*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.
Contra Dance in Finland or Iceland
A reader asked for any information about contra dancing in Finland or Iceland. I'm not aware of any, but if you are, please drop me a line.
Doug Plummer's Contra Dance Calendar Kickstarter
Doug Plumemer has started a kickstarter effort to publish the 2014 edition of his annual contra dance calendar. He is looking to raise $11,200 by June 13 [$679 left to raise by Thursday Jun 13, 12:27am EDT]. You can see a video/slideshow of his photography for contra dances. Find out more and donate through the kickstarter website.
Contra Dance Caller Survey
Calling all contra dance callers! The CDSS (Country Dance and Song Society) Contra Dance Task Group wants to find out how CDSS can better support contra dance callers. We encourage you to take our survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VFC5FK7 so CDSS can hear your ideas, concerns, and questions directly. We will send you a summary of the results if you provide us with your email address at the end of the survey.
The survey is truly geared to contra callers of all experience levels from brand new to retired, so the more information you give us about your calling experiences, the better. We are focusing on learning about needed resources for North American contra callers, but we welcome any feedback from callers on other continents as well. We want to hear from as many of the hundreds of contra callers as possible, so please encourage your fellow callers to respond.
Even if you don’t take the survey, we’d like to keep you informed about the survey results and the availability of new contra dance caller resources. Go to the survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VFC5FK7 and choose the "I can't do it now..." item.
We look forward to hearing from you very soon. (Deadline for completing the survey is June 1, 2013 -- Charlie)
Greenfield Formation Contest
The Friends of the Guiding Star Grange (FGSG) is sponsoring a contra dance formation contest with the winner to be announced at our 2013 Fall Frolic. The person winning the contest will be awarded $100.00.
Contra Dance and "Buying Local"
If you want to follow the movement of Buying Local, think about contra dance and that "Local" may refer not just to geography:
Volunteers and Dancers Needed
No, not for the web site. But just as dances don't exist without dancers on the floor, they also won't exist if not enough dancers volunteer to help make the dances happen. The following dance series have publicized the need for volunteers and more dancers. If you want dancing to exist in your area, think about spending some time helping out along with spending time on the dance floor or coming to your local dance on a more regular basis. Typical volunteer duties include opening and/or closing the building on dance nights, taking money, bringing snacks or beverages, managing the snack counter, helping with promotion, and other jobs.
Why We Contra Dance
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.
If you are looking for contra dance information and cannot find it here, please e-mail me or check one of the other sites listed below as no one person keeps up with everything that is happening on the contradance scene.
Other Omnibus Sites
Bands and callers are listed twice, once in the region in which they are based, the other in the "All Bands and Callers" page. Organizations are listed once, just in the region in which they are based (although if they have an activity in another region, they will be listed there also). The United States is divided into several different regions. The dance at Rehoboth, Massachusetts is the one I attend most often.