About BIDA:

At the end of the summer of 2008, and particularly in the aftermath of the first Youth Dance Weekend, a few of us started talking about our dance community. In particular, some of us thought that there wasn’t as much intergenerational interaction as there could be, in both the dancing, performing, and social aspects of our community. We also thought that more opportunities for mentorship among bands and callers would be helpful for emerging performers and to integrate the community. So, Eric McDonald, Julie Vallimont and Dave Casserly met to discuss what we could do to help, and decided to start an organization to hold dances, potlucks, parties, and other events that would help with these goals. We added Martha Friedman and Chris Weiler to our next meeting, came up with the name BIDA and our goals, and then started planning events.

Our Board:

• Eric McDonald: Eric has been dancing in Boston for the past three years, and has been playing for dances with his band, Matching Orange for the past two. When he entered the community, he was very excited about all the energy and enthusiasm the dancers brought, and he would like to continue that momentum; to encourage both beginning and experienced dancers to be as involved as possible in the community. As a fairly new dance musician, he has learned the importance of getting in front of dancers, and playing with more experienced musicians. He would like to encourage and help provide opportunity for new players to gain that kind of experience.
  Eric now occupies an advisory, non-voting position on the Board
  
  
• Julie Vallimont: Julie is a founding board member of BIDA. She loves the community feel of contra dance and especially appreciates the interplay between dance and live music. Julie is a dance pianist who plays increasingly often in Boston and elsewhere. A professional grassroots organizer and educator, she brings leadership experience on several boards to BIDA. She's passionate and skilled at connecting people to each other, building community, and creating learning opportunities for musicians, callers, and organizers. Some of her projects through BIDA include organizing monthly dance parties, and future plans include organizing musician workshops and house concerts.
  
  
• David Casserly: Hello, BIDA members. Dave is a founding member and current board member of BIDA. While he was an undergrad, Dave organized a monthly contra dance and ran an annual dance weekend for two years. He's originally from the Boston area, and have been dancing in this community for years. He has also been calling contra dances for some time, and has started playing for dances as well in the past year or so. Dave thinks BIDA can continue to benefit greatly from his experience as an organizer, musician, and caller. He has many ideas for the future of the group.
  
  
• Martha Friedman: Martha began dancing in Ohio and when she moved to Boston in 2006 she was already an established dance gypsy. She organized dances, a weekend festival, dance parties, and learned how to call at Oberlin College and was instrumental in forming a charter contra dance club in order to establish permanent funding for dances there. Martha is passionate about creating an intergenerational dance community and brings a dancer- and community-focused perspective to the BIDA board with a special emphasis on low-income and younger dancers. Her advocacy skills, ability to look at a situation from many perspectives, and energy are invaluable to a newly-formed organization like BIDA.
  
  
• Chris Weiler: Chris has been a contra and English dancer since 1996, he has been calling contras since 2004. He started the Mill City contra dance in Manchester, NH and ran it for over a year and a half. He co-founded a website and e-mail discussion group called SharedWeight in 2004 to help new callers, musicians and organizers learn and get advice from more experienced people. Chris says "Being a part of the birth of BIDA has been exciting and fun. We have a lot of great ideas for what this organization can do and I'm eager to help make them happen." Chris was also recently elected to the CDS Boston Center Board of Directors. And he serves on the Monday Night Dance Committee for the dances at the Concord Scout House.
  
  
• Koren Wake: Koren is an avid dancer who joined the Boston contradance community in 2002. Her enthusiasm for dancing is evident in her goal for 2009 to dance as much as possible - so far, she's missed only one night since New Year's Eve. She also dabbles in playing dance music, and is interested in learning more about calling contras. Currently serving on the NEFFA Board and the Thursday Night Dance Committee, Koren shares her youthful energy and advocates for younger dancers' needs. She is excited about joining BIDA and further sharing her ideas and dedication to the dance community.
  
  
• Daniel Friedman: Daniel knows all about intergenerational dancing. He started dancing as a very young child, going to dances and dance camps with his parents. He grew up dancing and loves traditional music and dance. But what he loves even more is the community that these activities build. Daniel wants to help continue to build this community, help keep it strong and have it be as warm and welcoming as it can be. As dance caller himself, Daniel would like to help others find opportunities to be dance leaders as well.
  
  
• Jeff Kaufman: Jeff grew up dancing occasionally in Boston, but really got excited about it in college. Since then he's been dancing often, and has been learning to call, play, and run sound.
  
  
• Alex Krogh-Grabbe: Alex has been closely involved with the organizing aspect of contradances since high school, when he had to make sure he and his friends all had rides to the South Amherst dance each week. Recently he's ramped up his involvement, organizing all the rides for Youth Dance Weekend 2009. He's also gotten involved in the Friends of the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, whose board he just joined and for whom he organized the most recent biannual newsletter. He will also soon be joining the board of NEFFA, taking over the running of instrument check. He's also started doing a small amount of organizing to get more students from the Five Colleges involved in the dance community and to get a regular student-oriented dance started in Amherst Center. His goal in joining BIDA would be to help the dances and other events continue to encourage community participation from young dancers & musicians, to make BIDA's online presence as user-friendly as possible, and to help create smooth cooperation within the board and with other organizations.
  
