FPOTA - Home Page

Old-time Music and Dance
in the
South Central USA Region

Dance Guide
Places to Contra Dance around the SE Louisiana region.
(There are currently no scheduled Contra Dances in the states of LA or MS.)

If you are new to the area, or just visiting see:
Alternate Activities

To view/receive SE LA OTMaD news posts visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FPOTA/

Where are the Florida Parishes?

The Florida Parishes region is that part of Louisiana that is North of Lake Pontchartrain and East of the Mississippi River. Louisiana Parishes are the equivalent of Counties in the rest of the USA. This region was once part of Spanish West Florida, and there is an interesting bit of history associated with the name. You can read all about it in this Historical Account at the National Park Service web.

What does "Old-time" mean?

Old-time is a term associated with a genre of music and dance that was extremely popular back around 1800 (only they did not call it that back then). You can find out more about this activity by starting with the OTMaD.net Introduction on the topic.

FPOTA
Florida Parishes Old-time Association
Hammond, LA 70401 - USA

>>> send e-mail to: <<<

fpota <<AT>> otmad <<DOT>> net

Who is FPOTA?

This site was formally the SELABDA (Southeast LA Barn Dance Association). The reason for the name change was that I felt a need to narrow the focus of the area where I'd like to see one or more Contra Dances develop. I also wanted to make the name more inclusive to the art form as a whole (with the dance, music, and culture combined). Until another group/site like this starts up however, I will continue to keep and ear to the ground for OTMaD activities in the entire LA and MS region (so if you know of any OTMaD activity that area not listed here, feel free to let me know).

As far as I know there is not a single regular Contra dance in the states of LA or MS. If you're new to the area you may want to check out the SELA Dance Weekend Guide for some relief.

While I no longer reside in the Northshore (of Lake Pontchartrain) region of the Florida Parishes, I still have close ties there, so I try to keep this site up in order to help out folks looking for like-minded individuals and groups. And while it is unlikely that I'll ever return to the SELA region, you never can tell, so here it is.

The primary purpose for this site is to bring together residents of the Florida Parishes and the surrounding region that are interested in Old-time Music and Dance as it is currently being practiced throughout much if the USA and abroad today. If you are interested in meeting other Old-time Music and Dance folks in the Florida Parishes region then please use the e-mail address below to contact me.

If you wish to be included as a part of the FPOTA Yahoo! Groups list then let me know and I will add your name to the membership list. If you are unfamiliar with Y! Groups then be sure to check out that site for details. In order to keep the group as clean and secure as possible I reserve the right to ignore anything that looks suspicious, so make your request compelling.

Be sure to check the list of alternate activities here. By contacting some of the groups you may be able to get in touch with some other OTMaD folks in the region. As for Contra Dance, the most crossover was from the International Dance group in NOLA, so you may want to try there first.

If you need additional information then please use the above e-mail address.

Respectfully,
bud
The OTMaD Guy