#contradance — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #contradance, aggregated by home.social.
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The city of Smyrna continues to send me back and forth to different people and assume I understand what departments exist and exactly what they're all in charge of. Their rental rates are more than most private event spaces anyways if they don't want to be involved (and it sounds like they probably don't). I also got the most insane rate for a venue yet at $2000 for the 3 hours or so we'd need it! I'm going to assume that space mostly only does rich peoples weddings or something. It's looking like a Cobb contra dance isn't actually going to happen (but we'll keep trying).
Recommendations still welcome if anyone is in the Smyrna/Marietta/South Cobb area.
#Contra #ContraDance #Dance #Atlanta #CobbCounty #SmyrnaGA #Smyrna #Marietta #MariettaGA #HashtagAbuse
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Next Tuesday, the 21st, I'll be calling to fantastic local dance band "Hither and Yon" at Inman Park's famous Trolley Barn! Free beginner lesson before hand. If you're in the #Atlanta area, come by and join us for an evening of great music and contra dance!
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J4 2026
A dance and music adventure 34 years in the making
https://richardsholmes.com/doctroid/2026-07-07_j4/
#morrisDance #morrisDancing #folkDance #folkDancing #contradance #contradancing #EnglishCountryDance #EnglishCountryDancing
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On a related note, this is what I use for all of my calling cards and I'm calling at Inman Park's famous Trolley Barn (in Atlanta) next Tuesday at 19:00 if you want to learn to contra dance! I'll be offering a free beginner lesson before the dance. The actual dance will be done to recorded music as we don't have a band for this week.
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I'm very excited that, for the first time since 2019, I've released a new version of "Contra Card", my LaTeX package for typesetting traditional folk dance calling cards!
This is one of those projects that I doubt anybody but me has ever used, but that's part of why I love it so much. Version 3 includes a complete overhaul of how the various dance move macros work to make the source read more naturally and be more flexible, as well as new macros that let you quickly change role terms on your cards (eg. if you're calling at a dance that uses role terms other than the ones you're used to and you want to print a new copy of your program!). There were lots of other changes, and even a complete overhaul of the documentation (which will become available as the mirrors catch up).
https://ctan.org/pkg/contracard
Here's one of my favorite beginner contra dances typeset with the package:
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Sound people who know more than me: I'm considering applying for a grant to help a local dance buy a mixer for when they have live bands, probably in the $400-$700 range, though there may be an option to go slightly over if necessary.
Requirements:
- Portability is good (but not a strict requirement)
- We'd like the ability to record digitally and have digital returns (class-compliant or with Linux support since I'm the one who will do this mostly)
- At least one sub-mix for rear fill speakers (or some other way to do this) and/or for large bands
- Can't require a closed source iPad only app or what not (my own personal requirement or I'd just get a Behringer x16 or what not which seems basically perfect)
- Prefer real fades and knobs (this is a hill I personally will die on, but not a hard requirement for this group)
- USB to digitally record stems + the stereo mixTascam Model 12 is my current thought. Other suggestions?
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I found an old copy of "Fourgone Conclusions" from 1983 that's in decent shape (other than B1, which skips badly enough that I couldn't get a decent recording :( )! This is a band that hasn't been around in a long time, and as far as I know it's impossible to get the CD re-release any more or find this online! If you're into contra dance or New England style folk music, check it out. If anyone has a CD or can get a better recording of the LP somehow hit me up and I'd love to chat!
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If you're a contra or English dancer along the east coast, catch me calling in one of these places this Spring/Summer!
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A bit of a stretch, but do I know anyone who's familiar with traditional Irish, English, and/or old-time folk tunes? Trying to find the name of a few tunes that I still can't figure out even though I know I've heard them a million times before at old-time jams and contra dances and what not. I've been scouring @thesession with no luck!
The one labeled "Tune 4" is still eluding me. It's a medley so if you skip to half way through or so it will change and I'm trying to figure out both tunes.
https://archive.org/details/2026-05-12_trolley_barn_contra/10+Tune+4.flac
EDIT: the embedded Internet Archive player sometimes picks the wrong tune. Best to click through.
Update: One medley left, thanks fedi folks! Post edited.
