Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th century. Sometimes described as New England folk dance or Appalachian folk dance, contra dances can be found around the world, but are most common in the United States (periodically held in nearly every state), Canada, and other Anglophone countries.[1]
A contra dance event is a social dance that one can attend without a partner. The dancers form couples, and the couples form sets of two couples in long lines starting from the stage and going down the length of the dance hall. Throughout the course of a dance, couples progress up and down these lines, dancing with each other couple in the line. The dance is led by a caller who teaches the sequence of moves, called "figures," in the dance before the music starts. In a single dance, a caller may include anywhere from six to twelve figures, which are repeated as couples progress up and down the lines. Each time through the dance takes 64 beats, after which the pattern is repeated. The essence of the dance is in following the pattern with your set and your line; since there is no required footwork, many people find contra dance easier to learn than other forms of social dancing.[2]
Almost all contra dances are danced to live music. The music played includes, but is not limited to, Irish, Scottish, old-time, bluegrass and French-Canadian folk tunes. The fiddle is considered the core instrument, though other stringed instruments can be used, such as the guitar, banjo, bass and mandolin, as well as the piano, accordion, flute, clarinet and more. Techno contra dances are done to techno music, typically accompanied by DJ lighting. Music in a dance can consist of a single tune or a medley of tunes, and key changes during the course of a dance are common.
Many callers and bands perform for local contra dances, and some are hired to play for dances around the U.S. and Canada.[3] Many dancers travel regionally (or even nationally) to contra dance weekends and week-long contra dance camps, where they can expect to find other dedicated and skilled dancers, callers, and bands.[4]
Contra dance has European origins, and over 100 years of cultural influences from many different sources.
At the end of the 17th century, English country dances were taken up by French dance masters. The French called these dances contredanses (which roughly translated by sound "countrydance" to "contredanse"), as indicated in a 1706 dance book called Recueil de Contredances.[5] As time progressed, these dances returned to England and were spread and reinterpreted in the United States, and eventually the French form of the name came to be associated with the American folk dances, where they were alternatively called "country dances" or in some parts of New England such as New Hampshire, "contradances".[6][7]
Contra dances were fashionable in the United States and were considered one of the most popular social dances across class lines in the late 18th century, though these events were usually referred to as "country dances" until the 1780s, when the term contra dance became more common to describe these events.[8] In the mid-19th century, group dances started to decline in popularity in favor of quadrilles, lancers, and couple dances such as the waltz and polka.[8]
By the late 19th century, contras were mostly confined to rural settings.[9] This began to change with the square dance revival of the 1920s, pioneered by Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company,[9] in part as a response in opposition to modern jazz influences in the United States.[10] In the 1920s, Ford asked his friend Benjamin Lovett, a dance coordinator in Massachusetts, to come to Michigan to begin a dance program. Initially, Lovett could not as he was under contract at a local inn; consequently, Ford bought the property rights to the inn.[11] Lovett and Ford initiated a dance program in Dearborn, Michigan that included several folk dances, including contras.[12] Ford also published a book titled Good Morning: After a Sleep of Twenty-Five Years, Old-Fashioned Dancing Is Being Revived in 1926 detailing steps for some contra dances.[13]
Caller and musician Dudley Laufman, a significant figure in the contra dance revival of the mid-20th century
In the 1930s and 1940s, the popularity of jazz, swing, and big band music caused contra dance to decline in several parts of the US; the tradition carried on primarily in towns within the northeastern portions of North America, such as Ohio, the Maritime provinces of Canada,[14] and particularly in New England. Ralph Page almost single-handedly maintained the New England tradition until it was revitalized in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly by Ted Sannella and Dudley Laufman.
The New England contra dance tradition was also maintained in Vermont by the Ed Larkin Old Time Contra Dancers, formed by Edwin Loyal Larkin in 1934.[15] The group Larkin founded is still performing, teaching the dances, and holding monthly open house dances in Tunbridge, Vermont.[15][16]
By then, early dance camps, retreats, and weekends had emerged, such as Pinewoods Camp, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which became primarily a music and dance camp in 1933,[17] and NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival, also in Massachusetts, which began in 1944.[18] Pittsburgh Contra Dance celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2015.[19] These and others continue to be popular and some offer other dances and activities besides contra dancing.
