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Contradance enthusiasts are often asked, "What (the heck) is contradance?" The question draws a [http://www.sbcds.org/contradance/whatis/ gammut of answers], and even after years of dancing it remains hard to respond well to. It's not a square dance, though many of the figures are the same as in square. It's not a line dance, though a ''set'' consists of two lines. It ''is'' an intricate, moving knot of dancers, in which you and a partner progress down the dance hall and back again, dancing a series of ''figures'' with each couple you encounter on the way. It has been called, "A roller coaster ride we make for ourselves."

== The Band and Caller ==

Though there may always be 32 measures on the paper to play, good bands ''always'' tease and play with all of this. No good band plays the same tune the same way for the thirty repeats that a dance might last. Rather, they will often play a medley of two or three tunes, switching partway through the dance, and will riff and frolic within a tune, not at all unlike a jazz musicians might: passing a refrain from instrument to instrument, coordinating solos and dynamics, suddenly adding a new instrument, etc. There is no greater energy than what you experience at a good contradance, where the caller has set everyone solid on what they are doing, and leaves the rest to the constant bond of symbiotic energy flowing between the band and hall of dancers.