The Dance Niche
With Emphasis on English Country Dance

Return to Roger's Home Page

Current Events:

• English Country Dances sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington
  • Schedule of dances
  • 26th Annual Washington Spring Ball - May 19, 2012
  • Compilations of dances called
  • Orgainzation & Management

Info on English Country Dance

Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance (AACTMAD, Michigan) offers English country dancing as well as contra, swing and fusion ("A kaleidoscopic of dancing across a broad spectrum of styles . . . old favorites . . . and new. 'It's like dim sum for your feet!'") AACTMAD offers one of the few remaining Dawn Dances — dance 'till dawn.

English country dance in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, sponsors dances, dance camps, and produces publications and recordings. Notable is their series, The English Country Dance Collection, which endeavors to make available recordings of English country dance music which can be used for dancing — they are recorded at dance tempo. The series, recorded on CDs, features Bare Necessities; eleven CDs were available in February, 2008. Booklets of instructions for dances are available to accompany a few of the CDs. The Boston Centre also posts a calendar of English country dances in Massachusetts on their web site.

Cecil Sharp House, home of London's English Folk Dance and Song Society. See also more on Southwestern England under Wiltshire, below.

Central Illinois English Country Dancers. While there, check-out ECD in a swimming pool!

In Delaware, the Dover English Country Dancers meet on the second Saturday of most months. Dress is casual except at balls when eighteenth century attire is worn. The group also sponsors occasional square and contra dances.

Durham, North Carolina's Sun Assembly English Country Dancers meet on 2^nd and 4^th Thursdays and sponsor an English Dance Fest in March.

Florida — Snow Birds and others may want to track-down ECD in Florida. Dance Web Florida has a comprehensive listing of English country dances around the state.

Germantown Country Dancers — ECD near Philadelphia.

The Carolina Country Dancers dance in Simpsonville, South Carolina. As of Summer of 2008, dances are held at 7 p.m. on the first Friday of the month and the Saturday that falls fifteen days later. (Simpsonville is in northwestern SC, ~ 10 mi. east of Greenville.)

New York City Area:

• Country Dance New York: ECD in NYC (Contra too)
• Country Dancers of Westchester, NY
• Staten Island: English country dances are held periodically at "Historic Richmond Town." For scheduling, try searching for "dance english" at the New York City Dept. of Parks and Recreation.

Stockport, New York, located near the Hudson River between NYC and Albany, is the location of the Columbia County Dance Series.  Callers from the New York and New England areas are featured during their dance season which typically runs from May through October.

New Jersey — south and north:

• Lambertville Country Dancers, dance in Lambertville, NJ, NW of Trenton, both contra and English country.
• North Jersey English Country Dancers meet bi-monthly (as of Summer, 2010) on second and fourth Sundays at 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Ridgewood, NJ. They also conduct a yearly "Play-ful Ball," scheduled for June 25 in 2011, with the theme, At the Circus.

"Northern" Virginian English Country:

• Organized in the Summer of 2008, The Leesburg Assembly conducts monthly dances on Saturdays. Check their web site for current venue info — they moved from the Clifton area to Reston, VA, in March, 2011. The dance is convenient to D.C. Metro Area dancers.
• The Piedmont Regency Dancers dance monthly in Upperville. Dances are conducted in the beautiful Parish Hall at Trinity Episcopal Church, 9114 John S. Mosby Highway (Rt. 50), about 40 miles west of the Washington, DC Beltway (I-495).

More groups are listed under Mixed Links.

Webfeet provides links to dances in Europe and England as well as the USA; a very comprehensive listing appears, including non-US / Canada links appear on the Rehoboth Contra Dance page.

A National Library of Congress collection includes a reproduction of a 1698 edition of Playford's The Dancing Master.

Eric Pratezel maintains an on-line facsimile of Playford's The English Dancing Master go to his home page and to the Playford 1651 link (fast Internet connection advised). Even MORE: Will Linden's "Dance Sheets," and NEFFA's compilation of links, including ECD, ceilidh and barn Dances, a BIG collection at the College of William and Mary (expect some overlap and redundancies between sites).