In the 1970s, Sannella and other callers introduced dance moves from English Country Dance, such as heys and gypsies, to the contra dances.[20] New dances, such as Shadrack's Delight by Tony Parkes, featured symmetrical dancing by all couples. (Previously, the actives and inactives – see Progression – had significantly different roles). Double progression dances, popularized by Herbie Gaudreau,[21] added to the aerobic nature of the dances, and one caller, Gene Hubert, wrote a quadruple progression dance, Contra Madness. Becket formation was introduced, with partners starting the dance next to each other in the line instead of opposite each other. The Brattleboro Dawn Dance started in 1976, and continues to run semiannually.[22][23]
In the early 1980s, Tod Whittemore started the first Saturday dance in the Peterborough Town House, which remains one of the more popular regional dances.[24] The Peterborough dance influenced Bob McQuillen, who became a notable musician in New England. As musicians and callers moved to other locations, they founded contra dances in Michigan, Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, and elsewhere.
Contra dances take place in more than 200 cities and towns across the U.S. (as of 2020[update]),[25] as well as other countries.
Contra dance events are open to all, regardless of experience, unless explicitly labeled otherwise. It is common to see dancers with a wide range of ages, from children to the elderly.[26] Most dancers are white and middle or upper-middle class.[26] Contra dances are family-friendly, and alcohol consumption is not part of the culture.[27] Many events offer beginner-level instructions prior to the dance. A typical evening of contra dance is three hours long, including an intermission. The event consists of a number of individual contra dances, each lasting about 15 minutes, and typically a band intermission with some waltzes, schottisches, polkas, or Swedish hambos. In some places, square dances are thrown into the mix, sometimes at the discretion of the caller. Music for the evening is typically performed by a live band,[28] playing jigs and reels from Ireland, Scotland, Canada, or the USA. The tunes may range from traditional originating a century ago, to modern compositions including electric guitar, synth keyboard, and driving percussion – so long as the music fits the timing for contra dance patterns. Sometimes, a rock tune will be woven in.[29]
Generally, a leader, known as a caller, will teach each individual dance just before the music for that dance begins. During this introductory walk-through, participants learn the dance by walking through the steps and formations, following the caller's instructions.[30] The caller gives the instructions orally, and sometimes augments them with demonstrations of steps by experienced dancers in the group. The walk-through usually proceeds in the order of the moves as they will be done with the music; in some dances, the caller may vary the order of moves during the dance, a fact that is usually explained as part of the caller's instructions.
After the walk-through, the music begins and the dancers repeat that sequence many times before that dance ends, often 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the length of the contra lines.[31] Calls are normally given at least the first few times through, and often for the last. At the end of each dance, the dancers thank their partners. In North America, the norm at contra dances is to change partners after each dance.[32] In the short break between individual dances, the dancers invite each other to dance. Booking ahead by asking partner or partners ahead of time for each individual dance is common at some venues, but has been discouraged by some.[33][34][35]
Most contra dances do not have an expected dress code.[36] No special outfits are worn, but comfortable and loose-fitting clothing that does not restrict movement is usually recommended.[37] Women usually wear skirts or dresses as they are cooler than wearing trousers; some men also dance in kilts or skirts.[36][38] Low heeled, broken-in, soft-soled, non-marking shoes, such as dance shoes, sneakers, or sandals, are recommended and, in some places, required.[36] As dancing can be aerobic, dancers are sometimes encouraged to bring a change of clothes.[39]
As in any social dance, cooperation is vital to contra dancing. Since over the course of any single dance, individuals interact with not just their partners but everyone else in the set, contra dancing might be considered a group activity. As will necessarily be the case when beginners are welcomed in by more practiced dancers, mistakes are made; most dancers are willing to help beginners in learning the steps. However, because the friendly, social nature of the dances can be misinterpreted or even abused, some groups have created anti-harassment policies.[40][41]
Contra dances are arranged in long lines of couples. A pair of lines is called a set. Sets are generally arranged so they run the length of the hall, with the top of the set being the end closest to the band and caller, and the bottom of the set being the end farthest from the caller.[42]
Couples consist of two people, traditionally one male and one female, though same-sex pairs are increasingly common.[43] Traditionally the dancers are referred to as the lady and gent,[44] though various other terms have been used: some dances have used men and women, rejecting ladies and gents as elitist;[45] others have used gender-neutral role terms including bares and bands, jets and rubies, and larks and ravens or robins.[46][47] Couples interact primarily with an adjacent couple for each round of the dance. Each sub-group of two interacting couples is known to choreographers as a minor set and to dancers as a foursome or hands four. Couples in the same minor set are neighbors. Minor sets originate at the head of the set, starting with the topmost dancers as the ones (the active couple or actives); the other couple are twos (or inactives). The ones are said to be above their neighboring twos; twos are below. If there is an uneven number of couples dancing, the bottom-most couple will wait out the first time through the dance.
