Every Thursday - Dances at our house

Starting 10 May.
An outlet for those who have caught the contra bug.
A means to support up and coming musicians.
Working with the Lyttelton TimeBank.
Details here.

Special Notice - House Concert on 1 June

Roger one of our mainstay musicians together with Kim Rockell will be giving a concert at our house. Not to be missed. Details.

Saturday Evening Contra Dances Addington School - Next dance 2 June

The first Saturday of each month

Dance 7:30 to 10:30 pm (Learners Workshop 7 to 7:30)
Live Music!
No Experience Needed!
No Partners Needed!
All Dances Taught!
Easy and Lots of Fun!
Please bring a supper plate to share.
Only $5 (you can get in free by helping see below)

Muscos look at the contra videos, listen to the great music. Get some brackets ready for the next dances.
Musicians play for one dance and get in free!
Call a dance, get in free!

Here is a flyer.

More information or to request being on mailing list please contact Bill Baritompa.

Contra Dances So Far in 2012

Saturday 5 May - We had fourty dancing with lots of new folk who had been to the contra dance at the folk festival last month. Exciting music by Claire, David, Evelyn, Geoff, George, Heather, Roger and Steve. Thank you everyone.

Saturday 7 April - Contra dancing was part of the Canterbury Folk Festival. Bill ran two workshops in the morning, and the later part of the evening dance was all contras. Thank you very much for the support of the 15 Addington regulars who came out to Waipara to help in the evening, and to David, Jonathan, Geoff and George who joined in with the festival band.

Saturday 3 March - Fourty two people came, lots of new folk. Great music by Roger, Heather, David, Justin and George.

Hokitika Weekend 17-19 February was a great success. Another in two years time!

Sunday 5 February - John and Hilary Turner from the UK, stayed with us and gave a very enjoyable and informative Playford English country dance workshop. A special thanks to Roger's Baroque Orchestra for period music on authentic instruments. This group consisted of Roger Buckton (flute) with Aart Brusse (viola da gamba), Joanna Fielding (violin with baroque bow), Jonathan Le Cocq (baroque guitar), Donald Moorhead (harpsicord), George Stewart (percussion) and Claire Weyland (violin). The harpsicord is not a portable instrument and roadies were required. These fine musicians came early to practice so Liz, John, Hilary and I were able to eat our evening meal to the acompaniment of Baroque melodies. John and Hilary taught us these dances: Indian Queen, Handel with Care, The Nightcap, Lady William's Delight and The Young Widow.

Saturday 4 February - Thank you everyone for the great turn out to welcome Ron and Cathy's contra tour. We had an top class band made up of some of our regulars and musicians from the tour: Evelyn Lloyd (ukulele), George Stewart (percussion, whistles), David Baxendell (guitar), David Wright (fiddle, mandoline), Cathy Arps (fiddle), Glenn Lee (accordion), Robin Gurule (keyboard), Claire Weyland (violin), Heather Gladstone (accordion) and Susan Jones (concertina). With them we had over 90 people. I got things rolling with a mixer and easy dance: Easy Progressive Contra and Here Comes the Muffin Man, and let the guest callers, Bob O'Brien and Alice Milmoe take over. Bob called: Swing Number Five, Dip and Dive, Golden Slippers and his own dance The Whirligig. Alice called: The Stockman's Bride, Flirtation Reel and Citronella Morning. As a reward for our young energetic dancers Wave of Tory to finish. Note Polly and Linda from the tour were asked into the special 7 couple set.

Friday 3 February - Ron and Cathy's contra tour arrived and came to our house for dinner and a dance. Some of the dancers and musicians who helped with the Lyttelton fundraisers came too. There were 40 of us and we danced in shifts to some great music. I called special dances I'd written for them, and they enjoyed them very much. The llamas enjoyed watching everyone dance. I borrowed my son's fish eye video camera to record the evening, unfortunately I pushed the wrong button and got this :-(

Saturday 7 January - Twenty people came to our house for a contra potluck picnic. The weather was great, no aftershocks, and the llamas enjoyed the visitors. Liz's brother and sister-in-law got a chance to see what we enjoy doing, and joined in the dancing. Roger and George formed a great duo to play for a few of the dances. As well as eating and talking we did these dances: Jefferson Heritage, Here Comes the Muffin Man, Chorus Jig, The Nice Combination and Heartbeat Contra.

Contra Dance in New Zealand

There are clubs in Dunedin and Wellington, and dances now in Christchurch. The inspiration came when Bill and Liz traveled with Ron and Cathy Arp's touring contra group from the USA in February 2008. Six dances in 10 days! Bill learned a lot and is keen to share the new dances with you.

A Short Description of Contra dancing (some videos here)

Check out the Chattahoochee Country Dancers web page for a detailed description and some instructional videos.

The following is extracted from a web article: "What is Contra Dance?" by Gary Shapiro.

A caller, usually working with a group of live musicians, guides new and experienced alike through a variety of dances.

A dancer and his or her partner dance a series of figures, or moves, with each other and with another couple for a short time. They then repeat the same figures with another couple, and so on. The figures are similar to those in a barn dance. The figures are combined in different ways for each different dance.

The caller teaches each dance before it is actually done to the music. This gives everyone an idea of what to expect so the movements can be easily executed. The caller leads the dances while they are being done to music, so dancers are able to perform each movement to the music. Once the dancers appear to have mastered a particular dance, the caller may stop calling, leaving the dancers to enjoy the movement with music alone.