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Booking

🙋 Request/Offer to Perform
We hire callers, bands, and sound engineers. To apply, email us. These dates are available in the next six months:

📞 Contact
Email us or call/text for a faster reply:Booking tzar: Hannah (860-318-6957)
Or her secretary: Alex (207-939-9971)🗺️ Location
Temple Beth El is at 400 Deering Ave Portland, ME. The outside doors stay locked and may not be propped. Someone will open the door for you. There is plenty of parking in the dedicated lot or on the street. Feel free to pull up to the front door to unload gear.🕖 Schedule
These are guidlines, caller should use their judgement.
6:00 Organizers open the building; Sound Tech begins setup
6:15 Musicians set up and do sound check
6:30-7:00 Caller arrives
7:05 Sound check complete; Beginner lesson led by Caller (feel free to wait 5 or 10 minutes for latecomers, or if you want to do a shorter lesson).
7:20 Walk-through for the first contra begins
8:30 Announcements (Caller: Please line up dancers for the last contra of the first half, then introduce Organizer for Announcements)
8:45 Waltz and break
9:00 Second half
9:55 Last waltz
10:00 Take down/cleanup begins
11:00 The building alarms automatically🎻 For the Band
Please send the sound person any special sound needs. Please arrive around 6:15pm for sound-check. We’ve been positioning bands on the dance floor (on level with dancers) but there is a stage available. Please tell us if you prefer the stage.🔊 For the Sound Engineer
Please arrive around 6pm to setup sound. If we put the bands on the far end of the dance floor, there are electrical outlets behind the moveable wooden "walls" that hide the chairs. If the band is on the stage, outlets are on the side walls of the stage.Please play recorded waltz music at the break if you can. We have a sound system available if you request it in advance but you’re encouraged to bring your own.🎙️ For the Caller
Expect a high number of inexperienced dancers. We use Lark/Robin dance roles. Please run a beginner lesson and include: dance role is unrelated to gender, inviting someone to dance, declining a dance, asking what role they dance, if they prefer flourishes. The beginner lesson is usually well attended. It is helpful to encourage new dancers to dance with experienced dancers, a mixer is one way to do that. See schedule for timing.❄️ Weather/Cancellation
Check the weather. We will try not to cancel within 2 days of the dance.💰 Pay
Unless otherwise discussed, every performer (musician, caller, sound tech) is promised at least $175. We share our profits after expenses, in 2024, pay averaged $235 per performer. The band is considered at most 4 people. Individuals performing multiple roles (e.g. caller and sound combined) receive half shares for their additional roles. Individuals performing half the evening are given half shares. Payment is usually made in cash at the end of the evening, but could be venmo or check mailed next day if we don’t have cash on hand. You will be asked to sign that you received your pay.If any individual’s annual pay exceeds $600, you will be asked to fill out a W-9 and we will send you a 1099-NEC at tax time.🛏️ Housing
We're happy to find you a place to stay with one of our organizers or community members after the dance (or the Saturday before! Make a weekend of it!)

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What is this?

Here's how it looked in 1965. It's a little more colorful these days. We fill a room with dancers (a wide range of ages and experience levels) then a live band plays for a couple hours while a caller directs. We have a beginner lesson, a break in the middle, and two waltzes each night (as is traditional). It's wholesome as heck.

Organization

Common Floor Contra Dance (formerly Penobscot Contradancers) is a 501c3 non-profit organization supporting traditional music and dance in Maine. This second Sunday contra series is run by Alex Hennings, Hannah Chamberlain, Josh Saklad, and Judy Hilton and the help of many volunteers and other board members.

Mission

Creating inclusive, sustainable, high-quality contra (and other) dancing.
Inclusive: We want everyone to feel welcome and safe. Promote a culture of consent. Affirm that gender and dance roles are not strongly coupled. Cost to attend should not be a barrier. Address unsafe or unwanted behavior.
Sustainable: Performers should be paid well. Organizers shouldn’t get burned out. Foster new callers, musicians, sound techs, and dancers. The dancing should continue.
High Quality: The performers should be excellent. Events should be conducive to dancers' growth.

