28th June 2025 with Box of Frogs, calling from Louise Siddons

Two of the most exciting players on the Contra dance scene. With creative, colourful accordion player Ali Messer (Blue Mountain, Alterations, Fat Harry, Fiddle Chicks) and high energy fiddling from Linda Game (ECDB, Token Women) expect an evening of fabulous dance music. Box the gnat and swat the flea, but can you spot the frog?

Louise Siddons was born in the UK but moved to the United States as a child, where she grew up surrounded by folk music and song. Now back in the UK permanently, she is known on both sides of the Atlantic as a contra, English country dance, and ceilidh caller. Louise believes that we should invest in the evolution and sustainability of folk traditions and their ongoing relevance to contemporary culture. As a caller and dance teacher, she strives to create a fun and welcoming atmosphere with her low-key and light-hearted stage presence. She received the 2016 Mary Judson/Brad Foster Award for English Dance Teachers from the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS), and has been a committee member for the Friends of English Dance (UK) since 2018. In 2021, she received a diversity grant from the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) in support of her gender-free teaching and calling. In 2022, CDSS published her booklet on gender-free, positional calling, “Dancing the Whole Dance: Positional Calling for Contra.” This winter, she is starting Winchester's first-ever queer ceilidh series, WinQeilidh.