There are four common ways of arranging couples in the minor sets: proper, improper, Becket, and triple formations.[42] Traditionally, most dances were in the proper formation, with all the gents in one line and all the ladies in the other. Until the end of the nineteenth century, minor sets were most commonly triples. In the twentieth century, duple-minor dances became more common.[48] Since the mid twentieth century, there has been a shift towards improper dances, in which gents and ladies alternate on each side of the set, being the most common formation. Triple dances have also lost popularity in modern contras, while Becket formation, in which dancers stand next to their partners, facing another couple, is a modern innovation.[49]
Progression
A fundamental aspect of contra dancing is that, during a single dance, each dancer has one partner, but interacts with many different people. During a single dance, the same pattern is repeated over and over (one time through lasts roughly 30 seconds), but each time, a pair of dancers will dance with new neighbors (moving on to new neighbors is called progressing). Dancers do not need to memorize these patterns in advance, since the dance leader, or caller, will generally explain the pattern for this dance before the music begins, and give people a chance to walk through the pattern so dancers can learn the moves. The walk through also helps dancers understand how the dance pattern leads them toward new people each time. Once the music starts, the caller continues to describe each move until the dancers are comfortable with that dance pattern. The dance progression is built into the contra dance pattern as continuous motion with the music, and does not interrupt the dancing. While all dancers in the room are part of the same dance pattern, half of the couples in the room are moving toward the band at any moment and half are moving away, so when everybody steps forward, they find new people to dance with. Once a couple reaches the end of the set, they switch direction, dancing back along the set the other way.
A single dance runs around ten minutes, long enough to progress at least 15–20 times. If the sets are short to medium length the caller often tries to run the dance until each couple has danced with every other couple both as a one and a two and returned to where they started. A typical room of contra dancers may include about 120 people; but this varies from 30 people in smaller towns, to over 300 people in cities like Washington DC, Los Angeles, or New York. With longer sets (more than 60 people), one dance typically does not allow dancing with every dancer in the group.
Choreography
Attendees of Youth Dance Weekend 2019 dance "Dela Says Yippee" by Dugan Murphy to music by Calluna
Contra dance choreography specifies the dance formation, the figures, and the sequence of those figures in a dance. Contra dance figures (with a few exceptions) do not have defined footwork; within the limits of the music and the comfort of their fellow dancers, individuals move according to their own taste.
Most contra dances consist of a sequence of about 6 to 12 individual figures, prompted by the caller in time to the music as the figures are danced. As the sequence repeats, the caller may cut down his or her prompting, and eventually drop out, leaving the dancers to each other and the music.
A figure is a pattern of movement that typically takes eight counts, although figures with four or 16 counts are also common. Each dance is a collection of figures assembled to allow the dancers to progress along the set (see "Progression", above).
A count (as used above) is one half of a musical measure, such as one quarter note in 2 4 time or three eighth notes in 6 8 time. A count may also be called a step, as contra dance is a walking form, and each count of a dance typically matches a single physical step in a figure.
Typical contra dance choreography comprises four parts, each 16 counts (8 measures) long. The parts are called A1, A2, B1 and B2. This nomenclature stems from the music: Most contra dance tunes (as written) have two parts (A and B), each 8 measures long, and each fitting one part of the dance. The A and B parts are each played twice in a row, hence, A1, A2, B1, B2. While the same music is generally played in, for example, parts A1 and A2, distinct choreography is followed in those parts. Thus, a contra dance is typically 64 counts, and goes with a 32 measure tune. Tunes of this form are called "square"; tunes that deviate from this form are called "crooked".
A1 (16) Actives down the outside and back. (The inactives stand still or substitute a swing).
A2 (16) Actives down the center, turn individually, come back, and cast off. (The inactives stand still for the first 3 4, take a step up the hall, and then participate in the cast).
B1 (16) Actives turn contra corners. (The inactives participate in half the turns.)
B2 (16) Actives meet in the middle for a balance and swing, end swing facing up. (The inactives stand still.)
Note: inactives will often clog in place or otherwise participate in the dance, even though the figures do not call for them to move.
Modern – the dance is symmetrical for actives and inactives
"Hay in the Barn" by Chart Guthrie (improper duple minor)
A1 (16) Neighbors balance and swing
A2 (8) Ladies chain across, (8) half hey, ladies pass right shoulders to start.
