Stolen Goods is a super fun contra dance band located in Ottawa. We began in 2012 as a community band open to anyone regardless of experience level. However, most folks who showed up in the early days wanted to practice on a weekly basis and so we evolved into a band with defined members. Our current band members are Mark Rogers, Tim Cutts, Judy Kavanagh, Mary Gick, Mitzi Hauser, Emily Addison, Milan Skubnik, and Kate Bailey. We still consider ourselves a community band as most of us aren’t pros and we offer the opportunity for other musicians to sit in with us (email Emily at emilyetbrent@gmail.com). However, there is now a fully-open contra dance band in Ottawa called the All Comers Band. Most of us also play in that band.
Our goals as a band
- Fun + community oriented!
- Be a place where local musicians can play (and learn to play) for contra dances.
- Play tunes that are wickedly awesome for dancing, focusing on a diverse and uniquely contra-oriented repertoire (e.g., looking to other dance bands and scenes across North America for neat music to try).
- Play so that dancers really enjoy the band’s music (e.g., look for new tricks/grooves/approaches to excite dancers; play as a tight group as much as possible for a community band; play at the right tempo… both basic and more advanced stuff!).
Band photos & videos
To watch videos of our band, check out Judy Kavanagh’s YouTube channel.
May 2018 
June 2016 
Feb 2013: Jonathan reigning over us with his bombarde! 
Feb 2013: The band with our guest fiddler Harvey Toleman from Nelson, New Hampshire 🙂 
Oct 2012: Our first gig! It was Oct 31st so we were dressed up… the misfit morris or something of the like. 🙂 
Oct 2012: Our leg costuming. 
Oct 2012: A picture from our first ever gathering/practice ever (Jamie Ferguson missing). Wohoo! 🙂