The English Country Dance Mailing List: Alan Winston maintains a great site devoted to English country dancing, including ECD "mailing list," which functions like a "listserv" (click for instructions) for folks who have an avid interest in ECD. Alan also has some other great links, e.g.,

• What is English Country Dance?
• ECD and Contra: History and Differences.
• English Country Dance Locations in the US.
• How did ECD figures get into contra dancing?

The Round, a Cambridge University English Country Dance Club, has a wonderful site, with links to:

• An extensive list of EC Dances, with calls: Palmer's Pocket Playford, and
• The Round Band Book of Playford and other popular dance tunes.
• Elements of ECD (Description of ECD movements, e.g., "arming." Definitions extend to movements in other forms of dance, e.g., contra).

ECD in the Netherlands: Antony Heywood's ECD page, which includes a searchable database of dances with info on original sources and instructions (calls) for the dances.

Back to top.

Mixed Links

American Country Dances On Line: look-up a dance and review the calls.

Find places to dance:

In addition to links provided elsewhere on this page, compilations are sometimes helpful to dancers looking for a place to kick-up their heels.

• The Dance Gypsy, for dancers who get around
• Contra Dance in New England
• The Country Dance and Song Society — links to organizations by state / Canadian Province
• USA, Canada and elsewhere in the world
• Seattle Folk Dancing — comprehensive listing of many types of folk dancing
• Bristol, England — well, near Bristol: check-out this site for info on dance from FOLK IN THORNBURY, including "Playford, Country, Cotswold Morris, Garland and Sword Dancing,") links to other folk-dance sites
• Both contra and English country dance events for southwestern England have been found at the Wiltshire Folk Association, including an announcement for an English country dance ball in BATH
• Set & Turn Single provides listings of English, contra, other forms of dance as well as festivals and other events at various locations in England
• New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) has an annual folk festival (huge) and links to dances and events in New England
• Contra dancers do their thing all over the globe, including Hawaii
• Gender-role free info is provided by Lavender Country and Folk Dancers

Tips on dancing with beginning contra dancer, compiled by Jonathan Sivier, are also worthy of the ECDer's attention.

What is contra dance? Gary Shapiro explains. Check-out the multitudinous links on Kiran's Contra Dance page. Bob Stein's got a terrific page dedicated to contra, including dance locations by state as well as in Canada and other locales.

Reproductions of Dance Manuals, circa 17^th to early 20^th century.

David Smukler's Cracking Chestnuts — originally appeared as a series of columns on dance in the CDSS Newsletter. David re-published the material with David Millstone as a book, Cracking Chestnuts: The Living Tradition of American Contra Dances. Includes 17 classic New England contras, with tunes, the original articles from the CDSS Newsletter, and additional material. An appendix contains 20 additional dances and essays on calling and related material. Available in 2011 in the CDSS Bookstore for $20.

Bare Necessities: a premier English country dance band has produced several CDs, both for listening and dancing.  Their latest project, undertaken in cooperation with Boston Center, is a set of CDs being produced expressly for dancing, a valuable source for those who do not have the luxury of local musicians versed in ECD music.

Benefits of dance recognized for years. Laws of Etiquette in 1836.

Enjoy weekend and week-long dance get-a-ways at a dance camp. Try events sponsored by the Country Dance and Song Society CDSS and other organizations at Pinewoods and other camps. Almost Heaven weekends are conducted on Memorial Day each year and include contra and swing dancing. Other excellent venues for dance and music camps include the Swannanoa Gathering in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and Augusta Heritage Center, Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, W.Va. In the mid-west, the Bloomington Old-Time Music and Dance Group sponsors Sugar Hill, camping and dancing at Lake Monroe — near Bloomington, Indiana. Established just a few years ago, the River Rendezvous weekend, in July, is held in a restored dance hall (with A.C.) in the rolling hills of eastern Ohio near Coshocton (convenient to I-70). In the Southwest, check-out Dance in the Desert near Tucson.

Czech Republic Dance Tour. Read about a Dance Tour of the Czech Republic, October, 2009, in an article written for the CDSS Newsletter; it's on-line as a PDF at CDSS' web site. The tour was led by American dance teacher David Millstone and Czech organizer, Jan Pumpr, of Dvorana Dance, Prague, CZ.

