Louise Siddons was born in the UK but moved to the United States as a child, where she grew up surrounded by folk music and song. She began calling dances in 2008, as well as teaching couple dances from various traditions. Now back in the UK permanently, she is well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a contra, English country dance, and ceilidh caller. Louise has a particular passion for English dances and music of the early eighteenth century, which share the energy and flow of modern American contra dances. Social folk dance is a living tradition that balances accessibility with challenge and discovery, and Louise enjoys finding the right balance of dances for every event, creating a fun and welcoming atmosphere with her low-key, light-hearted stage presence.

Her investment in the history, evolution, and sustainability of folk traditions and their ongoing relevance to contemporary culture led her to become the inaugural recipient (2016) of the Country Dance and Song Society’s Mary Judson/Brad Foster Award for English Dance Teachers. In 2021, Louise received a grant from the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) that supported the establishment of gender-free contra and ceilidh series in Brighton and Winchester. In 2022, CDSS published her book, Dancing the Whole Dance: Positional Calling for Contra, and she runs workshops on positional calling and dancing, queer histories of dance, and more.