Hands Four


(Updated Dec. 2022!) Currently On Hold due to COVID-19 Pandemic Precautious

Hands Four is a gender neutral contra dance in Palo Alto
on the first Friday of the month (starting 2020). click here for our calendar

All Saints Episcopal Church
555 Waverley Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301

Introductory lesson: 7 - 7:30 p.m.
Dance: 7:30 - 10:30 p.m.

$6 students / low income
$10 general admission
Or pay what you can. Everyone's welcome!
Cash only, please!

  • Drive: free street or garage parking in downtown Palo Alto
  • Caltrain: 10-minute walk from Palo Alto Station


  • Join our mailing list to receive monthly reminder emails in the week before Hands Four.

    Our Dance

    As long time dancers around the Bay, we’ve come to appreciate the unique energy and openness of other gender neutral dances in the area. In organizing this dance, we hope to create more opportunities for people to dance gender free contra in the area, spreading the joys of gender free dance to different parts of the Bay, and bringing in new dancers to this wonderful community. In particular, we aim to provide a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community, and allies, to meet, dance, and make new friends.

    Community is very important to us, and we want the people who attend our dances to feel a sense of ownership - it’s the energy and enthusiasm of dancers that make a dance truly thrive. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions, and if you’d like to get more involved with the dance, do let us know. There’s a lot of work that happens behind the scenes to make an event like this happen, and every contribution helps.

    We also hope to foster new talent in the community. If you think you might be interested in calling for a dance, playing music, running the sound system, or organizing dance events, don’t hesitate to reach out, and we’ll do our best to work something out.



    Logistics

    A few house-keeping items for our dance:

    Restroom and Water

    There are two single-use gender-neutral restrooms at the side of the hall. There are two water fountains in the hall, heading the same direction to the restrooms, walk a bit further towards the exit and the fountains are on the left. There is also a sink with tap water in the hall. We have reusable cups for you to get water.

    We all appreciate a quiet atmosphere!

    We are dance in a residential neighbourhood. To not disturb our neighbours, let’s keep the windows in the hall closed, so that we can enjoy the dance and be good neighbours.

    We are LOW-FRAGRANCE!

    Some dancers are sensitive to fragrances, so we’d like to keep this a low-fragrance environment. Please don’t wear perfume, cologne, body spray, or other products intended to give you a scent. If your shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, or laundry detergent are mildly scented, however, that’s ok.

    In order to make everyone enjoy the dance, we do intend to enforce this: if you show up wearing a product intended to give you a scent we may ask you to leave. Those conversations will probably be awkward for everyone, so please come without the body spray!

    NO FOOD in the Hall, please!

    The church charges extra cleaning fee if we have food in the hall. We’d like to make the dance affordable and sustainable for everyone. So please help us keep the hall clean without food.



    Code of conduct

    We want all people to feel safe and comfortable at Queer Contra Dance. We value and expect consent and communication, community mindness, and physical safety. Harassment of any kind won't be tolerated. If someone's behavior is offensive or harassing during the dance, we encourage you to speak with one of the organizers.

    Please read our Values and Expectations if you would like to know more about our community norms and how we handle unwelcome behavior.