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:

Ozy at LessOnline!

I will once again be a guest at LessOnline, alongside many other writers whom you no doubt like less than you like me: Scott Alexander, dynomight, Georgia Ray, David Friedman, Nicholas Decker, Jacob Falkovich, Kelsey Piper, Alicorn, Aella, etc.

via Thing of Things March 23, 2026

Daycares and the Brown School

As someone in Somerville I notice that there are quite high prices regarding childcare. The average family in Somerville pays $1,100 to $3,500 for daycare per month, and I want to make the costs more affordable. I have also noticed that housing is quite …

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts March 22, 2026

2025-26 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Highlights include a minimal group house, the usefulness…

via Victoria Krakovna January 19, 2026

more     (via openring)