Dudley Laufman on Contra Dance

Since the late 1600s, the lively tradition of contra dancing has kept people of all ages swinging and sashaying in barns, town halls and schools around the state. Contra dancing came to New Hampshire by way of the English colonists and remains popular in many communities, particularly in the Monadnock Region. Presenter Dudley Laufman brings this tradition to life with stories, poems and recordings of callers, musicians, and dancers, past and present. Live music, always integral to this dance form, will be played on the fiddle and melodeon. Willing audience members may be invited to dance the Virginia Reel!

Dudley started calling dances and playing the fiddle over sixty years ago. According to filmmaker David Millstone who produced a video called The Other Way Back: Dancing with Dudley, Laufman was “at the center of a dance revival in the late 1960s and 1970s and [his] effects can still be seen in today’s vibrant contra dance scene… it was Dudley who extended that audience dramatically in the late 1960s and 1970s as leader of the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra.”

This program is presented in collaboration with the Monadnock Folklore Society and sponsored by the New Hampshire Humanities Council.