Where does contra dance come from and how did it get here? 
by Roger Schaffhausen

Looking in the dictionary 'contra' is a Latin preposition meaning "against" . So did it come from the 'Contras' in Nicaragua to show their opposition to the Sandinistas?  Or was it from lawyers who use the term 'Contra' which is used  in legal citations? Last but not least could it have been accountants where a 'Contra payment" is made in cases where a customer is also a supplier and a payment owed is offset against a payment due. Fortunately it came from none of these!

There are many theories as to how Contra dancing came about and how it got it's name. I will present only two of them.

1)  The precursor to Contra dancing was English Country Dancing which became popular in Queen Elizabeth I's  court in the late 16th century. By the end of the 17th century English country dancing had gained a certain legitimacy. What might have happened next is described by James Hutson in his article "A Capsule Chronicle of Contradancing, Part One," from the Fall 1994 issue of Contra Corners, the newsletter of the California Dance Co-operative:  The French, who thought that they invented country dancing (as well as anything else culturally significant), and who were miffed at the notion that the English should receive credit for anything, converted the name 'country dance' to French contredans (which conveniently translates as 'opposites dance'), then turned around and claimed that the English term was a corruption of the French! Later, the French term evolved in the young U.S.A. into "contra dance." ¹

2) So why did the French corrupt it to "contre" or "contra"? Is it really only because that sounds like "country"? Or is it because the word means "across" and that is the formation used? ... I maintain that both theories are correct: The French corrupted "country dance" and the English reimported the word, but in the process it came to be applied only to the longways formation, and THAT was because of the meaning "across" for "contre".²  

Contra dances crossed the pond and were fashionable in the United States until the early to mid-19th century, when they were supplanted in popularity by square dances and couple dances. By the late 19th century, square dances too had fallen out of favor, except in rural areas. When squares were revived (around 1925 to 1940, depending on the region), contra dances were generally not included. In the 1930s and 1940s, contra dances appear to have been done only in small towns in widely scattered parts of northeastern North America and particularly northern New England. Ralph Page almost single-handedly maintained the New England tradition in the 30’s and the 40’s.³   Ralph started calling contras, almost by accident. He was playing fiddle in an orchestra when he had to substitute for a caller who had come down with laryngitis. That day was December 5, 1930. From that beginning, he rose to the top of his field as an Eastern contra caller, becoming one of the country's first full-time professional callers in 1938. Ralph kept contra going in the northeast until it was revitalized in the 1950’s and 1960’s  particularly by Ted Sannella and Dudley Laufman.⁴  Contra dancing found it's way to Minneapolis in the late 1970's with the start of Saltari in 1977. Saltri was the forerunner of Tapestry which started about 5 years later. ⁵

So the tradition is carried on at Tapestry on most Saturday evenings, come with or without a partner and beginners are always welcomed. For more info on contra, a good primer is put out by the Chattahoochee Country Dancers at http://contradance.org/html/new_dancer_info.php 

¹ Why the name 'contra dance'?  Created and maintained by Gary Shapiro
² Why is it Called Contra Dance? Copyright 1996-2004 Leslie Hyll_-Daniel Ludecking
³ Phantom ranch.net, folkdance, teachers
⁴ Contra Dancing, Wikipedia
⁵ Ed Stern, co-founder of Saltri