Treasure trove: Dance Source on the Web, a collection of links to several collections of dances.  Maintained by Contra Dancers of Hawaii, find there also a collection of contra dances, including such chestnuts as Money Musk and Rory O'More, with midi files of the music that goes with the dances.

Under the rubric of 'mixed links,' even hamsters dance!

Back to top

Folk Groups and Societies, Other forms of dance, etc.

Arizona: Contra dances are sponsored in Tucson by the Tucson Friends of Traditional Music held on the second weekend in November. In Phoenix, the Phoenix Friends of Old Time Music sponsor contra dances on 2nd Wednesdays and 4th Saturdays of the month. Check these pages for links to dances in Flagstaff and Prescott. (Why do we speak of AZ? Relatives live there!)

Folklore Society of Greater Washington.

Annapolis Traditional Dance Society.

Arden Folk Dance Gild, Arden, Delaware — between Wilmington and Philadelphia

Baltimore Folk Music Society — song and dance, including ECD on Monday evenings. Dances are usually held at St. Mark's-on-the-Hill, 1620 Reisterstown Road.

Bellingham (WA) Country Dance Society holds contra dances on first Fridays and third Saturdays of each month with some fifth Saturday dances.

California: — California Dance Schedule (self explanatory).

Canada

• Canadian Social Dance Events (contra, Irish, English, . . .)
• Canada-wide index — contra and other
• English country dancing in Toronto, Ontario's with the Toronto English Country Dancers (TECD).
• Vancouver County Dance (British Columbia) sponsors contra dance and music events, including the Raincoast Ruckus and Chehalis dance weekends. Chehalis was formerly held in September at a coastal camp, reached by ferry, north of Vancouver. They have returned to the Cehalsis Healing House near Mission, BC (70 km east of Vancouver; 125 mi north of Seattle).
• Heartland Dance Vancouver started in the Summer of 2010 and is presenting Scottish and English country dancing in Ft. Langley, BC — just east of Vancouver.
• Contra dances are also held on Vancouver Island by Fiddlejam, Victoria Contra Dance, and Nanaimo.
• British Columbia's Victoria English Country Dance Society (VECD) gets together on a weekly basis. They say on their web site that they "dance in longways sets, circles and squares . . . 'old' dances from the 18^th and 19^th centuries and 'new' dances in the English style created in the 20th and 21st centuries." VECD sponsors balls, e.g., the "Turn of the Tide," March, 2009

Country Dance and Song Society: a society of societies and individuals. The CDSS web site includes links to folk groups (CDSS affiliates), listed by state, a calendar of events (national in scope), and interesting articles from previous editions of their Newsletter.

England: The Chippenham Folk Festival is sponsored by the Chippenham Folk Festival Association. The Festival is on the river Avon in rural Wiltshire. Look for more under Wiltshire, above.

Florida: Dance Web Florida provides state — wide listings of current events for contra dancers as well as for Ceilis, Scandi, International, and Scottish dancing.

Frederick, MD Contra Dances: Mid-Maryland Folk Arts Council

Friday Night Dancers: contra dances every Friday night at Glen Echo Park's Spanish Ballroom, Glen Echo, Maryland.

Illinois has the Urbana Country Dancers which sponsors contra dances and other events, year-round.

Lewisburg, PA.  Countryside Contra Dancers — they are about 60 mi north of Harrisburg (link updated 3/7/09 — hope it works for you).

Lloyd Shaw Foundation: dedicated to the preservation, restoration and teaching of the folk dances of America, the Foundation sponsors dance camps, at several locations in the U.S., featuring varied styles of folk dance. It supports the folk community by custom-cutting folk dance CD's, selling teaching kits for teacher's elementary as well as recreational dancing, and provides seed money for new dance events.

NEFFA, the New England Folk Festival Association, has a multitude of activities, not the least of which is the annal the NEFFA Festival, also known as the New England Folk Festival.

