Saturday night dances begin with a warm-up session at 7:00 and dancing begins at 7:30. The warm-up sessions give new and experienced dancers a chance to meet and go over the basic dance moves and techniques before the dance begins. A caller teaches every dance. He or she walks the dancers through each sequence of moves before the music begins and continues to call the moves throughout the dance.

Don’t worry about bringing a dance partner. You will find a lot of friendly dancers, but don’t wait for one to ask you to dance. Feel free to ask someone you haven’t met yet. At FOOTMAD men ask women to dance, women ask men to dance, women ask women to dance and men ask men to dance. The only rule is to have fun!

AT THIS DANCE, we do something special.  We ask that you bring new unwrapped toys, books and/or clothes for the YWCA’s Santa’s Workshop which will be held in December.

The Red Mountain Yellowhammers from Birmingham AL play good-time old-time dance tunes—funky country rags, driving tunes in minor keys (they call them “mesmerizers”), sweet elegant tunes—whatever fits the dance at the moment. In over 30-years as a band they’ve played for dances at home, in California, Washington, D.C.,West Virginia, North Carolina, Nashville, Tallahassee/Gainesville, etc. The Yellowhammers are Jim Cauthen, fiddle; Joyce Cauthen, guitar; Jamie Finley, Harmonica and banjo uke; Phil Foster, mandolin, and Nancy Jackson, bass. Beadle (Matthew Beadlecomb) brings his love, enthusiasm, and energy for contra dancing wherever he calls. His clear and concise teaching style, along with a well curated dance selection, will have you dancing and grooving all night long. Beadle began contra dancing right here in Birmingham and currently resides in Nashville, TN.