B1 (16) Partners balance and swing.
B2 (8) Ladies chain across, (8) half hey, ladies pass right shoulders to start.
Many modern contra dances have these characteristics:[51]
longways for as many as will
first couples improper, or Becket formation
flowing choreography
no-one stationary for more than 16 beats (e.g. first couple balance and swing, finish facing down to make lines of four)
containing at least one swing and normally both a partner swing and a neighbor swing
the vast majority of the moves from a set of well-known moves that the dancers know already
composed mostly of moves that keep all dancers connected
generally danced to 32 bar jigs or reels played at between 110 and 130 bpm
danced with a smooth walk with many spins and twirls
An event which consists primarily (or solely) of dances in this style is sometimes referred to as a "modern urban contra dance".
The most common contra dance repertoire is rooted in the Anglo-Celtic tradition as it developed in North America. Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, and Old-time tunes are common, and Klezmer tunes have also been used. The old-time repertoire includes very few of the jigs common in the others.
Tunes used for a contra dance are nearly always "square" 64-beat tunes, in which one time through the tune is each of two 16-beat parts played twice (this is notated AABB). However, any 64-beat tune will do; for instance, three 8-beat parts could be played AABB AACC, or two 8-beat parts and one 16-beat part could be played AABB CC. Tunes not 64 beats long are called "crooked" and are almost never used for contra dancing, although a few crooked dances have been written as novelties. Contra tunes are played at a narrow range of tempos, between 108 and 132 bpm.
Fiddles are considered to be the primary melody instrument in contra dancing,[52] though other stringed instruments can also be used, such as the mandolin or banjo, in addition to a few wind instruments, for example, the accordion. The piano, guitar, and double bass are frequently found in the rhythm section of a contra dance band.[53] Occasionally, percussion instruments are also used in contra dancing, such as the Irish bodhran or less frequently, the dumbek or washboard.[54] The last few years have seen some of the bands incorporate the Quebecois practice of tapping feet on a board while playing an instrument (often the fiddle).[55]
Until the 1970s it was traditional to play a single tune for the duration of a contra dance (about 5 to 10 minutes). Since then, contra dance musicians have typically played tunes in sets of two or three related (and sometimes contrasting) tunes, though single-tune dances are again becoming popular with some northeastern bands. In the Celtic repertoires it is common to change keys with each tune. A set might start with a tune in G, switch to a tune in D, and end with a tune in Bm. Here, D is related to G as its dominant (5th), while D and Bm share a key signature of two sharps. In the old-time tradition the musicians will either play the same tune for the whole dance, or switch to tunes in the same key. This is because the tunings of the five-string banjo are key-specific. An old-time band might play a set of tunes in D, then use the time between dances to retune for a set of tunes in A. (Fiddlers also may take this opportunity to retune; tune- or key-specific fiddle tunings are uncommon in American Anglo-Celtic traditions other than old-time.)
In the Celtic repertoires it is most common for bands to play sets of reels and sets of jigs. However, since the underlying beat structure of jigs and reels is the same (two "counts" per bar) bands will occasionally mix jigs and reels in a set.
A BIDA techno contra dance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., in 2022
In recent years, younger contra dancers have begun establishing "crossover contra" or "techno contra" – contra dancing to techno, hip-hop, and other modern forms of music.[58][59] While challenging for DJs and callers, the fusion of contra patterns with moves from hip-hop, tango, and other forms of dance has made this form of contra dance a rising trend since 2008. Techno differs from other contra dancing in that it is usually done to recorded music, although there are some bands that play live for techno dances.[60] Techno has become especially prevalent in Asheville, North Carolina, but regular techno contra dance series are spreading up the East Coast to locales such as Charlottesville, Virginia;[61] Washington, D.C.;[62]Amherst, Massachusetts; Greenfield, Massachusetts; and various North Carolina dance communities, with one-time or annual events[63] cropping up in locations farther west, including California, Portland, Oregon, and Washington state. They also sometimes appear as late night events during contra dance weekends.[64] In response to the demand for techno contra, a number of contra dance callers have developed repertoires of recorded songs to play that go well with particular contra dances; these callers are known as DJs.[65] A kind of techno/traditional contra fusion has arisen, with at least one band, Buddy System,[66] playing live music melded with synth sounds for techno contra dances.[67]
(as access to the OED online is not free, the relevant excerpt is provided) "Littré's theory, that there was already in 17th c. a French contre-danse with which the English word was confused and ran together, is not tenable; no trace of the name has been found in French before its appearance as an adaptation of the English. But new dances of this type were subsequently brought out in France, and introduced into England with the Frenchified form of the name, which led some Englishmen to the erroneous notion that the French was the original and correct form, and the English a corruption of it."
