contradance

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con·tra·dance

or con·tra·danse (kŏn′trə-dăns′)

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

contradance

(ˈkɒntrəˌdɑːns)

(Dancing) a variant spelling of contredanse

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun	1.	contradance - a type of folk dance in which couples are arranged in sets or face one another in a line contra danse, contredanse, country dancing, country-dance folk dance, folk dancing - a style of dancing that originated among ordinary people (not in the royal courts) longways, longways dance - country dancing performed with couples in two long lines facing each other square dance, square dancing - American country dancing in which couples form squares do-si-do - a square-dance figure; two dancers approach each other and circle back to back before returning to their original places promenade - a square dance figure; couples march counterclockwise in a circle sashay - a square dance figure; partners circle each other taking sideways steps swing - a square dance figure; a pair of dancers join hands and dance around a point between them landler - a moderately slow Austrian country dance in triple time; involves spinning and clapping
Verb	1.	contradance - perform a contradance contra danse, contredanse, country-dance trip the light fantastic, trip the light fantastic toe, dance - move in a pattern; usually to musical accompaniment; do or perform a dance; "My husband and I like to dance at home to the radio"

References in periodicals archive ?

With that in mind, this compilation by Peter Damm includes a Sanktus Hubertus Fanfare by Karl Stiegler (announcing the event), Coburger Marsch by Michael Haydn (for the procession of dancers), and then a five-movement quadrille called La Noce du Picqueur (Hunter's Wedding) by Tyndare Gryer (1850-1936) with titles: Le Pantalon (a folk song), L'Eti (a contradance celebrating Summer), La Poule (in which the cackling of chickens is heard), Le Pastourelle (a shepherd song), and a upbeat Finale (in three sections).

Jagerhochzeit: Musik fur vier Waldhorner by Stiegler, Haydn, Gruyer

Sponsored by the library's Folklife Center, the music may be bluegrass, ethnic, Celtic, roots, or contradance, but it's always engaging.

Irv and Fran Shapiro folk music library

Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean is a welcome addition to scholarship grappling with the complexities of the ongoing sociohistorical processes that shape, and concomitantly are shaped by, Caribbean expressive cultural practices.

Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean

As is often the case with Ives, those tunes and fragments are used both as raw material for development and variation, and as recurring social allusions that invoke the spirit of the rural New England of his day--a contradance tune here, a Protestant hymn of battle song there.

Charles Ives

There then follow some direct perceptions: "you see, Rabi, your moon-faced / words, or God knows what, crawl like your baby / to tuck her face in your sleeve." The next couple of poems do the moody Mahapatra contradance: "The smell of crackers and rubbers / assails the sighs held tightly / in the concise form of a house, unlit." Overloaded, possibly pretentious, certainly obscurely linked metaphors, juicy phrases, then a solid sounding line to congeal on.

Once Back Home

(Pumpkin biscuits narrowly squeaked by.) We've also spent our money on excursions and outside events, such as hosting a friendship breakfast at a restaurant for school personnel and hiring a band for our year-end family potluck and contradance - a line dance popular in this part of the country.

A harvest of learning for a multiage class

Unlike the country dances with their perky music and reminders of contradance forms, it is somber in mood.