We’re delighted to unveil a new Pittsburgh Contra shirt design, available at the Fall Dance Weekend. This year’s design features Pittsburgh icon, Dippy the Diplodocus.
We won’t have extras of every possible type/size/color combination available at the dance. Pre-order to guarantee exactly the shirt you want! (you’ll pay at the weekend when you pick up your shirt)
T-Shirts, “Performance” T-Shirts, Racerback Tank Tops, and Hoodies:
https://www.customink.com/g/ceq0-00b6-mapa
Please join us on Sunday, October 8th as we begin to plan our Pittsburgh Fall Dance Weekend 2018. Join us to discuss which bands and callers we’d like to invite for the wonderful weekend of dancing.
During the meeting we will take suggestions on bands and callers that we think would make a great weekend of dancing. After receiving feedback and input, the Contra Council will follow up with our list of possible bands and callers to make a fantastic line up (making sure to balance styles of bands and callers)!
Potluck dinner to follow.
207 S Aiken Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
A little more about our process:
Community planning meeting for the 2018 Fall Dance Weekend
Three-stage process for selection of bands and callers:
First stage—idea generation. The first stage will involve participants making suggestions about the bands and callers they would like to perform at the 2018 Fall Dance Weekend. Participants may have specific bands and/or callers in mind, or they may describe general musical preferences (for example, old time, modern or jazz-influenced), calling preferences or other considerations that are important to them (for example, thoughtful matching of bands and callers or a having variety of musical styles). The goal of the first stage discussion will be to generate lists of possible bands and callers.
Second stage—voting. The second stage will involve identifying the community’s preferences for possible bands and callers by using “dot-voting.” Dot-voting (voting with dot stickers) is a method of consensus decision-making in which participants vote on their chosen options using a limited number of dot stickers.
Dot-voting involves the following steps:
The benefits of dot-voting as a method of decision-making include the following:
Third stage—booking (occurs after the community planning meeting). The third stage will involve contra council members reaching out to the community’s preferred bands and callers to check their availability for the 2018 Fall Dance Weekend and then officially booking bands and callers.
We’d love for all of you to attend as many dances as possible. A full dance hall is great for everyone — the band, the caller, experienced dancers and brand-new beginners all benefit from a bunch of nice long lines full of people like you.
With that in mind, we are delighted to announce the Pittsburgh Contra Dance Season Pass for Fall 2017! Sign up for a season pass and gain unfettered access to every weekly contra dance in our fall season, September 8 through December 30 (15 dances). As a season pass holder, you’ll also receive two single-use guest tickets (to help you spread the joy of contra), and a personalized “Seasoned Dancer” name-button.
Starting now, season passes will be available for $100. You can sign up at any weekly dance, or sign up online by following this link — not only is this is a hefty discount for a full season of dancing, it’s also a great way to show support for the community!
The Pittsburgh Contra Dance is MOVING! First dance at new location: Friday, July 21st (and all subsequent dances)
Location: Winchester Thurston School 555 Morewood Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Parking lot, more room to dance and grow as a community, air conditioned hall, and bus access (82, 77, 75, 71A, 71C, 71D, East Busway). Questions? Give us at call at (412) 945-0554
Our super-fun Pittsburgh Family Contra Dance welcomes people of all ages, no experience necessary!
Dates: Friday August 18, Friday September 29, Friday October 13, Saturday November 25
Cost: $5 per person or $10 per family
Time (New!): 6:30-7:30 p.m
Place (New!): Winchester Thurston School, 555 Morewood Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Come learn contra while you dance to live music by the Music Makers and expert calling by Pittsburgh’s own Gaye Fifer. Have a snack after dancing. And if you’d like to stay, enjoy free admission to our regular weekly dance at 8. This is a great chance for older kids (and parents!) to try more challenging figures while little ones play.
News from the Community Meeting: We’re moving?! We’re moving! At our June community meeting we discussed many important things such as what we’ve accomplished over the last year, volunteer roles, and mostly about our need to find a new venue and our research thus far.
We have been looking into moving dance venues for some time now to make the dance more accessible to people who do not have cars and to address parking issues. After much research, and feedback from the community meeting we have decided to move our weekly Friday night dances to Winchester Thurston (555 Morewood Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213). We are very excited to be making this move this summer (more details coming soon about when). There’s a great dance floor (with room for our community to grow), a great connection with the school, accessibility by bus and location near the Universities, a parking lot, and lots more! Keep your ears open for more details coming soon. If you have any questions give us at call at (412) 945-0554 or email us at info@pittsburghcontra.org.
Please join us for a Pittsburgh Contra Dance Network Community Meeting and Potluck. At the community meeting we will share updates from the past year and seek feedback on important issues within our community. After the community meeting we will share a potluck dinner together. Please bring a dish to share (if you are unable to no worries!), feel free to post in comments what you plan to bring.
When: Sunday, June 4th at 4pm
Where: Gaye and Wayne’s house- 1125 Laclair Street, Pittsburgh, PA
Our agenda will consist of:
-Updates and milestones
-Volunteer opportunities & discussion
-New dance venue search & discussion
-General feedback & discussion
-CDSS Conference
Do you want to know more about calling contra dances? Do you want to help people learn about calling contra dances?
This form is to collect interest in a callers group in Pittsburgh. This is not a fixed-length class, and there is no particular commitment required. Based on the people who respond, we will organize one or more introductory sessions, and the group can evolve from there based on people’s interests and goals.
If you want to learn more about calling, let us know. You don’t have to have any particular goal or commitment level. We’ll try to organize opportunities for people at any level. If you are a caller and want to offer to mentor folks or lead practice sessions or one-off workshops, let us know that too.
Bronwyn will be coordinating the initial collection of interest and the first meeting or two, and after that this will be a group effort and will go in whatever direction works for the people involved.
Help spread the word about our dance! Like us on Facebook, or join our Meetup.com group. You can also RSVP to dances on these sites to help organize with other dancers for shared rides or coordination with your friends.
Save the date for the 2017 Pittsburgh Fall Dance Weekend!
November 10-12, 2017.
This year, as always, we have an amazing lineup of bands and callers. Lisa Greenleaf and Sarah VanNorstrand call to the music of the Stringrays and the Ripples!