Contra Dance in Webb City

This Saturday, June 27, from 7 to 10 pm, at the Clubhouse, 115 North Madison (between Broadway and Daugherty across from the skating rink). $5 donation per person is requested to cover the costs of the caller, band and room rental. Refreshments are provided. The popular market group Bailed Green & Wired Tight will provide the music.

Lots of fun guaranteed. Come alone, come with a partner (gender need not be an issue in contra dancing) or bring a crowd.

From Wikipedia: Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) refers to several partnered folk dance styles, sometimes described as New England folk dance, in which couples dance in two facing lines of indefinite length.

The roots - At the end of the 17th century, English country dances were taken up by French dancers; hybrid choreographies exist from this period using the steps from French court dance in English dances. The French called these dances contra-dance or contredanse. As time progressed, English country dances were spread and reinterpreted throughout the Western world, and eventually the French form of the name came to be associated with the American folk dances, especially in New England (this Frenchified name change may have followed a contemporary misbelief that the form was originally French).

Contra dances were fashionable in the United States until the early to mid-19th century, when they were supplanted in popularity by square dances (such as the quadrille and lancers) and couple dances (such as the waltz and polka).