Folk Dancers include a discussion from rec.folk-dancing about Why is it Called Contra Dance? from 1996.
  • Heiner Fischle has written an Introduction to Contra Dancing.
  • The Old-time Music and Dance Network has provides Old-Time Dance Introduction.
  • Sarah Fulton of the Friday night dance at Glen Echo, presents What is "Contra Dancing".
  • The Princeton Country Dancers provide Helpful Hints and Etiquette for Contra Dancers.
  • The Chattahoochee Country Dancers have their own version of What is Contra Dancing?. Change of URL (May 9, 2011)
  • The Old Farmers' Ball has Welcome to the Old Farmer's Ball - Dance Guidelines for beginners and experienced dancers. (pdf file)
  • The Harvest Moon Folk Society takes a try at What Is Contra Dance? along with a variety of other questions. Change of URL (April 4, 2009)
  • The Mid-Missouri Traditional Dancers list, with photographs, some Common Dance Figures.
  • The Mid-Missouri Traditional Dancers provide some guidance with Tips for Beginners.
  • The Round Hill Country Dances in Greenwich, Connecticut have 10 Tips for Newcomers.
  • The Harvest Moon Folk Society presents Dance Tips for Newcomers. Change of URL (April 4, 2009)
  • The Cincinnati Contra Dancers have a list of Contra Terms.
  • The Thursday Night contra series in Glenside, Pennsylvania has a brochure welcoming new dancers and providing some basic information about contra dance. (pdf file)
  • Yael Schy has Twelve Tips for Contra Dancers which are helpful for the beginner and experienced dancer. Change of URL (May 24, 2009)
  • The Chattahoochee Country Dancers in Atlanta, Georgia have produced a series of videos that explain contra dancing. You can also purchase them on a DVD and they are also available at Contra Dancing Basics.
  • Becoming a Great Dancer - How to become a great dancer in five easy steps is advice presented by the Dance Ambassadors. New entry (June 1, 2009)
  • Ridge Kennedy, in his An Open Letter to a New Dancer, writes with a view toward those who have just started dancing. New entry (June 1, 2009)
  • The Triangle Country Dancers have produced a Contra Dance Etiquette flyer. New entry (June 17, 2009)
  • The Chattahoochee Country Dancers have produced a video called Why We Contra Dance which might explain to your non-contra dancing friends and family (and maybe even to fellow contra dancers) why we enjoy this activity so much. New entry (August 13, 2011)
  • Beau Farmer has a brief explanation of What is a Contra Caller? New entry (February 25, 2017)
  • The Chicago Barn Dance Company has advice about your first contra dance. New entry (April 3, 2017)
  • Mount Holyoke student Lydia Solodiuk provides 11 Reasons Why You Should Go Contra Dancing. New entry (August 13, 2017)
  • Paul Burke has Notes for New Contra Dancers (pdf version available, too. New entry (September 4, 2017)
  • The Foothill Dancers cover the basics in this Know and Go post. New entry (September 9, 2017)
  • The dance series in Charleston, South Carolina has some Contra Dance Tips for New Dancers! New entry (October 13, 2017)
  • The Colorado band Fifth Reel presents Community Contra Dance - A Brief History New entry (October 25, 2017)
  • The California Dance Co-operative has posted a Dance Etiquette Guide. New entry (October 27, 2017)
  • The Traditional Dance and Music Society of the Ozarks has Tips for New Dancers. New entry (November 8, 2017)
  • The Mid-Missouri Traditional Dancers also has Tips for Beginners. New entry (November 8, 2017)
  • Blain Nelson and other contributors explain the Ten stupid things beginners do to mess up their contradance experience. New entry (November 29, 2017)
  • Several people put together a Wikibooks describing Contra Dance Tips and Techniques. New entry (December 26, 2017)
  • The Traditional Dance and Music Society in Springfield, Missouri has tips for new dancers remembering that "It's more important to have fun than to do it right." New entry (March 17, 2018)
  • Nino DiGiulio of the May I Have This Dance group in Chicago has some etiquette pointers for all dancers. New entry (March 17, 2018)
  • Marcie McGuire lists her Top Ten Reasons to Contra Dance. New entry (March 24, 2018)
  • Wikipedia has entries on:
    Contra danceContra dance formContra dance choreographyContra dance tips and techniques New entry (March 17, 2018)

