*The Colorado link will bring you to Dancing on the Web. The Iowa link will bring you to the Central Iowa Barn Dance Association. 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 Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota or Wyoming, but I have created pages if something changes in the future.
Portland, Oregon needs your help
The principal dance venue in Portland, the Fulton Community Center, is under the threat of closure by the Portland Park & Recreation Department due to budget problems. The Portland Country Dance Community is asking that all dancers, even those not from the Portland area, write letters and e-mails and make phone calls in support of Fulton Community Center and against its closure. For all the details, visit the Portland Country Dance Community web site and also visit the Facebook site.
Volunteers and Dancers Needed
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.
Site Report
Site activity continued to increase from 2010 to 2011. The number of visits increased about 21%, unique visitors increased more than 18% and pageviews increased by 15%. The previous one day record for visits (458), back on July 2, 2010 due the radio story on NPR about contra dancing, was broken on October 1, 2011 (524), but a pattern that was somewhat noticeable in 2010, lots of activity near New Year's Eve, broke that record a few months later, first on December 30 (532) and then on December 31 (652), which answers the question for contra dancers as to what they want to be doing New Year's Eve.
Festival information continues to be the most popular page, with the index page finishing second. After that, it is the New England regional page, the North Carolina schedule page and the southern New England schedule page. In terms of geography, the U.S. was first, then Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Gary Shapiro's site continues to generate the most referrals.
My plans for 2012 are to keep up the work on the schedule pages, do a thorough review of the regional, band and callers pages, and make some additions to the various resources pages. Thanks for everyone's help.
Why We Contra Dance
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.
Other Omnibus Sites
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.