English country dancing runs the gamut from sublime to silly, from elegant to energetic, and the dance repertoire draws from over 350 years of material.  Our series offers delectable live music and skilled callers from the Bay Area and beyond.  You can come by yourself or with friends, since we change partners after each dance.  If you’ve ever done contra or square dancing, much of our dance vocabulary will be familiar to you since both of those styles evolved from English country dancing.

The dance is held the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, 2-4:30 pm, to live music, all levels of experience welcome; and occasional 5th Sundays for Advanced dancers.  Admission is $15 for members of NBCDS and its affiliates, $8 for young adults ages 19-30, and $3 for youth ages 6 – 18. Call 707-829-3478 for more information or contact kalia@nbcds.org

Some Tips for New Dancers

Welcome to the Sebastopol English dance!

We’re delighted to have you here and hope you’ll have a wonderful time.  It can be disorienting to be the “new kid,” so here are a few tips to help you get started.

First things first:  Please make sure the shoes you’ll be dancing in don’t have any grit on the bottoms.  We love our hall and want to take good care of the floor.

Dance with people you don’t know.  You can ask anyone to dance, and dancing with lots of different partners is the best way to learn.  We change partners after each dance.

Listen to the caller.  The caller is here to help us learn the dances and have a good time.  If you have a question, ask the caller rather than nearby dancers.  You may not be the only person on the floor with that same question.  We can help the whole room by keeping noise in our sets to a minimum.

Mistakes happen.  Let it go, smile, and see if you can fix it the next time around.  And please don’t be shy about asking the caller questions during the walk-through.

Washing hands before the snack break will help us all stay healthier.

Your children are welcome members of our dance community, but we ask that you be responsible for supervising them.  Not all dances are suitable for our smaller dancers.  Ask the caller if you’re unsure.  We are unable to provide childcare.

If you like the music let the band know.  Go ahead, make their day!

~Kalia Kliban