Image courtesy of Sarah Davis
Come dance with us!
Come join us for fun, social, easy-to-learn, contra dancing with people of all ages. You don’t need to be good at dancing, just friendly and willing to learn! Click on an upcoming dance for directions and more information.
What is Contra Dancing?
Contra dance is a little like square dance. Like square dance, we have a caller who prompts us through the dance. Like square dance, we dance some with our partner, then some with our neighboring dancers. In contrast with square dance, we always have a live band; we dance with 50 or more neighboring dancers since we dance in a line instead of a square (but it’s not what you may think of as line dancing); no special clothing is required. The tradition is to change partners at the end of every dance. You may bring a partner (or other friends), but you’ll have lots of people to dance with even if you don’t.
Gary Shapiro maintains a website that explains what contra dancing is (and is not) in great detail. Click here to go there.
The Chattahoochee Country Dancers (Atlanta) have produced a series of videos that explain contra dancing. The YouTube versions, for quicker viewing, are listed below.
- Introduction
- Two Dancers
- Four Dancers
- A Contra Line
- Come Dance With Us
- Contra Origins and The CCD
- A Called Dance #1
- The Basics
- Contra Video Credits
They also offer a higher quality DVD version of these videos for purchase.
You can find many other contra dance videos on YouTube by doing a search on “contra dance”. A few examples are listed below.
- Contra dance from the Fire Ant Frolic 2008 Austin, Tx
- Austin Contra Dancers – television news report.
- Contra Gallery – CCCDS collection of photos and video
Get Involved in your Local Dance Community!
CCCDS is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the national Country Dance and Song Society. Donations to CCCDS are tax deductible as allowed by law and are a wonderful way to add support to our dance community.
Locally, we have elected officers, a Board of Directors, and a group of dedicated members who do all of the work behind the scenes and at the dances. We’d love for you to join us! Contact us today!
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Band and Caller Bookings
For band and caller bookings please contact us here.
