Organizations and information

Wikipedia has good entries about contra dance, square dance, and Modern Western Square Dancing.

The Country Dance and Song Society is the hub for all things contra dance, English Country dance, display and ritual dance, and song. They have 300 affiliate groups, they produce a robust summer camp program, and their website is a dense compendium of resources for both participants and organizers.

The National Folk Organization supports a diverse expression of folk dance and arts from many world traditions.

A bit of ethnographic information about contra dance and the music.

Contra Dance Links does exactly that, providing links to local dances, dance weekends, special events, nationwide, in a multitude of genres.

Some Alternative Roots lists dances, festivals, online concerts, and more.

Virtual Sessions maintains a list of online traditional song sessions that are happening throughout North America and beyond.

Dale Adamson’s calendar lists a variety of international music and dance events.

TryContra is a fast way to find a dance near you by just entering your zip code.

The Contra Dance. Doug Plummer’s 3 minute mixed media video presenting his Contra Dance Photo Project.

Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics. Phil Jamison’s groundbreaking history of old time dance, and how African American and Native American roots contributed to what we know today as square dancing.

Smithsonian Magazine has an article on the roots of American square dancing.

The Square Dance History Project. David Millstone’s deep archive of recordings, images, documents covering the full North American story of square dancing.

There would not be Modern Western Square Dancing without Lloyd Shaw. The Lloyd Shaw Foundation continues his work to promote and be a resource center for all forms of folk dance.

Callerlab is the caller leadership organization that helped standardize the MWSD format.