    One-shot entries in blogs are not included here (try Essays or Newspaper and magazine (non-genre) articles). I have included blogs by bands, musicians, callers, and dancers who keep their blog up to date (at least one entry in the last year) and have included a fair amount of entries about various aspects of contra dancing. I have no expectation that this list is definitive, but I'll keep adding entries as I find them.

    • Aisling, band
    • Apple Crisp, band (no entries since 2007)
    • Boston Intergenerational Dance Advocates New entry (December 29, 2017)
    • Brian produced Goin' Mobile-A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country between 2012 and 2016. New entry (December 30, 2017)
    • California, Santa Barbara Country Dance Society (last entry in 2009)
    • Childgrove Dance Callers (and others)
    • Liza Constable, musician
    • Contraconnection, Oregon dance news
    • Contra Syncretist with a emphasis on techno contras and the intersection with traditional contras; last main entry in 2013 with an epilogue in 2016 New entry (February 21, 2017)
    • Contratopia, band
    • While traveling for several years, Rick and Lenore annotated and photographed their adventures, including visits to a number of contra dances in Dancing 'Cross the Country. New entry (February 19, 2018)
    • Dave and Lisa, contra dancing across America Problems with site (April 4, 2009)
    • Meg Dedolph and Jonathan Whitall write more about knitting than contra dances, but there are few entries (last entry in 2012) New entry (February 21, 2017)
    • Caller JoLaine Jones-Pokorney writes about contra dance projects and issues in her blog. New entry (March 19, 2017)
    • Doug Plummer, famed for his many photographs of contra dancing across the country Problems with site (March 4, 2012)
    • Fiddlehedz, diary of a contradance fiddler
    • Tina Fields writes about dance and a number of other topics. New entry (April 10, 2018)
    • Folkmads, New Mexico dancers' road trips (last entry in 2008)
    • John Goodin, musician New entry (February 21, 2017)
    • Donna Hébert's Fiddling Demystified New entry (December 30, 2017)
    • Sally Hurley with entries on dancing amongst those of quilts, cavies, and cooking New entry (February 21, 2017)
    • Lee driving around the United States in an RV, sometimes writes about various contra dances she visits. New entry (August 12, 2017)
    • La Famiille Leger's Dr. Squeeze Blog with posts about various Canadian musicians New entry (February 21, 2017)
    • Notorious (Eden MacAdam-Somer and Larry Unger with posts from 2009 and 2010. New entry (April 10, 2018)
    • Ohio, Cincinnati (dance scene) (last entry in 2008)
    • Merri Rudd, caller
    • William Whozis writes about the various dances in southern Florida that he attends. New entry (August 12, 2017)
    • Peter Yarensky, musician and dance organizer
    • William J. Watson maintains a listing of contra dance books and other sources of information. (look near the bottom of the page) Change of URL (October 1, 2010)
    • William J. Watson used Russell Owen's American Country Dances On-Line to produce this spreadsheet of dances that includes dance titles and links to the sequence of steps for each dance. New entry (October 27, 2017)
    • According to the site "Dancing for Busy People" by Calvin and Judy Campbell has ". become the standard reference for leaders working in the Community Dance Program and people who lead beginner dance parties. " The book is described in detail on the page.
    • Among his pages, Kiran Wagle has information about a variety of books about dances and dancing.
    • The Hands Four Books and Recordings site lists books and other materials by or recommended by Tony and Beth Parkes.
    • The Internet Archive has information and text from a wide variety of early dance manuals including books that covered early contra dances.
    • Cynthia Van Ness has created Contra Dance: A Bibliography.
    • Erik Hoffman has excerpts from his books, Contra Comments, Contradictions, Old-Time Dance Calling for Weddings, Parties, and One-Night Stands, and The Contrarian on his web site along with ordering information.
    • Heiner Fischle has written A Guide to Contra Dance in German and in English.
    • David Smukler has collected is Cracking Chestnuts columns along with additional pieces from David Millstone, appropriate tunes for all the dances, and an appendix of twenty more chestnuts in a book available from CDSS.
    • Phil Jamison wrote Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance which tells the story behind the square dances, step dances, reels, and other forms of dance practiced in southern Appalachia. New entry (August 5, 2017)
    • The Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) is an association of people and groups with a common interest in English and Anglo-American folk dance, music and song. Its members are recreational dancers, musicians, singers, teachers, callers, dance historians and people just having fun. The activities of its affiliated groups include dances, concerts, song gatherings, festivals and residential camps.
