Twice a month, community members come together to hear fiddles, the voice of a caller and join hands in a traditional folk dance dating back to the 1700s — contra dancing.

In Urbana, this traditional dance lives on through the Urbana Country Dancers, which has existed since the 1980s. They hold bi-monthly dance events, reviving a centuries-old dance through music and movement with the local community.

Laughter, cheering and footsteps can be heard across the wooden floor of the Phillips Recreation Center. After a few 10-minute dances, some dancers are already perspiring, and some wear flowy skirts and dresses that spin as they swing and twirl with their partners.

“It’s transcendent,” said Daniel Lewart, president of Urbana Country Dancers. “Sometimes people come in there, maybe have a rough week or something bad happened to them, and that just goes out the door. Once you’re in there, you have the music and people dancing, and it’s wonderful.”

Contra dance is a form of folk dancing made of long lines of couples dancing together following a sequence of moves called figures. The dance is led by a caller who teaches and prompts steps to match the beat of live music. Every dance event begins with a lesson from a caller.

Rooted in 17th-century English country dancing, contra was brought to the American colonies by English, Scottish and French settlers. Just as fads come and go, contra dancing’s popularity declined in the 19th century, before experiencing its revival in the 1970s. Dance communities sprang up across the United States, and now contra dancing takes place in over 200 cities and towns.

Although contra dancing is widespread, it’s not very well known. Jonathan Sivier, one of the Urbana Country Dancers’ callers, said it’s often discovered through word of mouth, usually from the invitations of others.

“It’s not exactly an underground secret, hidden kind of thing,” Sivier said. “But, if you just go and ask some random person on the street, ‘You know what contra dance is?’ they won’t know.”

While rooted in tradition, contra dance continues to evolve. Sivier says modern choreography and music blend with older forms to keep the dancing fresh and beginner-friendly.

“We are doing some dances that were done hundreds of years ago, but we’re also doing some that were written last year with music that was written last year,” Sivier said. “And so it’s both, you know, doing historical stuff, but also having modern and new stuff that people are writing today.”

Couples are also given roles traditionally divided by gender. To make the dance more inclusive, “larks” and “robins” are gender-neutral terms to replace “gents” and “ladies” when calling out dance steps. The larks stand to the left of their partners, who are called robins.

Sivier described contra as freeing and open to everyone regardless of experience. In other genres of dance, like ballroom dancing, Sivier said people often need to take classes before they can dance.

He compared contra dancing to a team sport where no one is keeping score and everyone is fulfilling one goal: dancing in unison with everyone.

“The objective is to make it all work for everybody, not just you and your partner,” Sivier said.

Elissa Blake, a librarian in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University, has been contra dancing for three years. She said the dance embraces physical connection, often restricted to romantic or familial relationships.

In contra dancing, dancers frequently switch partners, spinning in the arms of strangers before swinging together. As a result, dancers are dancing with everybody in the room, which represents the community elements of contra according to Blake.

“I feel like our society, in many ways — like physical contact, even just holding hands — is really restricted to very specific kinds of relationships,” Blake said. “I feel like that’s something that’s really missing from our culture, just pure, simple human touch. I think a lot of people are starved from that.”

Mistakes are inevitable for beginners. Blake said the community of contra dancers is very forgiving and welcoming. You might hear people laughing at a misstep or slightly tripping while missing a beat of a song. If a beginner doesn’t know what to do or where to go, experienced dancers will guide or nudge them gently to fulfill the dance sequence.

“You know, mistakes will always be part of it,” Blake said. “But if you’re able to laugh that off and just keep going with the flow, it’s like the whole room becomes a sort of organism of its own.”

Maura Last, a graduate student studying library and information science, said a common mistake she sees is when robins and larks stand on the wrong side of their partner. Some people might get flustered and mumble apologies.

“If a dance always went perfectly, then it would be kind of boring,” Last said. “It’s not a performance, it’s an experiment of movement.”

To Blake, there is no activity in her life quite like contra dancing that is nourishing and creates a sense of community with the new people she meets.

“I feel like community dancing, whether it’s specifically contra dancing or some other form, is something we need to bring back as a cultural institution,” Blake said. “It’s just a really nice way of feeling together with other people without even needing to talk.”

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