Contra Heatmap

July 31st, 2014
contra, tech, trycontra
Where is there contra dancing? Let's make a map!


(interactive zoomable version)

Why are these blurry areas instead of points? Because people are generally willing to travel some distance to go contra dancing. To make them less vague you could zoom in. This is US only because that's all the data I have.

(I just went through and updated the full list of dances on trycontra.com, making sure all the links still worked. In the process I also wrote down the approximate number of times per year a dance meets. The raw data is here and if there's something inaccurate about your local dance let me know!

(Yes, it kind of just looks like a population map. Should I be showing dances per-capita instead if I'm interested in relative popularity? Or is it clear enough from this that the north east, especially MA and southern NH are overrepresented?)

Update 2014-08-02: I also made a version with clickable links to dances: heatmap-points.

Referenced in: Where are the Contra Dances?

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Interview with Alicorn on how story conflict is optional and characters in utopia should do fewer drugs

Alicorn writes things sometimes

via Thing of Things May 13, 2026

Fiddle Practice

For a while I wasn't learning how to play violin very well because whenever it was time to practice I didn't want to. I didn't really like practicing, because (1) it's boring, (2) I have better things to do, and (3) actually I guess there …

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts May 3, 2026

New Pony

I have a new pony. I got her from the Goodwill. Her name is "Rainbow" and her nickname is "Sparkles". We went the usual way, in the pink stroller. We went downstairs and I played with some of the toys. I found the pony in the toy area. …

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts May 3, 2026

more     (via openring)