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Contra Dance
Articles and History

The following are articles and musings collected over the years written by people intimately involved in the little subculture known as contra dancing.

If you would like to see something added here that you think is appropriate, please feel free to send email.

Roots and History
The etymology of "chestnuts"
 
Complex Dances and our link to MWSD
Keeping Those Traditional Roots (Chip Hendrickson)
Some thoughts for contra dancers (David Millstone)
An explanation to MWSD folks
    (Clark Baker, Lisa Greenleaf, Miriam Baker)
 
 
Contra Dance and Community
Building a Dance Community (Chris Kermiet)
Experienced Dances (Chris Kermiet)
Contra Dance and Community (Bob Stein)
There's no place like home (Caroline Fahrney)
Contra Dance Choreography (Jack Perron)
 
Contra Dancing and the Consumer Mentality
An Essay by Cynthia Van Ness
A political scientist replies by David Kirchner
 
Callers writing to their regular dancers:
David Kaynor 1988
Susan Kevra 1995
 
On Technique
Teaching Courtesy (Bruce Hamilton)
What is a good contra dancer? (Paul Tyler)
Chapters from Contradictations, by Erik Hoffman¹
"On Connection and Twirling," by Erik Hoffman¹
 
Contra-mania
Dare To Be Square (Phil Jamison) 1987
A Response to Phil Jamison (Robert Reed) 1989
Dare To Be Square - Revisited (Phil Jamison) 2004
 
Interviews
Erik Hoffman, caller¹
Jody McGeen, English Country Dance teacher¹
 
Stuff & Junk
My Parents Were Undercover Square Dancers (Mark Stibich)
¹Maintained by North Bay CDS <info@nbcds.org> on the articles page.

Contra Dance History

I'm also interested in the history of dancing in the United States. If you share this interest, here are some resources both online and off that you might want to take a look at.


Bill's Home Page | Music Home | Latter Day Lizards
About Contra Dance | Contra Dance Articles | Contact Me