Contra Dance
Scottish Music Store | Contra Dance
Bob McQuillen is a legend in New Hampshire for his boom-chuck piano and accordion playing. |
His mastery of Cape Bretton fiddling is well known, and he plays Celtic in Boston with the best. |
David Kaynor's Greenfield Dance Band has been one of the strongest influences on the revolution in New England contra music over the last 25 years. |
Mary Cay Brass is renowned for her rich, varied, and above all, driving piano and accordion style. |
Although grounded in traditional Quebec rhythms and melodies, this music is innovative and refreshing. |
The fiddle, guitar, mandolin and bass interplay recalls the sound of the jazz greats, yet the Ramblers' music is solidly Contra. |
Rodney Miller is widely considered to be the foremost exponent of New England style fiddling. |
New England Contra Dance Music. |
The hottest property on the Contra Dance Music scene. |
Wild Asparagus is the most popular Contra music band in America. |
Compilations and other Contra Dance music. |
 Contra DanceContra Dancing is a form of American folk dance in which the dancers form a set of two parallel lines which run the length of the hall. Each dance consists of a sequence of moves that ends with couples having progressed one position up or down the set. As the sequence is repeated, a couple will eventually dance with every other couple in the set. Contra Dancing was all the rage in 1800.
As in all dance traditions, many of the defining traits of the contra style are products of functions more than form. Contra dance is a descendent of British, French and Irish country daning, done in sets of partners, like square or set dancing. Rather than lining up side by side, partners begin the dance facing each other, or contra to one another, from which the dance gets it's name. Every eight bars, a dance move, or figure, is completed and another begun, necessitating that the lead melodic musician, usually a fiddler, punctuates the change of figures. |
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Scottish Music Store | Contra Dance
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