Internet resources for contra dance callers

General Resourses

The Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS)

Check out their website for the below and much more. They've made substantial changes in recent years.

International membership organization,
publisher of books, recordings, and a monthly newsletter,
organizer of week-long dance camps,
and source for many recordings and publications.

The Traditional Dance Callers' mailing list

A "medium traffic" mailing list, with many discussions of interest to callers. Occasional dances posted, but more often discussions of topics like contracts, bookings, "one night stand" gigs, techniques for getting folks out of chairs and dancing.

The "Shared Weight" mailing list

Lower traffic, discussions with a closer focus on contra dance calling. Initially started as a forum for newer callers, in some ways this is an "electronic support group".

Some sources of dances

The Caller's Box: Chris Page's excellent site incoprporate Michael Dyck's index and goes MUCH further. Chris attempts to include either the choreography (in painstaking detail!) or a link to a source of the choreography whenever possible. Often he will also include links to videos showing the dance in action, and occasionally to a video of a walk-through of the dance.
You can search the database by title or author, of by listing moves that appear in the dance (in order) or that do not appear in the dance. Suggestions: use one line per move, and as few words as possible. For example, use "chain" or "balance" instead of "ladies chain" or ring balance" unless you're certain of the exact way the database captures the description of the dance.
Michael Dyck's Conta Dance Index: A very good attempt to document sources for EVERY contra dance ever published, whether in physical print form or on the WWW. Michael worked with Chris Page to incororate this database into the much larger index above and has not updated his list since 2019.
American Country Dances On-Line: This is a simple dump of the database of dances that Russell Owen edited and made available.
A short list of a few "Back Pocket" dances: Some easy, reliable contra dances "to keep in your back pocket" in case you need a fall back, or want some easy material when you start calling.
My Dance Compositions: A few contra dances, and a Four-Face-Four dance

Articles and web pages about contra dance calling written by a variety of people

Peter Amidon Callers Workshop(PDF)

A succint two page overview of the job of a caller for an evening dance.

Colin Hume's Callers Workshop Materials

A total of FIFTY topics, covered at various depths. Fifteen topics of "basics" (such as "The Caller's Job", "Planning a Programme", "The Walkthrough") and 35 "specialized subjects" ("The Caller's Atitude", "Making people want to dance to you", "Changing the mood"). I think I need to read thourgh these, they look to cover quite a lot of territory!

Bill Olson Contra Callers' Workshop

Washington DC Callers' Collective, March 30, 2002, roughly 7 printed pages. (Archived version; original site down)

Sidmouth Callers Workshop

Bob Archer and Mike Courthold, 1998, roughly 9 printed pages.

Cary Ravitz's Notes on Calling Contra Dances

Thorough and opinionated view of many aspects of calling contras. Roughly 13 printed pages.

Cary Ravitz's Notes on Choreography for Duple Minor Improper Contra Dances

The author says "This information is based on my experiences dancing, calling, and writing dances. It is part fact and part opinion. For choreographers, I expect that you will disagree with many parts of it, but perhaps it will give you something to consider. For callers, I hope that you will learn something that will help you understand complex dances more easily and choose better dances to call."

Jonathan Sivier's Resources for Callers

Roughly five printed pages, with a lists of links. Sections include "Basics," "Some Philosophy," "Teaching Tips," the links and a request for feedback.

Material from the late David Kaynor

Look for The David Kaynor Book below. It includes a comprehensive collection of David's contributions to the world of contra music, dance, and calling. David's Musings provides insights from his vantage point of calling contras over 30+ years. Topics include

Thoughts about long walk-throughs
Teaching experienced folks to dance
The Montague Center Unplugged All-Comers' Band

Seth Tepfer's calling workshop handouts

At his DanceRhapsody site, Seth makes available a collection of handouts that he uses at calling workshops. They are living documents, in that Seth continues to make changes over time. You can find his thoughts on, "The Beginners Workshop," "Programming an evening," "Checklist for a gig," "The walkthrough," "Calling for Non Dancers," and "The Big Picture," plus his though-provoking questionnaire "What kind of caller are you?"
Seth also provides several PDF files of dances, some for "Mixed Crowds," "Novice Callers," "Groovin' contras to end an evening," "No Brainers," and "Dances for non-Dancers!"

Erik Hoffman Posted some essays from his self-published books.

The books are no longer available, but you can find archived versions of some of the essays from his books Contradictions and Contra Comments:

Contradictions, Chapter 1 ("Why Do We Dance?")
Contradictions, Chapter 2 (on style)
Contradictions, Chapter 3 (traffic patterns)
Contradictions, Chapter 4 (grips, holds, and weight).
Contra Comments, Chapter 3: On music and dancing
Contra Comments, Chapter 8: Becoming a Good Dancer

Richard Powers' Teaching Tips

Intended for teaching couples dance, but with pointers that contra dance callers may find useful.

