The Sacramento Country Dance Society (SactoCDS) sponsors traditional American contra dances and English country dances in the Sacramento, California area. SactoCDS group members will receive only e-mail announcements of SactoCDS dances and other special dances in the region. The list is moderated to prevent spam and off-topic posts. Anyone interested in timely reminders of our dance schedule should subscribe. Our schedule is also hosted on-line at: http://www.sactocds.org

We always dance to live music. All dances are taught and prompted. A lesson for beginners precedes every dance. No dance partner is necessary and it is our custom to change partners after every dance in the spirit of community dance.

Contra dance in America has evolved from a traditional form of folk dance of the British Isles, and has been danced continuously since the time of the English colonies in America as a true community dance. Lighthearted and social, it is danced in two lines of couples who dance various patterns or figures with one another. By the end of the overall pattern, each leading couple has exchanged places with another couple, and the dance repeats until all couples in the lines have danced with one another. The music is in the form of lively reels or jigs in the Celtic and bluegrass traditions. English country dances are usually known by the tune to which they have been choreographed and involve smaller groups of couples dancing figures that are similar to, but often distinct from, contra dance figures. Traditional country dance is a precursor of modern western square dancing, but is unrelated to modern country and western line dancing. More information about traditional country dancing is at:
http://www.sbcds.org/contradance/whatis/