Drumlin Contra Dance Camp

Spent the afternoon chatting with Hilarie Burhans who has cooked for a variety of dance and music camps. She was incredibly knowledgable and full of salivating, mouth-watering meal suggestions. Like this one - Salade Nicoise.... Now you want to come to Drumlin Contra Dance Camp - don't you? Mark your calendars Aug 21-28, 2022

Good evening! As you may or may not be aware - a group of contra dancers have been working towards running Canada's First Contra Dance (contra+) summer week-long residential camp. Drumlin Contra+ Camp is uniquely designed to feature the skills & passions of its staff & campers. A small but dynamic staff of talented world-class callers & musicians form the skeleton of the schedule, and the campers flesh out the rest! Campers and staff alike teach workshops & lead activities in... their areas of expertise. Everything from singing a song, playing a tune, calling a dance, telling a story, to instructing a music or dance workshop, or leading nature, culinary, sports, campfire and art activities. The more our campers come forward with offerings, the more we surprise and delight one another. The campers are the ones who make it happen! What precipitated this camp project was an understanding that many (a large percentage?) of the Ontario Contra Dancers are not participating in the Contra Dance Camps that currently are on offer. We asked ourselves why this would be the case. The answer we heard? What with the dollar exchange and requisite passport a week dance-camp adventure south of the border for many is not financially viable. So we began an earnest search for a campground that was affordable yet had large indoor spaces conducive to dancing (ie wood flooring on wooden joists). Last month we toured a site which looks excitingly dynamic and wonderful. And we are now "re-forming" as a dream and action team to further this vision for Aug 21-28, 2022. If there is anybody from the Contra Dance Community who feels like this is a train that they would like to jump on with us - we would love to have you aboard! Please message Marilyn Abraham with your interest. Meetings this fall will be held online - likely as video calls. . PS .. This is an entirely voluntary position. In order to keep the registration costs as affordable for the campers as possible - folk on the leadership team are still required to pay full camp fees to attend.

Photo by David Greenwell, 2019 (used with permission)

In the midst of this COVID-19 "social distancing" know that the Drumlin Contra Dance Camp team is actively moving forward in plans for Canada's FIRST Contra Dance Camp Aug of 2022. If you would like to be included on the list of those to receive registration information please FB message us: - your first & last name - email address... - address - telephone #s (landline & cell) In addition, please note any specific activities (apart from Contra Dance) you are wishing to participating in during the activity blocks at camp. We look forward to hearing from you