I tell new people out on the floor, “If you’re having a good time, that’s fine, it isn’t all about doing it right.” And I finally heard what I said, and I realized that it might appl

David Millstone started contra dancing with Dudley Laufman in the early 1970s and has been calling dances for forty-five years: contras old and new, squares from different regional traditions, English

Dancing is magical. And if you’re willing to dance with someone you don’t know, then good things can happen I think. And you put it in the context that you’re dancing not just with a

I think the caller ideally should be part of the band. Not to upstage the band, but that there should be an effort to think about what you’re doing musically. ~ Susan Kevra Mary’s guest th

Seeing the community that exists around this dancing—seeing how much it means to people and looking back and seeing how many of the close friendships and relationships in my life have come from this c

How many parts of our lives are all organized around this idea of joyful interaction? When we dance, why are we getting together except to do this beautiful thing that’s been around forever and

I love treating each night as an experiment, and it really is, everything comes together differently. No two dances, no two evenings of contra dancing are ever exactly the same. You never know what it

Catherine Burns has been at the heart of the Ottawa contra dance scene for decades. Born in Switzerland to Canadian parents Catherine traveled the world in her youth then became the house caller for t

It’s amazing to see that many people just blissed out and dancing and having gotten to help them get there as a collective, as a group of people…and being like, “I helped this.&#8221

 I think what the caller brings is probably different for each person who’s there…it’s experience, it’s confidence, it’s preparation, it’s knowing your material. Bu