Michael Dyck's Contradance Index

... indexing contradances since 1996 ...

(Wondering what contradance is? Try this set of links.)


Last updated 2012 December 05: 9998 records, 7011 distinct titles.

Title
Author

Recent updates:

Jul 29 wBass Index "Judy Bass' Dances" (1 dances).
Jul 29 wBoyer Index "Billy Boyer's Dances" (7 dances).
Jul 29 wFelsen Index "Joe Felsen's Dances" (2 dances).
Jul 29 wGreenB Index "Bob Green's Dances" (9 dances).
Jul 29 wHemphill Change URL; 11 dances added ("Backsliding", "Butterflies Gone Wild", "Hello Goodby Butterfly", "Missionary Men", "Polka Dots On Parade", "Proper in Passing", "Rain Dance", "Starlight Reunion", "Strolling with the Neighbor", "Swallowtail Chase", "Where's Duke").
Jul 29 wJones Index "Chrystal Gallacci Jones' Dances" (4 dances).
Jul 29 wKaufman Change URL.
Jul 29 wMissouri Change URL.
Jul 29 wRempert Change URL.
Jul 29 wRosen Change URL.
Jul 29 wSmuklerD Change location field for all dances.
Jul 29 wSteele Index "Ted Steele's Dances" (5 dances).
Jul 29 wWeiler Change URL.
Jul 29 wWilson Index "Dale Wilson's Dances" (1 dances).
Aug 02 wRavitz ADD "Miscellaneous Contra Dances" page. (Thanks to Chris Page for the data entry.); 9 dances added ("Berea Spring Gypsy", "Box the Gnat Contra Variation", "Country Doctor's Reel Variation", "The Green Eyed Girl Variation", "Joyride Variation", "Pigtown Pousette", "The Raeden Reel Variation", "Shades of Shadrack Variation", "WarmUp").
Dec 01 wCoffman 16 dances added ("Be My Heroine", "Butterbump", "Chains of Love", "Dancing in My Bones", "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", "Los Amigos", "McContra", "Moonshine", "On the One Hand", "Out in Left Field", "Out of Hand", "Queenless", "Stem to Stern", "Traveling Salesman", "Triple Hat Syndrome", "Tutti Fruti").
Dec 01 wDVA 1 dance added ("Rick O'Shay Broke My Hey").
Dec 01 wFischle 1 dance added ("Large Figure Eight").
Dec 01 wFoster 12 dances added ("Birthday Galop", "Christmas Hornpipe", "Devil's Nightmare", "Don't Blame Me", "Down the Hall", "Melbourne Cup", "Nelly Bly variation", "Petronella Square", "Star Chase", "Supernova", "Too Right", "The Whirligiggin' Gypsy").
Dec 01 wHemphill 20 dances added ("Cavewoman #8", "Chase by Butterflies", "Cupid's Hey", "Dance All Day", "Hand to Hand", "Hey man, Chain", "Hey Breaker", "John's Joy Ride", "Macadamia Nut", "November Nights", "The Partner Push", "Proper Zest", "Rick O'Shay Broke my Hey", "Rolling in Catnip", "Rounding the Corners", "The Scrambler", "Shiver Me Timbers", "Stars of Fredericktown", "Two + Two Makes Three", "Under the Stars").
Dec 01 wHume 1 dance added ("Caulking Jig").
Dec 01 wKaufman 1 dance added ("Rang Tang Contra").
Dec 01 wKrackau 6 dances added ("Alden Biezen Quadrille", "Contraband Hey", "Don Bosco Hornpipe", "Dud's Reel", "Insomnia Reel", "Lighted Sconce").
Dec 01 wPage 8 dances added ("Do What's Right", "A Sure Thing", "Something Borrowed", "Kindred Spirits", "Trust", "Rolling Break", "TLC Tempest, 2009 version", "A Thing of Trust").
Dec 01 wRavitz 3 dances added ("Becket Eyes", "Call Me", "Cows Are Watching").
Dec 01 wSmuklerD 2 dances added ("Bingham's Pie", "New Countryman's Reel").
Dec 01 wSouthard 1 dance added ("Double Dip").
Dec 01 wTepfer 2 dances added ("Playful Gordons", "The Law firm of Rob and Sue").
Dec 01 wWilson 1 dance added ("Gold Star Wednesday").
Dec 02 wDVA 1 dance added ("Wes Side Story").
Dec 02 wDalsemer Change URL (Thanks to Karin Neils for the link!); 1 dance changed ("Old Bob's Mixer"); 5 dances added ("Connie's Contra", "Jan and Nanette", "Red Mountain Reel", "May Mixer", "Glen Echo Promenade").
Dec 05 wGoodyearPrograms Index "Grant Goodyear's Dance Programs" (102 dances).

My goal for this web site is to index every contra dance ever published. Moreover, I intend to include any other country dances that are published alongside contras. By "published", I mean in a book, booklet, newsletter, or on the World-Wide Web.

I'm not trying to index every publication, just the ones that have appeared since 1953. (If you know of any I'm missing, please let me know!) I chose that cutoff because "The Contra Dance Book" by Rickey Holden "is a compilation of all the contra and progressive circle dances which have appeared in readily available American literature between 1850 and 1953." So by indexing that book (CDBH), I'm claiming to cover all the contras published up to 1953.

For each dance, I have the following info:

Publication Info
This consists of a book (or newsletter) identifier and a page number (or dance number, if they're numbered). Eventually, I'll have the full publication info somewhere.
Dance Title
Pretty straightforward.
Authorship
Usually this is a single author, but sometimes it's more than one, either working together or one adapting the other.
Formation
I've let myself be a bit cryptic on this. And then numbers defining the composition of each (minor) set, and then optional stuff indicating whether each couple is proper or improper, and whether it's a mixer.

Note that I do not include the figures of the dances. If you're looking for on-line country dance descriptions, check my list of sources for codes that begin with 'w'.

Here's my to-do list, including links to lots more websites containing contra dances that I haven't indexed yet.


And now, the indexes:

My list of sources, the codes I use to denote them, and my raw data files are all available here.


Website by Michael Dyck, jmdyck@ibiblio.org

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