Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is an American form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples that is based in European folk dancing traditions. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles (contredanse and anglaise) 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.
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.
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. 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. History European origins
The contra dance's origins date to the mid 16th century with the emergence of the English country dance. At the end of the 17th century, English country dances and other British dance forms such as the jig, hornpipe, and Scottish reel were taken up by French dance masters. The French called these dances collectively anglaise (also known as anglois and angloise), and began creating their own dances and music in the style of the various dance forms from Britain. The anglaise inspired the development of the French contredanse (which roughly translated by sound "countrydance" to "contredanse") which was a blend of the dance music and steps of the English folk dance forms with traditional French folk dance steps and music.
The French contredanse thrived in the 17th and 18th centuries and was also adopted into French operas or other forms of French theatre. Composers also sometimes used a contredanse as a movement within chamber music or composition types such as symphonies. Note that the French contredanse should not be confused with the term contredanse anglaise which was another name for the French anglaise.
From the French court, the anglaise and contredanse spread across Continental Europe, and were assimilated into other European dance traditions where they developed regional differences in style and structure. For example, the Viennese anglaise, popular in 18th century Vienna, was written in suite form and always featured changes in meter. These dances from Continental Europe traveled back to Britain. They were in turn spread and reinterpreted in the United States. Contra dance and the American assimilation of European folk dance In the 18th century dances arrived to the United States not just from French and English immigrants, but also from German and Dutch settlers who brought their varying music and dance cultures with them that included different folk dances which all shaped the development of American contra dance. In the United States the term contra dance (an Americanized spelling of the French contradanse) emerged in and was used interchangeably with the term country dance. Over time the term became more closely associated with American folk dances. In some parts of New England such as New Hampshire, the term is spelled "contradances".
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. One of the defining features of the American contra dance is the use of a "caller" who teaches dances to participants, leads musicians, plans dance order, and orchestrates the event. The European dance tradition did not use a caller, and dancers were expected to know the dances and steps prior to attending an event such as a ball in order to be allowed to participate.
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. By the late 19th century, contras were mostly confined to rural settings. The contra dance tradition carried on primarily in towns within the northeastern portions of North America, such as Ohio, the Maritime provinces of Canada,Lois S. Fahs, Swing Your Partner: Old Time Dances of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Sackville, N.B.: The author, 1939). and particularly in New England.
20th century revivals
As part of his 1920s campaign to revive American square dance and oppose contemporary jazz influences in the US, Henry Ford worked with dance coordinator Benjamin Lovett to initiate a dance program in Dearborn, Michigan that included several folk dances, including contras. 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. Through Ford's folk dance movement, the contra dance and its associated music influenced the development of country music when it emerged in the 1920s.
Independent from Ford, Ralph Page was influential in maintaining the New England tradition throughout the 1930s and 1940s. 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. Alt URL Early dance camps, retreats, and weekends emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Pinewoods Camp, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which became primarily a music and dance camp in 1933, and NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival, also in Massachusetts, which began in 1944.
Concurrently there was national resurgence in the popularity of the square dance in America that began in the 1930s and reached a peak in the mid 1940s in both urban and rural America; partly due to the wide adoption of square dance education within public school curriculums in the United States. These curriculums sometimes included contra dances as well. A network of social square dance clubs for adults formed across the United States which laid a foundation for a similar organizational structure for contra dance that formed later.
Ted Sannella and Dudley Laufman were influential figures in maintaining the tradition of the contra dance in the 1950s and 1960s. Contra dance regained popularity in the 1960s as part of the broader American folk music revival, especially among young, counter-cultural dancers in Boston. In the 1970s contra dance was embraced more widely by an oppositional youth counterculture that became associated with anti-Vietnam War protests and the adoption of philosophies like communal living and a country-based lifestyle. This led to formation of contra-dance events and clubs in college towns and cities.
In the 1970s, Sannella and other callers introduced dance moves from English country dance to the contra dances (e.g. heys and right shoulder rounds). New dances, such as Shadrack's Delight by Tony Parkes, featured symmetrical dancing by all couples. (Previously, the active and inactive couples — see — had significantly different roles.) Double progression dances, popularized by Herbie Gaudreau,Gaudreau, Herbie, Modern Contra Dancing (Sandusky, OH: Square Dance Magazine, 1971). 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 ran semiannually until its hiatus in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of staff.
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. 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.
Gender-free dances Traditionally, contra dances were segregated by gender into two roles: gents for men and ladies for women. Although modern contra dances allow individuals to dance either role regardless of their gender, "gender-free" contra dances do not use the terms gents and ladies. These dances seek to be inclusive of queer individuals, especially nonbinary and transgender individuals, and they often encourage dancers to dance whatever role they want to. Some individuals are against switching to gender-free terminology on the basis of tradition.
As part of his Gay & Lesbian Contra Dance series, Chris Ricciotti organized the first gender-free contra dance in 1989 at Jamaica Plain, MA using armbands as visual signals of roles to include a dancer that was uncomfortable identifying with the traditional role terms: I ... remembered hearing about one group who used the convention of a tie or an armband to identify roles. I decided to try using this convention at the Jamaica Plain dance, ripping up an old bed sheet to make armbands and asking dancers who were dancing in the traditional gent’s role to tie on one of these ribbons, and identifying them as “armbands” and those dancing the traditional ladies role, not wearing the armbands as the “barearms”. This method ended up being an instance hit, and I started using this method of identification for all the gay community dances I went on to organize at that time. Since then some callers who have called at our community dances have shortened this identification “Bands” and “Bares” (Bears).
Following this, other LGBT contra dances began using the terms bands and bares, though mainstream dances continued to use the terms gents and ladies. In 1990, Ricciotti successfully hosted a session titled "Gender-Free Contra Dancing" at the New England Folk Festival despite the push-back of some attendees.