  

Past Events

• June 20th, 2010 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Park Ave Congregational Church, Arlington


• May 16th, 2010 Musican's Workshop, Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA
  We're looking forward to Blue Moose and the Unbuttoned Zippers' music workshop at 5:30!


• April 18th, 2010 Contra Dance, Membership Meeting and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA
  Flyer - Facebook Event


• March 21st, 2010 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA - Facebook Event


• February 21st, 2010 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA
  Flyer - Facebook Event


• January 17th, 2010 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA
  Flyer - Facebook Event


• January 10th, 2010 Jam Party and Potluck East Arlington, MA - Facebook Event
  Great chance to practice before the open band at the January dance!


• December 20th, 2009 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA Flyer


• November 21st, 2009 Swing Party and Potluck

BIDA parties are back this month and we're trying something new! Have you ever wanted to add swing moves to your contra dancing but not known what to do? Have you ever wanted to dance to the swing tunes contra dance bands sometimes play? Have you ever just wanted to learn to swing dance? This month's party will be a fusion dance involving elements of contra, swing, waltz, blues and whatever else you provide.

Come learn some swing moves at our lindy hop lesson, hang out and schmooze during the potluck, and then come dance at our open couples dancing on a real dance floor (Beth lives in a dance studio!). Because this party is going to be focused on dancing*, we won't have an organized jam session and we'll expect to dance to mostly recorded music. That said, if you're interested in playing for swing, blues, waltzes, or contras, feel free to bring your instruments and we'll see what happens. Consider it a DIY dance party!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
5:30 Vegetarian Potluck Dinner
7:00 Lindy Hop lesson
8:00 Open waltz, swing, blues, and other couples dancing

PLEASE BRING: a vegetarian dish to share, socks for dancing (sorry, no shoes), and any instruments you may want to play or dances you might want to call. If you have any recorded music you think might be good (specifically music for Scandy dances or full-length contra tunes), please let us know at bida@bidadance.org.

*We are planning that our next party in December or January will be more jam-focused.


• November 15th, 2009 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA


• Friday! October 23rd, 2009 Contra and Ceilidh Dance and Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA


• October 18th, 2009 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA


• September 20th, 2009 Contra Dance and Dessert Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA


• August 23rd, 2009 Summer Party and Potluck Location TBD No Contra Dance in August!


• July 31st, 2009 Special 5th Friday Contra Dance Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA Flyer


• July 19th, 2009 Contra Dance and Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA Flyer


• June 26th, 2009 Potluck/Jam/Dance Party
  

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• June 7th, 2009 Contra Dance and Potluck Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA Flyer


• May 17th, 2009 Contra Dance and Potluck Park Ave. Church, Arlington, MA Flyer


• April 10th, 2009 Potluck/Jam/Dance Party
  
We had a great time watching "The Other Way Back" about Dudley Laufman, ate some good food and had some good discussions about dancing in the Boston Area. Don't miss the next one!


• April 5th, 2009 First Annual Membership Meeting and Dance Springstep, Medford, MA
Meeting to ratify the bylaws and elect the Board of Directors for the next year.
Potluck 6-6:45, Dance 7-10, Meeting 8:30-9:00. Print a Flyer

The April 5 dance and membership meeting was a lot of fun! We were fortunate to have fabulous calling and music, with great dances from Adina Gordon, double fiddle from David Kaynor and Cedar Stanistreet, and Eric Eid-Reiner rocking the piano. Thanks to all those who came!

Congratulations and welcome to new board members Koren Wake and Daniel Friedman.


• March 22nd, 2009 Contra Dance! Masonic Hall, Cambridge, MA
  Potluck 6-6:45, Dance 7-10 Print a Flyer

We had a great time at the 3/22 dance in the Masonic Hall in Porter Square. The music and calling were fabulous, the dancers fun, the food tasty and plentiful, and the disco ball sparkly. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped make everything run smoothly.


• March 13th, 2009 Potluck/Jam/Dance Party Cambridge, MA


• March 8th, 2009 1-2:30pm Spring Sundays Workshop for Families and Children co-sponsored with Springstep in Medford, MA


• February 22nd, 2009 Potluck Party/Jam Session Arlington, MA
The party on 2/22 was a lot of fun! We had some Kerry sets, waltzing, and contra dances as well as jamming and good food. There are a few lost+found items - if you left something behind, email:


• February 1st, 2009 Kickoff Contra Dance
  Park Avenue Congregational Church, Arlington, MA Flyer
Check out the pictures HERE

Thank you! Our first BIDA contra dance was a great time! We filled the hall... and thanks to all of you who came and brought your great energy (and some amazing food for the potluck!). A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped make everything run smoothly...from working the door, to setting up the potluck, to decorating the hall, to taking pictures, to cleaning up afterwards. Some pictures from the dance are posted HERE, thanks to Daniel Friedman and Cedar Stanistreet. If you have any pictures or video clips from the dance, we'd love to see them! Send them to .
And if you'd like to help out with future dances and events, or have comments or ideas, let us know!


• January 25th, 2009 Potluck Party/Jam Session Arlington, MA


• December 19th, 2008 Potluck Party/Jam Session Arlington, MA