Michael Dyck's Contradance Index

... indexing contradances since 1996 ...

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


Last updated 2013 June 30: 10436 records, 7214 distinct titles.

Title
Author

Recent updates:

Mar 02 wPark Index "Frederick Park's Country Dances" (Thanks to Chris Page for typing it in!) (7 dances).
Mar 02 wRPDLW_2011 Index "Syllabus of the 24th Annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend" by David Smukler and Nils Fredland (80 dances). (Thanks to Chris Page for analysis and typing!)
Mar 26 wSuchenski Index "Bryan Suchenski's Contra Dances" (2 dances).
Mar 26 wTurner Change URL (Thanks to Laurie Pietravalle for the new link!).
May 20 wCoffman 1 dance changed ("Jumping Joe Felsen"); 15 dances added ("Bad Hair Day", "Cross Purposes", "Grey Pants", "Hinton's Hint", "In the Ballpark", "In the Money", "Keep a Lid on It", "Lazy Man I Won't Maintain", "Mandible Joe Johnston", "Off Balance", "One Up the Sleeve", "Pretty Boy", "Southpaw", "Sweet Potato Pie", "Sweet Potatoes").
May 20 wDVA 4 dances added ("Good Friday", "Judy's Joy", "Rollin' with Rohde", "The Big Bicep").
May 20 wDalsemer 1 dance added ("Another Wavy Line").
May 20 wFoster 3 dances added ("All Chain", "Rotunda", "The Women's Turn").
May 20 wGraham 3 dances added ("Paper Plate #1: The Melt Up, 1998", "Blue Lemonade", "Old Dry Frye's Ramble").
May 20 wHemphill 13 dances added ("And Away We Go", "THe Easily Led Lad", "Kimmswick Reunion", "The Long and Short of It", "The Martyred Monk", "May the 5th Be With You", "My Hungarian Gypsy Star", "Office Mayhem", "Rick O'shay's Proper Hey", "Rollin With Rohde", "Third Base", "Tornado", "Wave Goodby to Winter").
May 20 wKing 1 dance added ("Sharon of the Green Contra").
May 20 wKrackau 3 dances added ("Double Hey Contra", "Miss Brown's Reel", "Shacklette's Triplet").
May 20 wMissouri 27 dances removed ("Easier than Pie", "Flip a Coin", "The Millwheel", "Mountain Ridge", "Palindrome", "Wandering Gypsies", "Caped Crusader", "Gypsy Camp", "Ionia Breakout", "Jefferson & Liberty", "Jefferson's Remorse", "Jefferson Gone Wild", "Mage Up A Creek", "Star Hey Night", "Wagon Wheel", "Back on the Interstate", "Exit 33", "Just Another Whim", "Earthshine Reel", "Orbiting Gypsies", "The Courtesy Fling", "The Bothersome Bug Becket", "Huru's Reel", "Second Star", "Heat Wave", "John Birch Reel", "Hey your Corner"); 2 dances added ("Kimmswick Diamonds", "Beauty and the Bees").
May 20 wOrmand_c 1 dance added ("West By Midwest").
May 20 wRavitz 1 dance removed ("Altered State"); 5 dances added ("Decade", "Gypsy Waves", "Into the DMZ", "Martha's Breakup Breakdown", "Parmesan").
May 21 DAW6 Changed the code from "DAW" to "DAW6".
May 21 DAW8 Index "Dance A While [8th edition]" by Jane A. Harris, Anne M. Pittman, Marlys S. Waller, Cathy L. Dark (31 dances). (Thanks to Chris Page for entering the data!)
May 21 RR Index ""Rhonda's Romance" & Other Modern Contra Dances" by Michael Barraclough (24 dances).
May 21 wSmuklerM Change URL.
May 29 wBley-Vroman Change URL.
May 29 wCoffman 2 dances added ("Belly Button Diversity Project", "Sama Anna Hannah").
May 29 wGreenA Change URL, CHANGE lo on each dance, because there are now separate pages for squares, contras, circles, "More Dances" page no longer exists. And it isn't in the Wayback Machine; 11 dances removed ("B more complex", "Stars Galore", "Driffield Drifter", "Heavenly Bodies", "January Petronella", "Permanent Wave", "First Double Contra", "Stars & Stripes Mixer", "Alamo Intro", "Bishopthorpe Palace Pousette", "Sicilian Balancing act").
May 29 wGreenT Change code from "wGreen" to "wGreenT", Change URL; 4 dances removed ("Cocheco Hornpipe", "Reading Reel", "Timber Salvage Reel", "Fallen Timber Reel"); 3 dances changed ("Beaux of Albany", "St Lawrence Jig", "Scout House Reel").
May 29 wHemphill 2 dances added ("Proper Swingfest I", "Proper Swingfest II").
May 29 wOlson Change URL.
May 29 wPage 4 dances added ("Alexander's Swing-time", "Moments of Transition", "Reroll Reel", "Wind-up Your Neighbor, 2007 double progression version").
May 29 wRavitz 1 dance changed ("Gypsy Waves").
May 31 wRPDLW_2012 Index "Syllabus of the 25th Annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend" by David Smukler (82 dances).
Jun 29 wCoffman 2 dances changed ("Sama Anna Hannah", "Starship"); 1 dance added ("Hard Turn").
Jun 29 wGreenA Contents of "More Dances" page moved to main page; 6 dances changed ("B more complex", "January Petronella", "January Petronella", "January Petronella", "Permanent Wave", "First Double Contra"); 23 dances added ("B more complex", "Stars Galore", "California Twirl No2", "California Twirl No 3", "Box the bugs No2", "Box the bugs No3", "Another piece of cake", "Box Circulate intro", "Driffield Drifter", "Driffield Hey Stack", "Heavenly Bodies", "January Petronella", "Keep Taking the Tablets", "Mad Mad World", "Permanent Wave", "Al's Berlin Trip(let)", "4 into 3 will go", "First Double Contra", "Halsway Double Mad Robin", "Stars & Stripes Mixer", "Alamo Intro", "Bishopthorpe Palace Pousette", "Kentish Windmills").
Jun 29 wHemphill 1 dance changed ("Chased by Butterflies").
Jun 29 wKing 1 dance added ("March of the Coffee Zombies").
Jun 29 wPage 7 dances added ("Chain the Corner", "Ladies Chain Circle Mixer", "Ebb and Flow", "Fool Around for Lori", "On the Other Hand", "Chain the Triangle", "Chain the Right Triangle").
Jun 30 wRavitz 4 dances changed ("Between the Lines", "Janet's Journey", "Presto Petronella", "Star's End"); 11 dances added ("Bernadance", "Carla's Contra", "Catch Phrase", "The Fair Maid", "Gypsy Eights", "Judy's Journey", "Jump the Tracks", "Linda's Flight", "Moment of Inertia", "Serenade", "Vicki's Dance").
Jun 30 wRosenS 2 dances added ("Grand Western Canal", "Meg's Choice").

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

Website generously hosted by ibiblio.org.
hosted by ibiblio