Saturday Evening Contra Dances Addington School

Start 6 March 2010. The first Saturday of each month.

Here is a flyer.

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

Special Contra 7:30 Friday February 19, 2010 Addington School

Next February, Ron and Cathy Arps are returning with their contra tour group. These are enthusiastic contra dancers and musicians from the USA who will be traveling around NZ in a bus, running dances as they go. Liz and I will be joining them for the whole tour. On 19 Feb we come through CHCH for the dance here. They will also be doing dances in Hokitika (29 and 30 Jan St Andrews Hall), Wanaka (3 Feb Upper Clutha Presbyterian Church Hall), Dunedin (6 Feb St Martin's hall- Northumberland St - North East Valley), Dunedin (8 Feb Baptist Church Hall on the corner of Calder Ave and North Rd - also North East Valley), Papatowai (9, 10 and 11 Feb Tahakopa Hall), Mt Cook (14 Feb Community Hall), (?)Kaikoura (21 Feb Suburban Hall), Motueka (22 Feb Centre Hall), and Wellington (27 Feb St Michaels Church Hall Kelburn). Contact me for more details and to confirm these dates closer to the time.

Here is a flyer for the special dance in CHCH. Please print it out and display it somewhere.

Contra so far in 2009

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


3 October - 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 - 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 - 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: 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: Great turn out with 32 dancers. As part of International Money Musk day, we danced this traditional dance. Check out this video.

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

6 February: 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: Bill ran three contra workshops at the Waihi Bush Music Festival.

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 (see videos at the bottom of this page)

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.

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.