[Callers] What is a contra?

[Bob Green]

An interesting question Colin. Certainly, as you suggest, modern contras,
at least in the U.S., are done with a walking step and often a buzz step
swing, with some occasional improve moves(clogging, clapping, dips, and
other forms of flourishes). In our region, a contra dance evening would
consist primarily longways dances for as many as will, with some
communities including squares, triplets, triads, four facing fours, and the
like, with others having a zero tolerance for anything other than longways
duple minors and four facing fours. At least here, if the call says, "Line
up for a contra." the default would be to line up longways, with the ones
crossed over.In our community, if the caller wanted some other formation,
it would have to be specified as something different than a contra - "Find
a partner for a square" , "Form 3-couple sets", etc. It's all about era and
location I think...Here is a reconstruction of a contra dance published in
1801....I would not recommend attempting to call this at a modern
contra.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8hLaGFdZ4

​ Bob Green
St. Louis

On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 3:47 PM, Colin Hume via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> I'm in Germany, and I'm speaking for the next few days at a Conference run
> by the European Callers and Teachers Association.
> Several of my sessions are about Contras, and speaking to the Contra
> Coordinator as we drove to the hotel I realised we had very
> different ideas about what a contra is.  I say it is an American (or
> American-style) dance, longways duple or triple.  He classes
> three-couple dances (such as Ted's Triplets), four-couple dances and
> circles as contras.  He even classes my dance "Sting in the
> Tail" as a contra.  This is for two three-couple sets side-by-side and
> involves siding into line, set and turn single.  I would
> regard this quite definitely as "Playford"-style, and I think Americans
> would categorise it as English.  But what is a contra?  I
> know the hot-shots would say that it's longways duple improper or Becket
> with a partner swing and preferably a neighbor swing, but
> is that your definition?  What about an early American dance such as "The
> Young Widow" - is that a contra?  Can a dance in waltz
> time be a contra?  I think of a contra as mainly danced to reels or jigs,
> though I know there are a few to slip-jigs.  Within
> reels I would include marches and American hornpipes, which are smooth,
> but not English hornpipes which I would dance to a
> step-hop.  And not Strathspeys.  I would say contras are done to a walking
> step, apart from the swing which is often a buzz step.
> But do you agree with me?
>
> Answers fairly quickly please!
>
> Colin Hume
>
> Email colin at colinhume.com      Web site http://colinhume.com
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