A History of Contra Dancing, Part One

by William Noack

Humans have always danced - it seems to be a part of our nature to express joy, reverence, fellowship, as well as individuality through movement, especially to music. And among the forms which developed in the 1500’s and 1600’s in England were the roots of our present contras. These country dances – as opposed to the formal courtly dances where a misstep might elicit a beheading (OK, I exaggerate) – were enjoyed by the common folk – by everyone of all classes, adults and children. Even Queen Elizabeth enjoyed Country Dancing.

In 1651 the first collection of English country dances was published, which introduced country dancing to the wealthy and city dwellers where it also became popular. The longways set, which we now use, gradually over the decades of the 1600’s became the most prevalent and enjoyed formation in country dancing. As it is also human nature to be intrigued by the foreign, these English country dances were avidly adapted on the Continent, especially in France where they were called contredanses, a corruption of the term country dances.

Publication in England, while preserving and popularizing country dances among the gentry, also unfortunately caused the dance forms to lose much original spontaneity, joy, and simplicity. Standardized folk tunes would be attached to each particular dance, and there would be proper polite ways to perform each movement, with some variations.

Meanwhile, on the Continent, lively new music for the contradance evolved alongside the dance form, much based on the folk tunes. In 1699 seventeen contredanses anglaises were published, then Mozart wrote a number, and Beethoven wrote 12 contredances for orchestra, from one of which he developed the finale of the Eroica Symphony. (This contradance music is eminently danceable, and for variety it would be fun to have an evening sometimes with 18th century music!)

Country Dancing was brought to Colonial New England in the late 17th and 18th centuries where common folk as well as the gentry danced to the jigs and reels. One favorite dance of George Washington became known as the Virginia Reel. But America, being the land of immigrants, soon had waves of rural Englishmen and Scots settling and bringing their less pretentious forms of country dancing to its shores. The spontaneity and energy of rural English country dancing returned and evolved in New England.

Contra Dances were taught from New Hampshire to Charleston, and by the time of the American Revolution country dancing, mostly contra dances, were being done in both cities and rural areas. Some dances were the traditional ones which had been published over a century earlier, but others were new contra dances, created to commemorate the American Revolution and its heroes. With French influence helping us acquire our independence from Britain, as well as an anti-British sentiment in the colonies, the French term, contredanse, became the popular term for our type of dancing. And contra dancing, being democratic in nature, was a perfect activity for the sons and daughters of the American Revolution.