    • Lavender Country and Folk Dancers is a community site for gender role free contra dancing.
    • The Library of Congress, in their Folklife Sourcebook, has a list of state, local, and regionally oriented societies as they have historically played a major role in support of folklife studies, cultural conservation, and the perpetuation and presentation of traditional culture--particularly music, dance, and storytelling genres. New entry (June 17, 2009)
    • Contralab was founded by a group of concerned contra dance leaders from both the folkdance and western square dance movements.
    • An organization created to increase public awareness of the vital artistic and cultural importance of folk music and dance Folk Alliance is headquarted in Washington, D.C.
    • While primarily for square dance callers, the American Callers Association has some areas that overlap with matters and issues for contra dance callers.
    • The Old Time Music and Dance website has links to a number of bands that play music at contra dance and groups that hold them.
    • The Down Home Dancing web site includes sections for the listing of events, a group forum, information about callers and bands, links to photographs, video and music and a plan on how to promote contra dancing and build up the site.
    • The Carolina Contra Club has started an interactive map showing locations of contra dances. To add a dance, visitors will need to click "map options" in the top left, then "add a dance". To edit a dance's information, just click the edit icon in the top right of the dance info window. New entry (September 24, 2013)
    • There are now three SharedWeight.net mailings lists for those involved in making contra and traditional square dances occur. The first is for callers, the second musicians and the third is for dance organizers. Added information on musician and organizer lists (June 7, 2009)
    • California (contra dance organizers, bands, and callers) (very low activity)
    • California, Berkeley (afternoon dance) (dormant)
    • California, Los Angeles (active)
    • California, Los Angeles (Dance Cooperative) (very light)
    • California, North Bay (active)
    • California, Sacramento (active)
    • California, San Luis Obispo (light activity)
    • California, Santa Barbara (active)
    • Colorado, Fort Collins (active)
    • Connecticut (covers most, but not all dances) (active)
    • Connecticut, Hampton (active)
    • Florida, Cocoa Beach (dormant)
    • Florida, South (active) New entry (October 2, 2010)
    • Florida, Tallahassee (dormant)
    • Georgia, Atlanta (extremely active)
    • Georgia, Atlanta (callers) (dormant)
    • Idaho, Moscow (announcements) (active)
    • Illinois, Chicago (very active)
    • Iowa and nearby states (very active)
    • Maine, Bangor (active)
    • Maine (southern & DECDFA) (dormant)
    • Maryland, Glen Echo (Friday nights) (active)
    • Massachusetts, Boston area (discussions, not announcements) (active)
    • Massachusetts, Boston area (announcements from Peterborough, NH to Providence, RI) (very active)
    • Massachusetts, Cambridge (Thursday night dances) (active)
    • Massachusetts, Cape Cod (very active)
    • Massachusetts, Concord (1st Friday and 2nd Saturday plus others) (active)
    • Massachusetts, Greenfield and Montague (along with other Pioneer Valley dances) (extremely active)
    • Michigan, Dearborn (save Lovett Hall) (low activity)
    • Mid-Atlantic states (active)
    • Nebraska, Lincoln (active)
    • New Hampshire (active)
    • New York (central part) (low activity)
    • North Carolina (triangle area) (active)
    • North Carolina, Asheville (Old Farmer's Ball) (active)
    • North Carolina, Asheville (Old Farmer's Ball, Friends of) (low activity)
    • North Carolina, Boone County (dormant)
    • North Carolina, Winston-Salem and Greensboro (very active)
    • Ontario, Toronto (low activity) New entry (June 7, 2009)
    • Oregon, Portland (active)
    • Pennsylvania, Harrisburg (Board of Directors) (very active)
    • Pennsylvania, Harrisburg (general announcements) (active)
    • Pennsylvania, Pittsburg (active) New entry (October 2, 2010)
    • South Carolina, Greenville (active)
    • Texas, San Antonio
    • Virginia, Richmond (active)
    • Virginia, Roanoke Valley/Blue Ridge (light activity)
    • Washington, Centralia (dormant)
    • Washington, Seattle (discussions) (extremely active)
    • Washington, Seattle (writing) (light activity)
    • Washington, south Puget Sound area (dormant)
    • Wisconsin, Madison (very active)
    • Buffalo Gap teens (dormant)
    • Callers - Traditional dance (very active)
    • Dance organizers (dormant)
    • General (light activity)
    • General discussion centered on dances in the UK with a web site with more information;
    • Jump in the Skillet (band) (dormant)
    • Roaring Jelly (band) (friends) (light activity)
    • Roaring Jelly (former and current members) (active)
    • Roaring Jelly (general discussion?) (very active)
    • Sound systems
    • Contra Dance Sound Forum (very active)
    • Women contra dancers (extremely active)
    • The New England Folk Festival Association provides an exhaustive list of contra links.

    The following are other lists of links, some from contradance sites, others from general dance sites, and even more from various all-topic indices.

    • The Sapphire Swan Dance Directory includes listings for a broad range of dances including about 20 for contras.
    • Shantnu Mishra has produced Folk Dance Resources on the WWW which includes a goodly number of contra dance links.
    • Henry Neeman has a Non-Partner Dance Hotlist which includes links for contra dances along with other non-partner dances.
    • World Wide Arts Resources gives a long list of links to various sites in the United States including contra dancing.
    • Jake Thomson has produced the Contra Dance Ring, a chain of web sites containing information about Contra Dancing.
    • Folk Fax has extensive lists of links and information about folk music and dance (more the former) in the United Kingdom.
    • The Slider web search page carries links about a variety of folk dances.
    • In addition, you can find contra dance links (or at least links for celtic dancing) in Polish and English from the Comhlan - Irish & Scottish Dance Group from Krakow, Poland.
    • Cbel's list includes all types of folk dancing.
    • Mike Schuh has a short list of links.
    • The Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers Association has an extensive list of international resources for fiddlers and all acoustic musicians. Change of name and slight change of URL (October 2, 2010)
    • Roger's Dance-Niche emphasizes English Country Dancing, but has plenty of links that are specific or relevant to contra dancing.

    Several libraries have lists of links for dancing:

    This page is part of the Contrdancelinks.com web site. For more information about contra dancing, visit these other site pages:

    Sites and Pages

    Schedules

    *The Colorado link will bring you to Dancing on the Web. The Maine link will bring you to the Downeast Friends of the Folk Arts. The New Mexico link will bring you to the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society. The Utah link will bring you to Utah Contradance Information. These fine organizations and individuals already have complete listings for these states and there is no reason for me to duplicate their efforts.

    **As far as I know, there are no regular dances or events in Mississippi, South Dakota or Wyoming, but I have created pages if something changes in the future.