New Hampshire / Maine — The New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance group hosts the annual Star Hampshire Music & Dance weekend off the coast of New Hampshire at the Star Island Retreat and Conference Center

Ohio

• Athens, Ohio is the home of The Southeastern Ohio Traditional Dance Society contra dance group. Athens is also home home to the May Apple Stomp contra dance weekend and the great contra dance band, the Hotpoint Stringband which is organizing the The Big Fun Dance Weekend in July, 2010 (let's hope it recurs).
• Big Scioty Barn Dance: Contra in Columbus, Ohio. Big Scioty sponsors a yearly weekend in southeastern Ohio, the May Apple Stomp.
• River Rendezvous — a fine dance weekend in eastern, Ohio

Philadelphia: Opportunities for enjoyment of folk dancing and music abound in the Philadelphia / Delaware Valley area: The Folk Dance Council of the Delaware Valley lists a wealth of opportunities in the Seven Day Guide to Folk, Swing and Traditional Dancing In and Around Philadelphia.

North Carolina is a hot bed of contra (and other forms of) folk dance. In the Chapel Hill area, the Triangle Country Dancers" meet on Fridays to dance contras. Asheville and environs is a well-known dance mecca in the Smokey Mountains. Find dances in the Asheville region at the Old Farmer's Ball (don't forget to visit their links). People (dancers and musicians alike) rave about contra dances, hosted by Harvest Moon Folk Society, at the River Falls lodge. Just across the border, south of Asheville, the "lodge" is a funky, old building "renovated" by local volunteers.

Princeton Country Dancers — Contra and occasional ECD.

Shepherd's Town, W. Va.: Shepherdstown Music & Dance

Swarthmore College Folk Dance Club: ECD, Contras, Scottish, &c.

Tennessee

• Knoxville Country Dancers — contra dances
• Nashville Country Dancers — English country and contra dances — annual Playford Ball

Virginia

• Contra dances in the Charlottesville area are listed at Central Virginia Contra Dances for Charlottesville and nearby areas such as Greenwood and Staunton. The Greenwood dance is held in a community center with a fine wood floor in the rolling hills a few miles west of Charlottesville.
• The "Norfolk Folk Dancer" reports on dance events in southwestern VA, including the "Seven Cities of Southeastern Virginia," e.g., Newport News, Norfolk, Williamsburg, VA Beach.
• Richmond Virginia's Traditional American Dance and Music Society sponsors contra dances and special dance events.
• Other south western VA dances: Contra with the Blue Ridge Country Dancers in Floyd and in Blacksburg with Two Dog Waltz.

West Virginia

• Morgantown Dance sponsors the June Moon Dance Weekend just outside of Morgantown, continuing In the spirit of the former "Balance and Swim." In its second year (2010), the dance was held in an outdoor dance pavilion in a rustic setting in the woods. Many dancers tent-camped on-site. Hosts went our of their way to tend to the needs of dancers and had great line-up: Ron Buchanan called mind-bending contras and squares and Gaye Fifer called great contras. Music was provided by the Contrarians and the Groovemongers.
• Shepherdstown Music & Dance sponsors dance and music events, including monthly contra dances, Morris dancing, folk music concerts, and an annual hammered dulcimer fest. Check-out their Upper Potomac Music Weekends.

Back to top.

Resources in-print

Dance graphics from Library of Congress' on-line copies of  Dance Instruction Manuals — ca. 1490 to 1920. This remarkable collection has been updated to include over 220 manuals with reproductions from the originals plus transcribed full-text versions.

Digital Collection of 16^th-Century Music — maintained by The British Library. Details about the on-line collection, which includes rare, unique editions, are at Early Music Online.

Cecil Sharp Diaries. Sponsored by the Country Dance and Song Society, the diaries from America by Cecil Sharp are on-line at the efdss (English Folk Dance and Song Society). Cecil Sharp travelled and lectured on folk music in Americia and is well known for his collections of folk music from in Appalachia. Read more about background on the digitization of the collection, dedicated to the memory and contributions of John M. ("Jack") Langstaff, and underwritten by The Ithaka Foundation, The Langstaff family and William L. Ritchie.

Back to top  |  Return to Roger's Home Page