Myself and Louise Siddions, a widely known contra caller, conducted a survey into the skirts people enjoy for contra dancing. We created a web form and shared it with a number of dance groups on Facebook. In total 140 responses were received over a period of about a week, and the results can be seen below.
If you are interested, the anonymous raw data and python script used to normalize the data for these graphs can be found at the end of this post.
We asked what kinds of skirts people enjoy wearing for contra dancing, and as you can see, there is a strong preference for both circle skirts and light and swirly ones. You can view the categories by hovering your cursor over the graphs.
I was expecting kilts to make up a larger percentage of total here as I often see people wearing them at festivals. I have shared some thoughts on this disparity later.
The majority of the contra dancers in this survey strongly preferred skirts that are knee length to mid calf. From a practicality standpoint that makes sense, as they are long enough to offer visual flare, without being a tripping hazard.
A number of respondents did mention long circle skirts interfering with other dancers, and we will be looking at those comments later.
We asked the participants to compare the weight of their favorite contra dance skirt to t-shirt material, and these are the results:
And we also asked them to judge the stretchyness of the material:
As you can see the preferred fabric weight is a pretty even split, with a general preference towards materials that are either not stretchy at all, or only a little so.
A bit more of a preference emerged when I summed the material weight and stretch by the type of skirt, and there may be a slight preference towards heavier materials in circle skirts and gored skirts. Light and swirly ones tend towards lighter materials as expected.
There is a preference towards non-stretch materials in circle skirts, and stretch ones in the light and swirly type, which one could assume indicates a slight preference (or prevalence) towards woven fabric in circle skirts, and knit fabric in swirly ones.
The contra dancers included in this survey mostly preferred to wear their skirts with either shorts or bare legs, with a long tail of other things which can be seen below.
For the sake of graph legibility this data has been heavily normalized, for instance 'shorts', 'boxer shorts', and 'bike shorts', have been counted as a single category. The original answers can be seen in the raw data.
Both of these questions were optional, but it can be seen that the majority of people who provided their country live in the United states:
And the majority who provided their gender are female, which makes sense given the last few hundred years of culture around skirt wearing, but also does not match my intuition.
I actually expected a larger percentage of male dancers here because within the American contra community it appears to be quite common for them to dance in skirts or kilts. This is based on what I've observed in YouTube videos of American contra dances.
I also generally expected kilts to make up a larger portion of the total as I have seen many people wearing them at folk festivals around the UK.
This disparity could be due to:
This was an open-ended question that allowed the contra dancers to respond with a short paragraph about their skirt of preference and why they enjoy dancing in it. These are a summary, and all of the responses can be found in the raw data.
By far the most commonly mentioned thing is twirlyness and effects made when the skirt is twirled:
I wear a variety of skirts for contra, but my favorite is a a very floaty, very spinny, circle and a half skirt.
It feels great to twirl in. Plus, I made it myself.
It twirls good. It's one of those wraparound ones?
It twirls beautifully.
Twirl.
Flow and freedom.
The movement is really important.
The twirlyness! It makes my fellow dancers feel like they are in a carwash. ???? And a little bit of weight makes for a more satisfying feeling, imo.
I like skirts that have a bit of weight to them so they sway well! But twirling well is the most important!!
It’s heavy and I get compliments on it all the time. It’s very twirly.
The way it feels and flares when twirling is key.
It’s fun to twirl in!
I like how it swirls out when I spin.
I like it to move when I twirl.
I spin *a lot* when I dance contra. It’s fun to spin in twirly skirts.
I love the twirlies! (I have one dress that is mostly light weave material but little patches at the edge of a heavier knit and it feels great and makes the twirl max out.)
I like the twirly feeling.
Swirly!!!!!!!
Tiered that makes waves when twirled.
When I want to twirl I wear skirts for dancing. Partners tend to take it as a silent cue to spin me more. When I lead I like seeing the skirts swirl and also spin my partners more.
It’s twirly and light.
The top layer twirls, the bottom layer stays straight down.
I make my own skirts…. tiered, godet, gathered…. just must be twirly!
A few people mentioned pockets being an important factor in their choice:
Pockets! I like the way the heavier material swirls. Beautiful print! (Made by Svaha).
All of my skirts have pockets: this is a key feature!!!
I like skirts with a little bit of weight, but loads of swish. Too much weight and they won't flare out properly, too little weight and they don't have any momentum behind them. Preferably full enough that I can raise a portion of them to waist level without being indecent. Elastic waisted, for comfort, and of course pockets.
