Contra Dance

On Sunday I attended an event for my church in which we had an old time band and a contra dance caller. There was not a banjo in the band but a mandolin which can have a similar sound. There was a fiddle and Mr M has told me that the fiddle leads the group so I was listening to that and it was really interesting to hear how the other players followed.

All of the dancing made me think about the origins of the banjo (from Africa) and the origins of contra dancing (England) and how now they are closely associated. I would like to know more about how the dancing goes along with old time music and where exactly the intersection is.