Emerald City Contra Dancewith the Seattle Folklore Society presentContra dancing every Friday at the Phinney Neighborhood Center 6532 Phinney Avenue North, Seattle (98103) in the "Community Hall" (brick building off lower parking lot)Dance from 7:30pm to 10:00pm, beginner's workshop at 7:00 $8 admission, $7 for SFS and PNA members and seniors, $5 for students, under 16 free. First time contra dancers get a coupon for free admission to their next dance. Coupon redemption limited to first five coupons on any single night. Please help the PNA achieve their sustainability goals. Consider carpooling, walking, biking, or riding the bus to the dance. If you drive, please park in the PNA parking lots.Bands and Callers, you can request a gig online. Information for bands and callers. Information for dancers. For information not already posted here: 206-440-9839 or emeraldcitycontra@pobox.com |
All dances taught. No partner necessary.
Light, comfortable clothing recommended.
Please do not wear cologne, perfume or other strongly scented products. Thanks!Our hall has strict capacity limits. We occasionally need to limit entry due to high attendance.
Enough of the suggestions and disclaimers. Here is what you really want to know...
Schedule of bands and callers:
- February 27 - Sassafrass Stomp is Johanna Davis on fiddle and Adam Nordell on guitar and foot percussion. Johanna plays both fluid and punctuated melodies. Sometimes Adam plays rhythm, sometimes he plays surprising chords, and sometimes he plays nearly nothing so that you can fully enjoy the fiddle. Still wondering what they sound like? Listen to some of their music here. Rachel Wallace calls.
- March 6 - Buddy System - Julie Vallimont and Noah VanNorstrand. Will Mentor calls.
- March 13- Contra Sutra: Marni Rachmiel – flute, saxophone, Brandon Vance – fiddle, Dave Bartley – mandolin, etc. and Russell S. - percussion. Laura Mé Smith calls.
- March 20 - Les Trois Capitanes. Eric et Clyde reviens ce soir pour... oops, they return with Devon Leger for an evening of French-Canadian tunes. They are Devon Leger on fiddle & feet; Eric Schlorff on harmonica, accordion, & feet; Clyde Curley on guitar, mandolin, & octave mandolin. They'll play an evening of Quebecois and Acadian music for your dancing delight. Carol Piening calls.
- March 27 - Eric Anderson and friends.
- April 3 - KGB. No, it's not the Soviet-era counterpart of the CIA. It's Julie King, Claude Ginsberg, and Dave Bartley in one of Seattle's finest contra dance bands. (Check out the dossier for the instruments they play. Need-to-know basis only, however). Kelsey Hartman calls.
- April 10 - Northern Contraband is Steve Blum-Anderson on fiddle, Mark Danielson on concertina and penny whistle, Greg Sherman on bass and/or bass ukelele, and Michael Hobart on guitar.
- April 17 - RiffRaff: Lindon Toney and Jesse Partridge on fiddles, Jay Finkelstein on guitar. Eric Curl and John Denlea call.
- April 24 - Brandon Vance - fiddle, Mark Minkler - piano, guitar, and maybe someone else.
- May 1 - Coffey Party - Cathie Whitesides - fiddle, Amy Carroll - piano, Melissa Coffey – whistles, etc. Kathy Anderson calls.
- May 22 - No dance at ECCD. Instead, go to Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center. You can dance for 4 days on a dance floor built just for this weekend. Click here for more information about all of the music, dance, food, crafts, and other things that you can do and see.
Click here to a printable copy of the flyer
We have updated some of the information about the dance. Click here for details.
It's no longer summer. It hasn't been summer for a while. That means it's that time of the year when we have some really large crowds.
Yes, really large - so much so that we need to comply with the occupancy limit of the room set by the City of Seattle.- We can have 150 people in the room, period. That number includes the musicians, callers, guests of the performers, dancers, volunteers, children, adults acting like children, observers, babies, and other categories of people not yet identified. In other words, we can have 150 people in the room, period.
- If we reach capacity, people who have already entered the dance may leave temporarily and re-enter.
- People waiting to enter the dance may wait on the stairs, not in the entry of the hall.
- Please form a line to make this part easier. (Ok, the waiting may not be easy.)
- When someone leaves for the evening, we will admit additional people.
- If you are leaving for the evening, please let us know so that we can let the next person in (see item above).
- In the fall of 2010, we sold out about 50% of the time starting around 8 pm and lasting until about 9 pm. In 2012, we had 3 sellout crowds. Unfortunately, we can't predict attendance with any accuracy.
- If you really want to dance on a specific night, then show up early. If you can't arrive early, then have a plan B.
- Sorry, we do not sell tickets in advance.
- Sorry, we do not allow "ticket sharing."