Square Dance Contra “prompters” have an organization, Contralab; traditional contra callers don’t. There appears, at least on the web, to be virtually no overlap between Contralab prompters and traditional callers. (It’d be interesting to hear about why Contralab calls contra callers “prompters”…could it have been some kind of ego thing with MWSD callers represented by CALLERLAB? A search of rec.folk-dancing returns only a few references to Contralab, all but one from Yona and Al Chock and Don Ward, all of whom have roots in both the MWSD and the traditional worlds.

Here’s an excellent page of contra dance resources:Resources for Contra Dance Links. It’s one of the few I’ve found that mentions Contralab along with more traditional organizations. (I like it that National Gender-Role-Free Dance Center is listed before Contralab, but that’s just me.)

Traditional contra dancers don’t have “clubs,” but they do have communities. And, of course, these communities face many of the same issues that square dance and western contra dance clubs face. For an interesting look at these communities, from someone who was a part of one and now must travel to dance, see “There’s no place like home…”.

Here’s a source for contra-ish skirts: Balance & Twirl. There are even instructions for making your own, if you’re not allergic to needles and thread (I am…if you ever see me, ask me about making a skirt for a chorus performance…)