Come Join Hands: A Country Dance and Book Release

Come join hands for a country dance with author Thomas Curren and traditional dance caller Dudley Laufman to celebrate the release of  All Join Hands: Dudley Laufman & the New England Country Dance Tradition.

All Join Hands is the story of what happened when a ten-thousand-year-old musical tradition was put into the hands of a seventeen-year-old Boston boy in 1947. While in high school, Dudley Laufman apprenticed with fiddlers and callers throughout New England. Eventually, he squired the old country dance traditions through to their revival in the 1960s at the Newport Folk Festival, the Club 47, and Robert J. Lurtsema’s Morning Pro Musica broadcasts. Decades of performances in famous venues and small villages led to his receiving the National Heritage Fellowship Award in 2009.

As Tom Rush, iconic singer/songwriter says, “Tom Curren has done a brilliant job here, weaving an engaging narrative of how Dudley Laufman coordinated and energized the amazing resurgence of an ancient art form―the contradance/square dance―in New England and beyond.”

The dance is free and all are welcome. Books will be available for purchase.

Registration is required Please register HERE.

The Monadnock Center is delighted to present this event in collaboration with our friends at The Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough.