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About Contra Dance
Contra dancing is a type of American social dancing with roots in English, Scottish, and Irish traditions. It is done in long lines of couples with partners facing each other across the set. A caller teaches each dance and then prompts the dancers the first several times through the dance.
Couples dance with one other couple at a time and then progress to another couple, repeating the same figures with the new couple. Through the natural progression of the dance each couple and each person dances with everyone else in the set — and the sets can be the length of the hall.
No lessons are required, as each individual dance is taught before it begins. Plus, there are only about 20 moves to learn. For those who would like a little more instruction, we offer a newcomers' session at 7:30 on the evenings of our regular dances.
We always dance to live music. There is simply no substitute for the energy of a live band and for the play between the musicians and the dancers.
The environment is smoke-free, alcohol-free, safe, and family-friendly. This is a community dance, similar to the barn dances of bygone days.
Take a moment to read two wonderful personal stories that will give you a better sense of contra dancing and how fun it can be:
- Sharon Kennedy's description and story with photos
- Greg Rohde's wonderful personal story and description
Here's a video clip from Bayou Bedlam 2003 for those who would like a motion picture of what contra dance is like (Lisa Greenleaf is calling to Hotpoint):
There should be a video player here, if you have the Flash player and Javascript is enabled.
More questions? See our Contra FAQ page.
There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.
~ Vicki Baum