#OldTime #Bluegrass #FolkMusic #Contra #ContraDance #AskFedi
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Flipping the contradancing script
The young dance
https://richardsholmes.com/doctroid/2026-04-19_flipping-the-contradancing-script/
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Current I-Ds about seeking quickly in Ogg files and creating Matroska based stem files for DJs not niche enough for you? I threw up another one about tagging recordings of traditional called folk dances. If you're tagging your music library and have a lot of contra or what not that you need to search on or field recordings of fiddle tunes you need to archive or what not, feedback would be appreciated:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-swhited-contra-tags/
#Contra #ContraDance #SquareDance #ECD #EnglishCountryDance #InternetDraft #IETF
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I got the recordings I made live at the Trolley Barn with Seth Tepfer a few days ago up on the Internet Archive! I'm learning a ton just from re-listening to these and hearing my mistakes while DJing, and (on the calling side) hearing Seth's excellent calling and teaching. If you're a contra dance fan, give them a listen!
https://archive.org/details/2026-02-24_trolley_barn_contra
Metadata and details for each track are also available on MusicBrainz if you're curious about any of the dances or tunes:
https://musicbrainz.org/event/1a9bf626-3dae-47c0-b034-fb9ca6a224e0
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Last night was BFMS' annual Midwinter Ball. A few of the regulars couldn't make it because their cars weren't dug out yet, but the church hall where the dance is held had adequate plowing in the parking lot, so somewhere around 85-90 of us were able to dance to great music. The band played a little on the fast side, and more repeats than usual, to make sure we all stayed warm. I had never danced a dance with a backward progression before!
#contradance #midwinter -
I have written the most niche thing for my own personal use, but maybe someone else out there on the internet will find it useful. A list of tags to use in music metadata for recordings that contain contra or square dances (or other called dances). ie. what dance is it, who's the caller, etc. Hopefully having this written down will make me be more consistent about the tags when I upload recordings of dances to the Internet Archive.
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Best contradance bassoonist I've ever heard!
#contradance #contradancing #folkDance #folkDancing #Syracuse #SyracuseNY
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RE: https://bots.robots.rodeo/@chicken/115840553105238116
When the #ContraDance caller says to circle one place to the left
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I’ll be calling contra dances along the east coast this month! Catch me in one of these cities.
Full details at https://chromamine.com/dance/
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Excellent contradance tonight near Syracuse, part of the Phylla Mae Fall Festival. Not a big event but great music, calling, and dancing. This year's featured caller is Michael Karcher with music by Stove Dragon and Raven & Goose. Continues all day tomorrow with English country dancing and more contra.
https://syracusecountrydancers.org/special-events/phylla-mae-fall-fest/
#Syracuse #SyracuseNY #contradance #contradancing #EnglishCountryDance #EnglishCountryDancing #folkDance #folkDancing
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Our next Contra Dance is on 1st November 13:30-16:45 at St. Pauls Community Hall, Lancaster.
Rhodri Davies Caller will lead us through the dances before we dance to live music
#contra #contradance #lancasteruk #folkdance #livemusic #lancashire
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One neat thing I’ve used Cursor for recently is translating my contra dance programs from photos of my physical cards to the YAML format I use to record them.
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"Falshoods programmers believe about contra dances"
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I just applied for a scholarship to the John C. Campbell Folk School for their traditional dance callers week. Not something I had on my bingo card for this year, but apparently I was recommended for it by someone in the local contra scene and invited to apply, so why not? I've always thought it would be fun to learn to call properly (I've only ever done it at open-mic type dances and workshops)!
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Many contra dance callers use The Caller’s Box, a phenomenal dance choreography database from Chris Page and Michael Dyck. For those of us who primarily call gender free dances, though, using it requires mental translation from gendered role terms to gender neutral ones. I’ve created a browser plugin, Caller’s Box Configurator, to fix this.
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Sunday 7 lesson, dance 730 - #ContraDance in #PorterSquare #CambridgeMA - Masks required - not wheelchair accessible - $5+ sliding scale admission, live music https://www.bidadance.org
#BostonDancing #BostonWeekend 10/x -
@redbanjer nice to hear from another #ContraDance fan. My early violin training was distinctly clasical - kudos to #MDUSD public school classes and orchestras, and I thoroughly enjoy #DanceBand fiddling these days. (love your emojis!)
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This is a post looking for that quirky bunch of friends (some on bluesky now) who enjoy #ContraDance #FolkMusic #MyAlaskaWx #FensterFriday #Yukon #IndigenousLanguage @thelmaleuba.bsky.social is one person I hope to reach this way Wider net includes #GregoryGardens #GirlScouts
#MDUSD #OccidentalCollege So if this works right, I write on Mastodon and folks can read on Mastodon AND on BlueSky. (but it might be a magic spell I havenʼt perfected yet) -
This Friday, meet me at the intersection of #crossfit and #contradance.