And there were a number of comments related to temperature and cooling:
I actually have different ones for different temperatures. All should be swirly but length will differ. Shorter ones (and even the longer full-circle skirt) are worn with bike short-style shorts underneath for modesty.
I love my skirt because it responds nicely to the air, is super light (I don't feel like I'm dragging some heavy dress around), and it breaths well, especially when twirling. The twirling is like 40% to cool off and 60% because it just feels good to spin. I've always loved rides that spin.
I like the way is flips out when I twirl or swing. Twirly skirts seem cooler in warm weather, too.
It is black so goes with most shirts. It’s long enough not to show too much leg and full enough that it’s almost a circle skirt, so twirls super nicely. The twirl factor is the most important! It’s also cotton, so breathable and natural fiber.
Comfortable and airy.
The material gives a really nice sensation to my spinning! It’s also nice to be able to flap and fan myself with when I’m hot.
Jenny Horrocks is a skirt engineer and can make it float when you spin. I spin a lot and the skirt accentuates it. It's possibly cooler temperature wise, but I also wear wicking underwear underneath it instead of my usual cotton, so that's a factor. Definitely gets a breeze down there where I need it. No pockets though.
I actually have different ones for different temperatures. All should be swirly but length will differ. Shorter ones (and even the longer full-circle skirt) are worn with bike short-style shorts underneath for modesty.
A few folks noted long skirts interfering with other dancers:
Homemade circle skirts made of swimsuit-like material. They twirl so dramatically! If I made more I'd probably make them a little shorter (knee length) so I don't hit as many people with them when twirling in a crowded set!
test the "twirly-ness" before buying, too long-you can get tripped up, too short you will need bike shorts or leggings underneath. light weight is better/cooler. too heavy and twirly can get in the way (I caught a kid once). easy care with no need for ironing is best for traveling. believe me, you will want to travel.
I picked circle skirt, but I also look great in an A-line dress. Any skirt that flares out is a winner - so a well designed gore skirt is nice, too.. I like the flow (and so do the guys). I like longer skirts for the winter, but I've discovered that if they're calf-length or longer they tend to catch on other people in a really crowded dance.
Some shared their design preferences:
It is important to me to have a drop waist on my skirts. I prefer how those feel around my tummy and hips -- I really don't want an elastic band highlighting my thick waist. I like the twirly part of the skirt to start lower, on my hips, not my waist. If the material is too heavy, the skirt will be too hot (everything is hot) but it needs to be heavy enough to have some swing to it.
I like skirts with a little bit of weight, but loads of swish. Too much weight and they won't flare out properly, too little weight and they don't have any momentum behind them. Preferably full enough that I can raise a portion of them to waist level without being indecent. Elastic waisted, for comfort, and of course pockets.
I have both a traditional 7-yard wool Scottish kilt in my clan tartan and a cotton/poly, machine washable Utilikilt with slack style front and rear pockets instead of the big pouch type pockets you often see on non-traditional kilts. I use both though I use the Utilikilt more because it's lighter, cooler, easier to clean and has pockets.
And one person mentioned feeling that their skirt helps them balance:
It acts, in my opinion, as a gyroscope/ stabilizer keeping me upright in spins. I like when there are gasps of skirt appreciation as it flies around. Sometimes, if space is limited I use a hand by my side to stop it spinning up.
Finally someone shared some words of encouragement:
I would encourage absolutely everyone to try dancing in a skirt at least once to know how it feels.
After I posted this survey, I thought of and was suggested a number of additional questions which would have been worth including. These may be worth asking in a follow up in the future:
I find the trend within the American contra dance community of men dancing in skirts interesting, as it seems to have developed by itself some time ago, against the widespread cultural stigma of skirts being 'for women'. It appears to be quite common and can be seen in videos on YouTube dating back to 2010.
Of course it is related to the fun that dancing in skirts brings to contra, but I'd be interested in learning more about when it started, and how it spread over time. I was surprised that this doesn't appear to be reflected in this survey results.
It is a tricky thing to research without human sources because I don't know if it's been studied before. I did however draft a set of questions that could form a survey to learn more about this trend today:
By and large the results of this survey reflect what I have observed from the dances I have attended, as well as the ones I have observed in YouTube videos. I considered looking for preferences depending on country, but opted not to due to the huge bias towards answers from American dancers.
The only improvement I'd want to make, besides possibly adding more questions as noted above, would be to make the category 'light and swirly' more clear. It doesn't tell much about the actual design of the skirt and could refer to sheer 'floaty' chiffon skirts just as much as lightweight circle or gathered ones, yet those behave very differently in a dance.
If you would like to see if you can find any other trends in the data, you can download the data as a CSV below: