Claire Baffaut was first introduced to contra dancing by a friend in 1985 after she came to the United States from France. She later participated in dances in Indiana and Massachusetts.
After landing in Columbia, she found a community among the Mid-Missouri Traditional Dancers, or MMTD. Through MMTD, she's also been a dance caller — someone who prompts movements to participants in contra dance and similar dance forms — since 2012.
“When I dance, I am really in there,” Baffaut said. “I'm in the present.”
‘Contredanse’ or ‘contra dance’ is a folk dance style incorporating square dancing aspects in couple formation. According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, the dance style "was an 18th-century French development of the English country dance.”
Baffaut, now a board member, was part of an effort to compile the organization’s history, which spans over four decades. Throughout the years, MMTD has continued to thrive and connect people through contra dancing by holding organized events like the Spring Breakdown Dance Weekend, which they hosted for the first time in four years this March.
By gathering documentation and conducting interviews with early members of the group, Baffaut discovered that MMTD informally started in the early 1970s, with group founder Claire Connors teaching Hank Taylor Irish whistle tunes in Connors’ kitchen.
Eventually, the group expanded to about seven to eight musicians who met each Sunday to play music. When Steve Lane, a librarian from Kansas, joined the group, he taught Irish dances.
“There is a connection between the callers, between the dancers, and the musicians, and you know, kind of makes it go together,” Baffaut said.
When the group grew too big to continue meeting in the kitchen, they moved to the Chez Chandelle Coffeehouse in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia in late 1975. Once this space became too small, they moved to a large room in the activity building.
Dancers could not meet on Sundays, so they instead met on Mondays. Musicians continued meeting at Connors’ home on Sundays, even when she moved to Ashland. During the summer in the late 1970s, the group would also dance at MU’s Shamrock Plaza.
“The shamrock gave it an Irish connection, and that kind of dancing comes from Ireland and Scotland and England with some France too,” Baffaut said.
In 1980, the group moved to Stephens College’s Lela Raney Hall, where they had a ballroom and would dance there until 1985. They participated in English, Irish, Scottish and American country dances on varying days.
As the group evolved, many challenges arose during their development. There were few resources for learning how to call and teach, so many people who wanted to learn had to travel to various dance weekends.
“I've seen letters of both people from here asking how to do a dance or how to organize a dance or asking other more experienced people in other regions, and then I've seen the answers,” Baffaut said.
Jim Thaxter, a dancer and a dance caller, played a role in learning how to call dances to keep the organization afloat in the early 1990s. Since the dances would often start late and he had to drive to Columbia from Moberly every time, he started calling instead of dancing. He remained the primary caller for about seven years and later organized a workshop to teach others how to call dances.
“A friend of mine had a book of dances and a cassette tape,” Thaxter said. “It was kind of a learning kit. So I started listening to those and learned a few of those dances and started calling from there.”
Stephens College decided that the group could no longer use the ballroom sometime after June 1985. They would dance there whenever a location was available, such as the Tate Hall gymnasium at MU and Missouri United Methodist Church. Eventually, the group meetings in Columbia faded.
Michelle Emery wanted a home for contra dancing in Columbia, leading to incorporating to get the organization at not-for-profit status to apply for grant funding. Emery and others created the Mid-Missouri Country Dancers' non-profit organization, now known as MMTD.
Current board member of MMTD, Peter Price, and co-chair of the Spring Breakdown Dance Weekend, always enjoyed dancing. He said there is no organized dancing with a group like MMTD where he lives.
“It's hard to describe,” Price said. “Just seeing and experiencing and seeing a room full of people keeping time to a live band with music, with the variations of the performers and all the other dancers.”
Members of MMTD hope to see growth in young people participating in contra dance. In addition, they also hope for an overall attendance increase in their twice-a-month events in Columbia and Ashland.
Baffaut explains that the highest number of people attending events ranged from 70 to 80, but they averaged between 30 to 35 people before the pandemic.
“Part of our mission is to keep alive the historic dance and music," MMTD member Jan Harcourt said.
A common theme among all dancers is connection. Due to the dance style, you switch between people through couple and group dances.
“I feel connected to the music,” Thaxter said. “I feel connected to the other people I'm dancing with.”