↑ Murrow, Gene (March 15, 1998). "How figures like heys and gypsies got into modern contradancing". ssrl.slac.stanford.edu. Alan Winston. Retrieved 2022-01-15. Dudley [Laufman] began calling Prince William and Childgrove, among others, at the Dudley dances. Ted [Sannella] was writing more and more contras and triplets with English figures (including heys and gypsies).Soon the contra tradition, via Ted and Dudley and others, would embrace the figures, flow, and faster tempos of the English and Southern mountain dances, culminating in the "zesty contra" style.
↑ Gaudreau, Herbie, Modern Contra Dancing (Sandusky, OH: Square Dance Magazine, 1971).
↑ Sannella 1982, p.12: Although the author speaks of "public square dances," he is referring to the type of event that has come to be known as "contra dances." See also Steve Zakon, quoted in Dart 1995, chapter on "The Contra Dance Event."
1 2 Pittman, Anne M.; Waller, Marlys S.; Dark, Cathy L. (2015). Dance a While: A Handbook for Folk, Square, Contra, and Social Dance, Tenth Edition. Waveland Press. p.197. ISBN978-1478629511.
Daniels, Bruce Colin (1995). Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-1-4039-7212-5. See chapter VI, "Frolics for Fun: Dances, Weddings and Dinner Parties, pages 109 – 124.
Holden, Rickey; Frank Kaltman; Olga Kulbitsky (1997). The Contra Dance Book. Lovendegem, Belgium: Anglo-American Dance Service. ISBN90-802087-3-6. (Reprint: first published in 1956 by American Squares as a part of the American Squares Dance Series)
Jennings, Larry (1988). Zesty Contras: A Selection of 500 New England Style Dances with a Provocative Explanatory Text. Cambridge Massachusetts: New England Folk Festival Association.
Jennings, Larry (2004). Give-and-Take: A sequel to Zesty Contras, featuring 628 dances in the New England style, provocative remarks, exhortative essays and arcane analysis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: New England Folk Festival Association.
Jennings, Larry; Dan Pearl; Ted Sannella (2004). The Contra Connection & Basically for Callers: Reprints from the Country Dance and Song Society NEWS (2nded.). Northampton, Massachusetts: Country Dance and Song Society. ISBN0-917024-14-1.
Keller, Kate Van Winkle (2007). Dance and Its Music in America, 1528-1789. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press. ISBN978-1-57647-127-2.
La Chapelle, Peter (2011). "'Dances Partake of the Racial Characteristics of the People Who Dance Them': Nordicism, Antisemitism, and Henry Ford's Old-Time Music and Dance Revival". In Zuckerman, Bruce; Kun, Josh; Ansell, Lisa (eds.). The song is not the same: Jews and American popular music. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press for the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. pp.29–70. ISBN978-1557535863.
Linscott, Eloise Hubbard (1993). Folk Songs of Old New England. Dover Publications. ISBN0-486-27827-1. See chapter entitled "Country Dancing," Pages 57 – 120. (The first edition was published in 1939.)
Sannella, Ted (1982). Balance and Swing: A collection of fifty-five squares, contras and triplets in the New England tradition with music for each dance. Northampton, Massachusetts: Country Dance and Song Society. ISBN0-917024-05-2.
Sannella, Ted (1996). Swing the Next: A second collection of squares, contras, triplets and circles in the New England tradition, with music for each dance. Northampton, Massachusetts: Country Dance and Song Society. ISBN0-917024-05-2.
Sannella, Ted (2005). Calling Traditional New England Squares. Northampton, Massachusetts: Country Dance and Song Society. ISBN0-917024-16-8.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Contra dance.
Contra dance associations
Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) preserves a variety of Anglo-American folk traditions in North America, including folk music, folk song, English country dance, contra dance and morris dance.
The waltz, meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, in triple, performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the generic term German Dance in publications during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The jig is a form of lively folk dance in compound metre, as well as the accompanying dance tune. It first gained popularity in 16th-century England, Ireland, Scotland, and other parts of the British Isles, and was adopted on mainland Europe where it eventually became the final movement of the mature Baroque dance suite. Today it is most associated with Irish dance music, Scottish country dance, French Canadian traditionnal music and dance (trad) and the Métis people in Canada. Jigs were originally in quadruple compound metre,, but have been adapted to a variety of time signatures, by which they are often classified into groups, including double jigs, slip jigs and single jigs.
