Resources for Callers - Country Dance, Contra Dance, Square Dance, Ceilidh

Here are some useful links for dance instructions. Please let me know of any links that you would like me to add.

Portals

CDSS Resource Portal

CDSS Online Library

EFDSS Resources

Barn Dances, Traditional Dances, Ceilidh Dances

A Barn Dance Repertoire

Webfeet: Dance Instructions with an English Ceilidh bias

The Country Dance Book Part 1 – Cecil Sharp

Pre-20th Century Dances

Playford’s Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide

The Country Dance Book Parts 2, 3, 4 & 6 – Cecil Sharp

RegencyDances.org: Dances of the 18th and 19th centuries

The Sheffield Collection
100 English country dances from earlier collections plus Ken's dances

Charles Bolton's interpretations of 17th and 18th century dances plus his own compositions.

General Resources

Colin Hume's Web site – Dance instructions and essays

Dances from English Dance & Song - 1921-1989

Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend Syllabi

Michael Barraclough's site: Instructions for nearly 1000 English Country/Contra Dances

Ottawa ECD's English/Playford dance instructions
Plus links to their list of Contra and Other dances.

Country Dance & Contra Dance 100+ Formations
Don't restrict yourself to Longways. Circles and Squares - explore the richness of our dance genres.

GEMS: The Best of The Country Dance and Song Society Diamond Jubilee Music, Dance and Song Contest

Contra-Specific Resources

The Caller's Box - a contra dance database

Cambridge Folk's contra dance list

Over 500 Contra Dances

Gender-Free Resources

Contra dance instructions using Larks/Robins provided by Rich Goss
They are color-coded: green - easiest, then yellow, then blue; grey are the mixers

Gender-Free Dance Resources
Lisa Heywood's essays with links to dances with gender-free instructions.

Individual Collections

Portal to lots of individual sites

Bill Baritompa's Dances

Bob Dalsemer's Dances

John Sweeney's Dances & Essays

Keith Wood's Dances

Maia McCormick's Dances

Michael Fuerst's (and some other) Contra Dances

Pat Shaw's Dances

Renée Camus' English Dances

Rick Mohr's Contra Dances

Sharon Green's Dances

Wendy Crouch's Dances

Square Dancing

Square Dance History Project

Good Morning - Henry Ford and Benjamin Lovett - 1926
Mainly Quadrilles/Square Dances, with some Contras.

Cowboy Dances - Lloyd Shaw - 1939
A Collection of Western Square Dances

200+ square dances from Northern Junket (1949 to 1985).

Kentucky Running Set - Hugh Stewart

The Old-Time Kentucky Running Set - Stu Jamieson

West Virginia Square Dances - Bob Dalsemer

Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing - Patrick Napier

Animations

George Williams' Dance Animations
Thousands of dance animations.

Keith Wood's Dance Animations
Hundreds of dances with animations and instructions

Videos - many with instructions

The Lambertville Country Dancers ECD Videos

The Childgrove collection of ECD videos

Don Bell's ECD videos

Dance Indexes - Without Instructions

Antony’s Database of 24,102 dances

Hugh Stewart's Database

Michael Dyck's Contradance Index
Many of these do have instructions.



These are not available online but are well worth buying:
Community Dances Manual

The Country Dance Club Book


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Feedback is very welcome on any aspect of these notes or Web pages.

Please contact John Sweeney with your comments.




Contrafusion