BIDA Events

see you at our dance Sunday evening! we've got a great lineup - Harris Lapiroff calling to Casey, Molly, and Sam!

Beantown Stomp is coming baaack!

March 14-16th, 2025! 🫛🫘🫛🫘🫛🫘

check out our event page here and sign up for updates and registration emails, wooooo!
https://www.facebook.com/events/999818965219256

I hope you're ready for the BIDA Spark in the Dark Electro-Contra tomorrow night, because our second guest act will be Yaron Shragai! While you may know him primarily as an acoustic musician, performing with Chimney Swift, he's been performing electronic music since before he knew what contra dancing was. Yaron uses a mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments, combined with sequenced beat patterns, samples, and textures. Come hear him play the slot following the second break of the evening!

our second special guest at Spark in the Dark this Friday is Yaron Shragai! combining live instruments with original electronic music, his beats will be so fun to dance to. see you there!

Our first guest act for this Friday's BIDA Spark in the Dark Electro-Contra Dance! will be Moondial. Combining banjo, whistle, vocals, synths, programmed drums, and looping, Emma Azelborn and Kurt James Werner will be kicking off our second third of the evening!

Are you interested in getting into playing electronic contra? Or do you know someone who might be? We're offering guest spots at our 8/16 Spark in the Dark: https://blog.bidadance.org/2024/07/guest-spots-at-our-august-16th-spark-in.html

new location! escape the heat with us this afternoon at ruthie's house. spread the word!

74 Morrison Ave Somerville

https://www.facebook.com/events/1179233089773129

join us for a father's day family dance today 5:30-6:30! thank you Anna for drawing this flyer ✏️

join us tomorrow for a father's day family dance followed by evening contra! here are our excellent callers Sue Rosen (evening) and Jeff Kaufman (family dance)!

we're so excited to have Casey & Molly leading our open band this sunday! see you there :)

join us tonight—we'll be contra dancing to the music of Good Company led by Andrew Stout's calling. Can't wait! https://www.facebook.com/events/1863653814083757

we're getting excited for our dance with Nova and Steve Zakon-Anderson this coming Sunday!

Join us before our evening dance for a family dance with open band followed by a potluck—all ages welcome for family friendly fun :)

https://www.facebook.com/events/808954817811612

see you at our dance tonight! Dereck Kalish calling to music by Tea for Three :)

can't wait to dance to Tea for Three—Hadley Stockwell, Crystal Zhu, & Abi Sandy—at our Contra Dance this Sunday May 5th! 🎻

https://www.facebook.com/events/984169475882064

we've got three dances coming up in May, see you there! 🎶💃

You may have noticed a change recently in which bands BIDA is booking, with an increase in established bands. While our bookers have had various approaches over the years, we generally haven't booked many in this category. This let us leave space for newer musicians and newer combinations.

Historically, we were founded to be, among other things, a "stepping stone" dance. Fifteen years ago there were a lot of opportunities to play dances in the Boston area, but there was a large skill and experience gap from where smaller dances would book you to what the big dances were looking for. By putting on a dance that was in between, with an approach to booking that was in between, we filled what we saw at the time as an important gap. Over the years, however, our dance has come to fill a different position. We are now a "big" dance, not really a "stepping stone". As we've moved in this direction, we've started booking some established bands.

This doesn't mean we are planning to book only "name" bands. We do still see a place for ourselves in the community as a dance that is willing to take a chance on groups that don't yet have a track record.

If you're interested in playing for BIDA, please write to us at [email protected]!

Booking Some Established Bands You may have noticed a change recently in which bands BIDA is booking, with an increase in established bands. While our bookers have had var...

Hello Family Dancers and Open Banders!

March 16th, the Saturday morning session of Beantown Stomp is open to everyone! There is a family dance from 9:15 am - 10:30 and an acoustic open band making the tunes.

Calling for us is the excellent Andrew Stout, and leading the open band is BIDA's own maestro extraordinaire, Jeff Kaufman!

After the family dance, families wanting to dance a little more are welcome to stay until noon for the morning contra set 💃

For attending just the family dance & morning contra, you can pay at the door with cash or Venmo. $3 for kids, and $5-$20 for everyone else. See you there!

tomorrow night come dance a mix of Scottish and Contra to the fabulous music of !

today is the day! we are excited to have Calico playing for our double dance this afternoon and evening!

Heyyy dancers! oh hay.

Are you ready for some..... HYPE?
Because we are oh ~so~ thrilled to present Talent reveal #1:

The Meeeean Lids!

Honestly, they say it best. Pulled from their website:
"Only as mean as they need to be to keep the grit in their tones and the edge on their tunes, they are never seen without their signature cranial apparel. Spot them by their hats, their long lonesome sounds, and the @$$ kicking "chin-cello" grooves emanating from their mean, mean fiddle fingers."

The Mean Lids is Matt Turino, Miriam Larson, and Ben Smith. You can check out their sweet tunes on meanlids.com

So excited! Registration goes live next month, tell your buddies 🫘🫘🫘

Persis here, BIDA Cat Herder and Food Ghoddess.

We will NOT have kitchen access and maybe no fridge (but I will check on that tomorrow and update here), for our potluck, so please bring food that is OK at room temps, or can be heated in your own crockpot or Instapot. I will bring serving utensils as per usual.

I am celebrating a SIGNIFICANT birthday (tomorrow, Nov 2) and will be bringing CAKE! Come celebrate with me in one of my favourite activities.

A dancer has informed us that they tested positive for covid this morning, Monday September 5th, and may have been infectious at the dance.