Kernan's Contra

Kernan's Contra is a New England Contra Dance. It was devised by Ken Kernan in 1977 and published in American Square Dance. It was interpreted by Al Olson in about 1983 and published in Zesty Contras. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance is slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: circle, cast, lead, hey, hey for three, swing, turn corners (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

The dance is copyright © 1977 by Ken Kernan. The interpretation is copyright © ~1983 by Al Olson. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.