Past Contra Dances

Saturday 3 December 2011 - About 32 dancing. Geoff, David, Roger, Claire, Heather and George played. A nice dance to finish off the year. We did a variety of dances that people liked over this last year: Hey Fever, Simple Pleasures, The Devil's Backbone and a few new ones: Jefferson Heritage and Here Comes the Muffin Man. Thank you everyone for your support - musicians, dancers and helpers.

Saturday 5 November 2011 - About 40 dancing. Claire played lead backed up by David, Geoff, George and Justin. With lots of experienced dancers helping the new dancers we got thru some challenging dances. We had no fireworks for Guy Fawkes but Jefferson Heritage had us all popping.

Saturday 1 October 2011 - About 50 dancing. Our young dancers contribute so much energy to the dances. Congratulations to Gary on his contra calling debut. David, Geoff, George, Heather and Jonathan provided some exciting tunes for us, their bouncy jigs were great for Good Friday where everyone did a great job with the Rory O'More slides. We also danced and sang the round for Christchurch.

Saturday 10 September 2011 - 64 dancers. Great music by Claire, Heather and George. Quite a few young early birds showed up at 6:45, so we did a quick "Up and down the hill but still chased." Ten dances during the evening. A great version of Easy Petronella and by special request Superfast Waves of Tory where 7 couples had to complete the dance that usually has 5 couples. A spider on the ceiling had this view.

Sunday 28 August 2011 in Kyoto. We had a great time with David and Yukie's group Contrakyoto. Most of our family came too. I called a few dances ( Cabot School mixer, Easy Petronella and Jefferson Revisited ) and we got a chance to dance to David's calling and great music from Bosco and Heja.

Saturday 6 August 2011 - 32 dancers. We did 11 dances some with a 'hey' theme. Geoff, Roger, Jonathan, Tom, Lorraine, George made up a very enthusiastic band.

Saturday 2 July 2011 - 61 dancers including 30 young dancers from the Loburn area. We did 13 dances. Heather, George, Justin and David drove us along with their fine music. Four video clips of the night are on my youtube page.

Tuesday 28 June 2011 - 32 Loburn Teens came for the second dose of contra! - Liz, Bev and Gail and six parents helped me. A great night, and they are ready for Saturday and will help with Heartbeat Contra.

Tuesday 21 June 2011 - Loburn Teens - Bill and Bev ran a special dance for the teens who showed up at the last monthly dance. They are keen to learn and are picking it up quickly.

Saturday 4 June 2011 - Queen's birthday weekend. Didn't expect a big crowd, but were surprised when 33 new dancers showed up. About 60 dancing! Roger, Jonathan and George provided a tight trio. We had special guests: Roger and his friends played their viols for some authentic period music for a Pavan and Bransle. Nataliya Oryshchuk and Phil Anderson taught us the steps.

Saturday 7 May 2011 - We had 36 dancers, and Contrafaction: Heather, Roger, Claire, Francis, Geoff, Justin and George provided a great sound. We had four young dancers from Waipara who requested Waves of Tory, the band played some 48 bar tunes.

23 April 2011 - The two Contra Dance workshops at the Easter Canterbury Folk Festival were well attendend by some very enthusiastic people. It was a great festival with some fantastic musicians!

Saturday 2 April 2011 - Post quake return to dancing, nice to see so many. We had 25 dancers, and Liquefaction: Heather, Roger, Jonathan, Geoff, Tom and George provided a great sound. Check out these videos of the great dancing and music: Simple Pleasures a grid contra by Bob Isaacs; Delphiniums and Daisies a lovely flowing dance by Tanya Rotenberg; and Star Crazy a mixer that generates lots of laughs. We were all in good voice for birthday boy Mikki.

Some of us traveled to Hororata the next day to listen to Roger and Jonathan's fund raising recital for Trinity Church, Darfield. It was a fantastic event. The old wooden church is an ideal venue for a small contra dance. I'm keen to do a fund raising dance for them, and the vicar was enthusiastic.

Saturday 12 March 2011 - Seven of us had a small dance at our house in the afternoon.

Saturday 5 February 2011 - We had 28 dancing and with great music by Claire, Heather, Roger, Geoff, David, Justin, Nigel, George and Tom.


Saturday 8 January 2011 - Nineteen of us got together for a pot luck meal and dance at our house.

Saturday 4 December 2010 - We had 32 dancing to the music of "Aftershock 5" - Heather, Jonathan, Justin, George and Nigel. A great end of year dance. Thank you all for your support this year. Check out the photo page. Also have a look at how well you did on First Bloom a 4 facing 4 dance.

Saturday 6 November 2010 - We had 37 dancing and "Aftershock 5" - Heather, Jonathan, Justin, David and George provided the lively music. We welcomed our Japanese friends Rieko and Nobuhiro who made a special trip to come to the dance. Everyone is getting better and better at these dances, learning how to put a few flourishes into the dance. I was especially happy with how the dance Mad Robin Imagination went. This is dance I wrote in 2008 for Liz. I've given it to callers in the US and it has been getting rave reviews over there.


Saturday 2 October 2010 - We had 32 dancing and a few spectators. "Aftershock 7" - Roger, Heather, Jonathan, Nigel, Justin, David and George did great job with the music. A special thanks to Kathryn for helping open up the hall.

Saturday 4 September 2010 - Not many dances get canceled because of an earthquake, but this one did. Click here if you want to hear the first 27 minutes of the seismograph compressed into 16 seconds.