A list of resources

from ContraDanceLinks.com A very long list of links, amounting to 16 printed pages. It lists materials on contra dancing, calling, music, and quite a bit more. I selected a number of articles from this long list and included them below.

Rich Goss' Program Matrix Spreadsheet

A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet version of the Program Planning Matrix found in the back of Larry Jennings' book Give and Take. You can also find an example of a completed program matrix

My articles and web pages about contra dance calling.

A quick point: being a good caller requires success in several different tasks. You don't have to do well at them all initially, but will need to give them all some thought.

Calling a dance: The words that come out of your mouth once the music starts require timing and clarity.
Teaching a dance: The words you use during the walk-through require clarity and appropriate pacing.
Selecting dances: Programming an evening of dances in advance, and adapting to the circumstances you find when stepping up to the microphone.
Serving as the host of the evening: You're the face of the organization, and how you present yourself, and how you welcome dancers makes a big difference.
The newcomer session (if any): This is much more "art" than science, opinions on content and form vary widely, and many new dancers don't arrive in time for it, but you should put thought into what you do, and reasons for your choices.
Conduct as a dancer: If you're a caller, the way you behave when dancing matters! Do you listen to the caller, take hands four promptly, and help the evening go smoothly? You're setting an example, in everything you do!

A second point: Keep in mind that the caller, the musicians, and the dancers are all on the same side! Everyone has turned up in order to have as much fun as possible as quickly as possible. Everyone wants you to succeed!

Should you call dances?: Some thoughts about calling, to help you decide IF, WHERE, WHAT, HOW, and WHY you should call dances.
Outline for a new callers' session: A first-draft outline for a new callers' session at a dance weekend, intended for dancers first thinking about calling, or folks VERY early in their calling career.
Thoughts for calling your first dance: So you're going to do it. How do you go about it?
Contra Dance Calling Card Examples: Examples of a dance written out using different formats I've seen callers use for calling cards.
Contra dances at weddings: Some musings on the challenges of contra dances at weddings
A list of useful recordings: A list of recordings with tracks of lengths useful to contra dance callers. Note that this list so far only covers bands with names starting with the letters A through L. I also have not double-checked the recordings to ensure that the tracks are all appropriate.

Some selected books on contra dance calling

I believe that all of these are available through the CDSS store. They also stock any number of recordings of fine contra dance bands, videos, and books of dance compositions by dozens of composers.

Contra Dance Calling: A Basic Text: by Tony Parkes, copyright 2010, ISBN 0-9632880-3-2. A comprehensive guide to calling contra dances in 324 "perfect-bound" pages. (Original edition was copyright 1992, ISBN 0-9632880-1-6, 300 pages) The new edition was released in November, 2010. and is available directly from Tony, from the CDSS store, or from Amazon.com. Tony has the complete table of contents on his site, along with the complete first chapter.
The David Kaynor Book: A 300-page, spiral-bound book that incorporates David's self-published booklet Calling for Beginners by Beginners, over 70 tunes that he composed, over 50 dances that he chroeographed, his autobiography and tributes by family members and friends. Available through The Portland Collection web site
Balance and Swing: by Ted Sannella, copyright 1982, ISBN 0-917-02405-2. "A collection of fifty-five squares, contras, and triplets in the New England Tradition with music for each dance." Each dance gets its own page, with the moves followed by paragraphs of "Dancing Tips," "Comments," and "Background." On a facing page, you'll find a music for a tune that Ted thought fit the dance particularly well. 156 pages. Published by CDSS
Swing the Next: copyright 1996 by the estate of Ted Sannella, ISBN 0-917024-08-7. "A second collection of squares, contras, triplets, and circles in the New England Tradition, with music for each dance." "A collection of eighty squares, contras, triplets, & circle dances." Format very similar to Balance and Swing, with tips and comments. Another caller pointed out to me that in addition to the tips, which may be of particular value to the newer caller. many of the dances contained in these volumes avoid the complications that can trip up newer callers. 206 pages. Published by CDSS
Give-and-Take: copyright 2004, published by NEFFA. "a sequel to ZESTY CONTRAS featuring 628 dances in the New England Style, Provocative remarks, Exhortive essays, and Arcane analyses presented by Larry Jennings". Larry told me that in his first volume, Zesty Contras, he tried to scour the entire contra dance world for dances, but that many no longer fit his vision of "zesty" dancing. This collection includes a selection of many more dances that fit his vision.
Zesty Contras: Copyright 1983, published by NEFFA. "A Selection of 500 New England Style Dances with a Provocative Explanatory Text by Larry Jennings". Over 30 pages of text and over 50 pages of dances. (Note that that implies nearly ten dances per page! "If you can't figure out the dance from the notes in Zesty, you have no business trying to call it!") 90 pages, saddle-stapled.

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