A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in England in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a group of people, usually in couples, in one or more sets. The figures involve interaction with your partner and/or with other dancers, usually with a progression so that you dance with everyone in your set. It is common in modern times to have a "caller" who teaches the dance and then calls the figures as you dance. Country dances are done in many different styles.
A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances are part of a broad spectrum of dances known by various names: country dances, traditional dances, folk dances, barn dances, ceilidh dances, contra dances, Playford dances, etc. These dances appear in over 100 different formations, of which the Square and the Longways Set are by far the most popular formations.
Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are set to musical forms which come from the Gaelic tradition of Highland Scotland, as do the steps used in performing the dances. Traditionally a figure corresponds to an eight-bar phrase of music.
Country–western dance encompasses any of the dance forms or styles which are typically danced to country-western music, and which are stylistically associated with American country and/or western traditions. Many are descended from dances brought to the United States by immigrants from the United Kingdom and Europe as early as the 1700s, which became integrated into American popular culture. Country dancing is also known as "kicker dancing" in Texas.
A cèilidh or céilí is a traditional Scottish and Irish social gathering. In its most basic form, it simply means a social visit. In contemporary usage, it usually involves dancing and playing Gaelic folk music, either at a home or a larger concert at a social hall or other community gathering place.
Irish set dancing, sometimes called "Irish sets", is a popular form of folk dancing in Ireland danced to Irish tunes in groups of eight or four dancers. It is also sometime named set dance, but this name refers more often to a kind of dance in Irish stepdance.
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. Together, they form an ensemble called the string band, which along with the simple banjo-fiddle duet have historically been the most common configurations to play old-time music. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music.
A caller is a person who prompts dance figures in such dances as line dance, square dance, and contra dance. The caller might be one of the participating dancers, though in modern country dance this is rare.
The New England Folk Festival is an annual weekend festival of traditional dance and music. It takes place in the Boston, Massachusetts region each spring. It is conducted by the New England Folk Festival Association. Both the festival and the association are colloquially known by the abbreviation NEFFA. NEFFA is a participatory festival; attendees are encouraged to participate in dancing, singing, musical jam sessions, and other activities. It is run by volunteers and all the performers are volunteers as well.
Traditional square dance is a generic American term for any style of American square dance other than modern Western. The term can mean (1) any of the American regional styles that existed before around 1950, when modern Western style began to develop out of a blend of those regional styles, or (2) any style that has survived, or been revived, since around 1950. The term Traditional Square Dance is also used in England to refer to dances collected from villages in the first half of the 20th century.
The cotillion is a social dance, popular in 18th-century Europe and North America. Originally for four couples in square formation, it was a courtly version of an English country dance, the forerunner of the quadrille and, in the United States, the square dance.
Ted Sannella was a professional square dance, contra dance and international folk dance caller and choreographer who was active in the region surrounding Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. He was a seminal figure in the contra dance folk revival in the United States in the mid to late 20th century.
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient history, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.
Contra dance form describes the arrangement of dancers into contra dance sets and minor sets. There are various forms, and each dance's choreography specifies its formation. A caller's first instructions for each dance are usually to move the dancers into their starting positions according to the choreography for that dance.
Contra dance choreography specifies the dance formation, the figures, and the sequence of those figures in a contra dance. The figures repeat, ideally, in a graceful flowing pattern, aligned with the phrasing of the music. Contra dance figures do not have defined footwork; within the limits of the music and the comfort of their fellow dancers, individuals move to the beat and embellish according to their own taste. Much of the dance is done as a walking movement, one step for each count of the music, while the arms and hands do most of the changing, most of these involving connecting with others' hands.
Dudley Laufman is an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with helping spur the revival of contra in the 20th century.
"Money Musk", alternatively "Monymusk" or other variations, is a contra dance first published in 1786. It was named after a 1776 strathspey by Daniel Dow which is played to accompany it, which itself was named after the House of Monymusk baronial estate. The dance features a central theme of reoriented lines, and is regarded as moderately difficult. It is still widely danced today, and is considered a traditional "chestnut".
Ralph George Page was an American contra dance caller. He was influential in spreading it from New Hampshire to the rest of the United States and other countries, and was recognized as an authority on American folk dance overall.
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