Saturday 7 August 2010 - The debut of the contra dance band. A big thanks to David, Eric, George, Heather, Justin, Meg, Nigel and Roger. We appreciate the time you spent preparing, and it was a great performance. Again a good turnout of 32 dancing. Altogether 44 people worked to make a great night.


Saturday 3 July 2010 - Just past the shortest day, so spring is heading our way. A good turnout with 33 of us dancing. Kathryn made her calling debut! She did a great job with the Easy Petronella dance. Here is a video of the evening compressed into a minute and a half. Here is a public radio broadcast in the US about contra dancing there.

Saturday 5 June 2010 - The Queen's birthday! Unfortunately she could not come, but 16 of us enjoyed the dancing anyway. We had a small workshop on flourishes for dosido and ladies chain. We had three very keen and experienced contra dancers join with us: Rachel and Dover, from North Carolina, on short study exchanges; and Katie who is now living in CHCH and hoping to settle here.

Saturday 1 May 2010 - Special May Day dance with Maypoles donated by George. 29 dancers enjoy some contras and a bit of a laugh doing the entry, taking of ribbons, single plaiting, and the spiders web! Great music by Eric, Meg, David, Roger and George.

Saturday 3 April 2010 - I expected a small turnout due to Easter weekend, so we had it at our house. It grew from small to very cosy! We had 22 dancers, 7 musicians and 1 caller :-). We had a pot luck meal before the dance. Special thanks to the Magnificent Seven Band: Meg, Roger, Eric, Eric, Jo, Heather and George. Check out photos and these youtube videos: One Horse Reel, Easy Petronella, and Final Waltz.

Saturday 6 March 2010 - A very small but enthusiastic group (10) did a few Becket and other dances that had action for the inactives too. A big thanks to Jo who played accordion for us, it made the night special.

Friday 19 February 2010 - We had a fantastic special dance with Ron and Cathy's contra tour group. A total of 73 dancers (30 of them and 43 of us) danced a varied selection of contras to great callers and wonderful musicians.

5 December 2009 - The last of the year and BIGGEST by far. 48 dancing! A special thanks to Four Fifths of Folkworks (Roger, Michael, Heather and Fleur) for some fantastic music. Try and catch their gig in Akaroa on 30 January. Liz has helped me alot throughout the year with the organizing and looking after drinks and supper. A special thanks to Annette, Judy, David and the others who took on these tasks.

It was really good to see more experienced dancers helping less experienced dancers, even in some of the complicated dances the lines held together! It's been a fantastic year and the contra community is growing steadily.


14 November 2009 - Eric and Meg were back and joined by Heather for a great band! 26 people attended including 6 new dancers. Welcome!


3 October 2009 - Lots of the regulars were away, but Harry brought some friends, and we had 3 Australians show up! So twenty people danced. We were lucky again to have live music provided by Eric and Meg. They came up from Dunedin and stayed with us in our new house.

1 August 2009 - Twenty six people continued the theme from the previous month with a bit of Rory O'More rolling. Everyone is getting good at memorizing the dances! Check out this YouTube clip of us dancing "Stopping by Woods" by David Smuckler. A big thanks to Eric and Meg from New Hampshire who are keen contra dancers and musicians in the band Leigheas for coming all the way up from Dunedin to dance with us and play a few brackets.


11 July 2009 - Twenty two people showed up on the cold night to kick off the winter dances.

Anzac Day: A great turn out. A great band: King Cole and his Fiddlers Three, formed especially for this dance. A big thank you to Emma, Pearl, Christine and Lou on fiddles and Leyland on the bass. The contra community is starting to build up here. People are getting good at remembering the dances, and it was great to be able to dance to live music. Thanks you to everyone for helping with supper, tea and cleaning up. Thanks to Heather for the loan of equipment for the band.

Easter weekend 2009 - The Canterbury Folk Festival was a great success - a fantastic weekend. Thanks you Russell and all the crew! Bill and Jeremy called the Friday evening barn dance. Bill ran two contra workshops. Everyone got into some really smooth dancing grooving to the music.

14 March 2009 - Great turn out with 32 dancers. As part of International Money Musk day, we danced this traditional dance. Check out this video.

28 February 2009 - The dance at Addington School hall was a great success. Everyone (28 dancers) warmed up nicely on the cold and rainy night.

6 February 2009 - Wellington Contra caller Cashy Yates ran a great contra dance as part of the 8th FDNZ National Camp: Farandol's 30th Anniversary Extravaganza.

Waitangi Weekend 2009 - Bill ran three contra workshops at the Waihi Bush Music Festival.

Sunday Afternoon 27 July 2008 - 20 people on a cold July day


Contra Beginnings 2 in Christchurch Sunday 13 April 2008 - A great dance.


Contra Dance Workshop 2008 Canterbury Folk Festival Saturday 22 March 11am - About 50 people got a taste of contra dancing at the festival. Thanks to some fantastically skilled musicians we were able to dance to live music all the time. Special thanks to Jeremy, Russell and Sophia. People got into the groove of contra dance by "giving weight." It was great to hear the feet hitting the floor in unison on the "balance and swings."

Contra Beginnings in Christchurch Sunday 9 March 2008 - Sunday afternoon 20 dancers, 5 musicians and 2 callers joined together to make a fun dance. Special thanks to the HRC trio (Heather, Roger and Claire) for the great music. Also to Dave and George for providing a nice bass line and rhythm section. Thanks to Sue for calling a dance and giving helpful style suggestions. Thanks to Liz for all the behind the scene organization and encouragement.