*The Colorado link will bring you to Dancing on the Web. The Maine link will bring you to the Downeast Friends of the Folk Arts. The New Mexico link will bring you to the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society. The Utah link will bring you to Utah Contradance Information. These fine organizations and individuals already have complete listings for these states and there is no reason for me to duplicate their efforts.

**As far as I know, there are no regular dances or events in Mississippi, South Dakota or Wyoming, but I have created pages if something changes in the future.

Calling all contra dance callers! The CDSS (Country Dance and Song Society) Contra Dance Task Group wants to find out how CDSS can better support contra dance callers. We encourage you to take our survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VFC5FK7 so CDSS can hear your ideas, concerns, and questions directly. We will send you a summary of the results if you provide us with your email address at the end of the survey.

The survey is truly geared to contra callers of all experience levels from brand new to retired, so the more information you give us about your calling experiences, the better. We are focusing on learning about needed resources for North American contra callers, but we welcome any feedback from callers on other continents as well. We want to hear from as many of the hundreds of contra callers as possible, so please encourage your fellow callers to respond.

Even if you don’t take the survey, we’d like to keep you informed about the survey results and the availability of new contra dance caller resources. Go to the survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VFC5FK7 and choose the "I can't do it now..." item.

We look forward to hearing from you very soon. (Deadline for completing the survey is June 1, 2013 -- Charlie)

• Lynn Ackerson (El Cerrito, CA)
• Emily Addison (Ottawa, ONT)
• David Chandler (Metuchen, NJ)
• Martha Edwards (St. Louis, MO)
• Lisa Greenleaf (Bolton, MA)
• Chris Page (San Diego, CA)
• Louise Siddons (Stillwater, OK)
• Mary Wesley (Ferrisburg, VT)

The Friends of the Guiding Star Grange (FGSG) is sponsoring a contra dance formation contest with the winner to be announced at our 2013 Fall Frolic. The person winning the contest will be awarded $100.00.

If you want to follow the movement of Buying Local, think about contra dance and that "Local" may refer not just to geography:

• Purchase CDs of your favorite bands at your local dance
• Buy a membership in your local dance group, if they have them
• Purchase CDs, music books and other dance items at the Country Dance and Song Society
• Purchase Doug Plummer's Contra Dance Calendar

No, not for the web site. But just as dances don't exist without dancers on the floor, they also won't exist if not enough dancers volunteer to help make the dances happen. The following dance series have publicized the need for volunteers and more dancers. If you want dancing to exist in your area, think about spending some time helping out along with spending time on the dance floor or coming to your local dance on a more regular basis. Typical volunteer duties include opening and/or closing the building on dance nights, taking money, bringing snacks or beverages, managing the snack counter, helping with promotion, and other jobs.

• Arizona, Cottonwood: Variety of tasks for volunteers (April 13, 2013)
• Georgia, Atlanta: Volunteers to help open and/or close the Hall on Fridays. (October 14, 2012)
• Idaho, Boise: Need new board members. (March 17, 2013)
• Massachusetts, Worcester: Dance co-coordinator (December 9, 2012)
• North Carolina, Clemmons: Looking for more dancers (November 4, 2012)
• Ohio, Athens: Wide variety of roles for volunteers (April 13, 2013)
• Ohio, Wooster - Person to take donations at the door plus a few folks (different each dance) to bring refreshments (September 18, 2012)
• Pennsylvania, State College: Publicity Coordinator, Web Master, and Treasurer (March 17, 2013)
• Texas, Dallas - Producers, drinks, sound for various dances (November 14, 2012)
• Washington, Seattle - Open band series needs volunteers for a number of tasks (September 23, 2012)

The Chattahoochee Country Dancers have produced a video called Why We Contra Dance which might explain to your non-contra dancing friends and family (and maybe even to fellow contra dancers) why we enjoy this activity so much.

If you are looking for contra dance information and cannot find it here, please e-mail me or check one of the other sites listed below as no one person keeps up with everything that is happening on the contradance scene.

• The New England Folk Festival Association provides an exhaustive list of contra links.
   
  
• Ted Crane has been compiling a database of dances, musicians, and callers. Very extensive with information about future dances across the country.
   
  
• Gregg Scragg's The Dance Gypsy has a long history as a print publication for dance information in New England and New York State along with a festival calendar, then the addition of a web site and now as a web site covering the United States and a multitude of types of dance.
   
  
• Dwayne Johnson has created a contra dance map with links for the entire United States.
   
  
• Kiran Wagle's A Contradance Page is more than a simple page and includes links to a wide range of articles, groups, information, and dances and while it has not been updated in a while, remains worth visiting for the material that is not time or site sensitive.
   
  
• And, of course, there is the Country Dance & Song Society (CDSS), which has plenty of information about contra dancing along with links and contact information for numerous dance groups.

Bands and callers are listed twice, once in the region in which they are based, the other in the "All Bands and Callers" page. Organizations are listed once, just in the region in which they are based (although if they have an activity in another region, they will be listed there also). The United States is divided into several different regions. The dance at Rehoboth, Massachusetts is the one I attend most often.

http://www.contradancelinks.com
Produced by Charlie Seelig
This page last updated on May 1, 2013. Last update for the site was on May 14, 2013.