Online resources for dancers and callers
My California local dance organizations are the North Bay Country Dance Society and the Bay Area Country Dance Society (NBCDS and BACDS, for short). They put on most of the regular contra and English country dances in the greater Bay Area. BACDS runs a number of week-long and weekend dance camps, and NBCDS runs several weekend special dance events. For the schedules of all our dances and much more:
BACDS
NBCDS
The US national organization of which our local groups are affiliates is the Country Dance and Song Society, or CDSS. They run camps and have a great website, an online store where you can find books and recordings, and a growing compilation of resource links for dancers, callers and organizers of all styles. Their website has recently been thoroughly re-designed and there is more available there every day. Go exploring!
Your local callers, musicians and fellow dancers can also provide you with information, dance notes and opinions. Don’t be shy about asking questions. We’re a friendly bunch, and if we don’t know the answer, we can often point you to someone who does. If you’ve got a favorite resource that should be on this list, or if you notice a broken link, please let me know.
The rest of this list is divided into 3 sections –English country dance, contra dance, and family/community dance.
English Country Dance
The CDSS Online Library now hosts collections of notation for English country dances, squares, and contras from Charles Bolton, Ken Sheffield,Robert Keller and a great many others.
For a glossary of dance terms, Hugh Stewart’s “Elements of English Country Dance” is very useful. This information is also available from CDSS in booklet form, with charming illustrations. Bear in mind that dance communities differ widely in their habits, so some things in the book may not apply to how your group dances.
To see video of common English country dance movements, Fain Music UK has compiled a nice set of short clips showing about 20 of the more common figures.
Hugh Stewart’s other great contribution to the world of English country dancing is his dance database. You can find out where a dance was published and whether there are any recordings of the tune. I use this all the time.
Two sources for ECD videos are the Lambertville (NJ) Country Dancers’ website and Bob Green’s video archive, which also includes contra dances. The videos are of highly variable quality and may or may not accurately represent your version of the dance, but they are very useful for learning and for building repertoire.
There is a treasure trove of free-for-download English country dance music available on the BACDS website. This library of tunes was created to support the Odd Sundays Online English series that Sharon Green and I started in April of 2020 when all of our dance communities had been shuttered by the pandemic. Sharon worked with BACDS to create a series of recording grants, and the Odd Sundays English Garage Band (Patti Cobb on piano, Shira Kammen on violin and viola, and Judy Linsenberg on recorder) formed to supply Sharon and me with danceable recordings of a huge number of tunes, many of which had not previously been available in recorded form. If your dance series uses recorded music, you may find some useful material here.
The ECD Discussion List is an email forum for discussion of all things ECD related. Here you’ll find organizers, choreographers, musicians, callers and dancers, and it’s a great place for questions.
The Colonial Music Institute’s Dance Figures Index is a guide to English country dances in 18th and early 19th-century printed sources. This is not a collection of dance notation, but is very useful for tracking down publication sources of early dances. The dances are in coded form for rough comparison, with exhaustive bibliographic information.
There is dance notation online, though, as with videos, the quality varies wildly. The following sources are reliable:
The aforementioned resource links at cdss.org
John Sweeney’s compilation of the dances published over the years in the EFDSS Journal
Gary Roodman – His brand-new or revised dances are online, along with a useful index to his material, but for most of his dances you’ll need to purchase his excellent booklets.
Colin Hume is a dance caller, composer, and historian.
Victor Skowronski
Sharon Green
There are more all the time. This list is far from complete. Trust but verify.
Contra Dance
The CDSS Online Library now hosts information on squares, contras and ECD from Ted Sanella, David Millstone, David Smukler and a great many others.
Two useful online discussion groups are contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net and tradcallers@lists.sharedweight.net. Traffic is variable but rarely overwhelming. These lists are incredibly valuable resources for contra/square/community dance callers.
A great many choreographers have made their dances available online:
Rick Mohr
Chris Page
Carol Ormand
Seth Tepfer
Erik Weberg
Cary Ravitz
Sue Rosen
David Smukler
This is just a tiny sample of what’s available. Happy hunting!
Michael Dyck’s enormous contra dance index can be a great way to start tracking down notes for a dance if all you have is the name.
Michael Dyck and Chris Page have collaborated on The Caller’s Box, a massive online database of contra dance instructions. You can look up dances by figure, formation, author and more. The site includes lots of video links, too, many of which I have been unable to find anywhere else. This has become the online contra resource I turn to before all others.
The syllabi of the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend are a treasure trove of material. It’s not always easy to find what you’re looking for, but you’ll find lots of other great stuff along the way.
There’s a huge amount of contra dance video (of variable quality) on YouTube. Be aware that there are a lot of variations out there. The video might not show the dance as written (but it could be even better!). Bob Green’s video archive, primarily ECD, also includes contra dances:
Many callers have sections in their websites containing excellent advice and tips for other callers. I’ve learned a lot by reading through them. Take a look at the websites of Cary Ravitz, David Kaynor and Peter Amidon for starters, or just pick a link from Charlie Seelig or William Watson’s pages and start following tangents.
Family/Community/Ceilidh Dance
Dances in this category are the kind you might see at a wedding or party, school fundraiser, or after-hours rowdy knees-up in a pub. They tend to be forgiving, fun, and fast to learn. They have an energy and vibe all their own, and it’s excellent! If you’ve got a group of adults and kids who want to dance together or you want to get everyone at your wedding up on their feet, this is the section for you.
Calling of this kind of dancing takes a certain mental flexibility and resilience, and some practice. It can also be some of the most enjoyable and rewarding calling there is.
Resources:
The CDSS Resource Portal has a lot of great information for teachers, parents, and other folks who’d like to organize an informal, welcoming event for their community or school.
The New England Dancing Masters (Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, Andy Davis, and Mary Cay Brass) have published a series of superb books and CDs for community dance callers, music educators and teacher who’d like to introduce music and dance to their classrooms.
Sue Hulsether’s wonderful book and CD “Join Up Hands” has dances you can call, as well as information about how to call and organize a dance.
Collections of community dance notation:
John Brown’s Ceilidh Dance page
Thomas Green’s Barn Dance Repertoire
Webfeet’s Annotated eCeilidh