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The BACDS newsletter. Catch up on all the local dance news.

NOTE: If you receive paper mailings as well as ePubs, please click the email link below to confirm that you still want to receive paper.  Only members will receive paper flyers from now on, and only if they request them.  Be sure to mark your mailing choice every time you renew your membership.  Non-members, please join, especially if you wish to receive paper mailings from us.

Here's a membership form and a link to email the membership secretary.

BACDS Dance Series

BACDS sponsors English and American traditional dances in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is fun, relatively easy, community-oriented dancing with live music. All dances are taught, no partner is necessary, and first-timers are welcome unless otherwise noted.

Here are selected series' schedules.

Gender-Free calling, Kid-friendly dance, First time trying contra is free with Intro at 2:30p.

BACDS Summer Camps

BACDS conducts three week-long dance & music camps in the summer: Family Week, American Dance & Music Week, and Hey Days English Dance & Music Week. Each offers a unique experience for dancer, musician, camper, or just plain vacationer. There's no better way to learn new and improve existing skills or to meet new friends than by immersion. Dive in!

Registration is open.  Postmark deadline to be in the lottery is March 16.

Special Events

Check out our special event flyers

Contra College is an urban weekend in downtown Palo Alto, CA, focused on teaching Contra dance to new and intermediate dancers, and where experienced dancers can improve their skills, help newer dancers, or practice the other gender role.

"The Bay Area's grandest English Country Dance gala"

A celebration of Michael's life, including English dance, Morris dance, songs, music, pictures, and tales. FREE. RSVPs preferred but not required, to Sharon Green

Every year, BACDS teams and others join in a world-wide celebration to dance the Sun up and celebrate the 1st of May. In the Bay Area you'll find us that Tuesday morn in Sebastopol, San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Santa Cruz, with lots of dancing the whole day long. It's an age-old tradition! We've been doing it for decades, and the Sun keeps coming up, so we must be doing something right. Come out and join us!

Out of the area? No worries - just check the North America May Day Morris page.

Friday Night Waltz presents this mashup of contras and couple dances. Introductions to one-step, waltz, mixers and contra taught 7-9pm in two halls by Richard Powers and Susan Petrick. Then from 9pm to midnight The Offbeats (Jeff Spero and Ashley Broder of The Syncopaths, plus Ben Schreiber) play for contras (called by Susan) alternating with pairs of couple dances.

Pizza, live band, glow sticks, black lights. $10 adv/$15 door. Click on the link for more info and to register

Join us for San Francisco's own urban Contra Dance weekend.

Northwest Passage alternates dance style focus each year. This year is English Country Dance; 2019 will be Contra.

California's own all-English country dance and music residential weekend, and one of the world's best.

For connoisseurs of the early 18th Century, a program drawn entirely from dances published in 1718, a great year! Experienced English dancers only, space is very limited.