Code of Conduct

❥ Practice good communication and ask for consent. Be attentive to how your partner dances.
❥ Invite people to dance and always respect their answers when they say “no.” Do not pressure them or ask why.
❥ Speak and act with respect. There will be a wide range of experience levels, and people from a variety of backgrounds on the floor.
❥ People’s chosen dance role does not reflect their gender expression. If you’re confused on the dance floor, ask them what their dance role is.
❥ Check in about dance roles, injuries, and flourishes each time you dance with someone. Ask for consent every time! If someone agrees to something once (twirling, dips, a close embrace) it does not mean they always consent to it.
❥ If you see a dancer in your set make a mistake, do your best to take a moment to verbally show that dancer where they have to be next. Do not shove or grab other dancers. It is more important to have fun, than to get everything right.
❥ Dance with safety in mind. On the crowded dance floor, be aware of nearby dancers when twirling, avoid squeezing hands and forceful leading or self-flourishing. Keep in mind that many dancers have injuries that may not be visible.
❥ Be there for each other. If you see something problematic, or someone struggling, either let the dance organizers know or approach that person and check in with them.
❥ Give and take feedback gracefully. For example: "Would you like (or May I offer) a dancing tip?"
❥ We do not tolerate hate language of any kind, at any time, at our dances. If you bring it to our dance, you will be escorted out immediately.
❥ Systematic or continued unwanted and annoying actions, including threats and demands, will not be tolerated. This can be verbal, physical, or sexual, and none of it is ok.
❥ Our events are drug and alcohol free, do that somewhere else.

If you have a question or concern about our events, email us or use our Anonymous Feedback Form. We hope our events are safe and welcoming. If that’s not your experience, we’d like to hear about it.

Diary

In 2025...

In 2024, we formally became a 501c3 non-profit with Judy’s help (adopting and renaming the “Penobscott Contradancers” organization). We ended the year near $1,750 in our emergency fund. We paid 47 unique performers an average of $235 per performance, totalling $18,844 (more than double 2023). We started paying a dance manager for physical presence/tasks during the dance. We averaged 101 dancers. Temple Beth El continues to be an ideal venue for us.We hope to start a second dance series (CCCD) in 2025.

In 2023, we built an emergency fund and repaid the remainder of our 2022 insurance bill. We employed 41 different performers, paid on average $157 per night. Organizers were not paid, except when they were performers. We averaged 85 dancers. We removed our masking policy.Our expected expenses in 2024 will include $675 for insurance and $240 in taxes. With lower expenses and the affordability of Temple Beth El, we hope to direct over 2/3rds of door-money directly to performers. We don’t plan to add to our emergency fund except to maintain current levels. The emergency fund covers costs for canceled dances and maintains performer pay for low attendance.

In 2022 Alex, Hannah, Bethany, Glen, Ellen, and Jen joined Samson and Dani to begin the indoor iteration of CFCD at the Topsham Grange Hall. Starting in May we hosted a four (with a bonus fifth dance) series at the grange before moving the dance to the Temple Beth El in Portland. During the Topsham series, we hosted 15 performers, paying them an average of $133, totalling $1995.50. The dance averaged 69 attendees, and we lost $15 dollars per dance. Organizers were not paid unless they were performers. We crafted a Covid-19/Mask Policy and a Consent Policy. We could not have gotten the dance off the ground without the help of many volunteers, especially Jim B, Anna S, Digory L, and Sam M.We hosted our first dance at Temple Beth El on Halloween and oriented the hall lengthwise along the stage with really short lines (that was awkward!). We hosted a total of three dances at the Temple in 2022. We paid each performer an average of $170 per night. We averaged 92 dancers. Organizers were not paid unless they were performers. Samson and Dani passed off the dance to Hannah and Alex's capable hands and Josh and Hannah B joined the organizing team.

In 2021 Dani and Samson started Common Floor Contra dance in Samson's driveway. Built on six pieces of plywood, pandemic day-dreams, and the good will of talented friends, CFCD began as a way to host a space for the Portland-area contra community to connect. We hosted five contras with live music and calling. We averaged 20 dancers. We paid 10 performers an average of $90 and they almost all gave the money back to the dance to help pay for the floor and get our indoor dance kick-started in 2022. Common Floor Contra Dance got its name from the idea that the plywood floor could become a travelling "common" floor allowing for dances to be hosted anywhere during the year the Common Ground Fair was cancelled. All dances were test-ahead, masked dances. Organizers were not paid.