Traditional New England Barn Dances

Dudley Laufman & Jacqueline Laufman

Dudley Laufman Retrospective at the

Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend 2007

Tributes and letters reminiscing times with Dudley

Compiled by Patrick Stevens

For the Dudley tribute at the Ralph Page weekend:

In 1975 a friend took me to my first contra dance. Of course it was Dudley's.  I became an instant, life-long contra dancer.  Fifteen years later, when Andy Davis, Mary Cay Brass and I started our 'New England Dancing Masters' publishing company, we titled our first collection of dances after the best community dance we know: 'Chimes of Dunkirk', which, of course, from one of Dudley's dance collections, and is a dance which Dudley had adapted from a traditional Belgian couples dance.

Thanks Dudley - your work runs wide and deep!

Peter Amidon
peter@amidonmusic.com
20 Willow Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301  802-257-1006 
http://www.amidonmusic.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com

Though I've know about Dudley for over 35 years, I didn't really get to know him well until I moved to the seacoast area in 1985 and joined the Lamprey River band. BTW, Sarah Mason is Dudley's niece.

My first exposure to Dudley was back in 1968 when he brought the Canterbury Orchestra to the Beers Family folk festival "Fox Hollow" in Petersburg, NY. Bill Spence of "Fenigs All Stars" fame (among several other) caught the "infection" as it were, built an outside dance platform at Fox Hollow and the Contradance movement took off!

Upon hearing Dudley's group, I was hooked on the sound but it wasn't until several years later that I finally jumped into the Contradance Band bag by joining the Berkshire's "Southwind Country Dance Orchestra" in 1980. Other Berkshire bands that started playing "Dudley's music" were "Thistledown" and "Mountain Laurel." I don't believe "Thistledown" is still extant but Mountain Laurel is still cookin' in south Berkshire (small band with a great sound). Because of job relocations, etc. "Southwind" broke-up in about 1987 from which "Spare Parts" with Liz Stell, Bill Matheson, etc. evolved.

Obliviously, we all owe Dudley much for by his picking up the torch  from Ralph Page, he kept the flame alive and ignited what has become tantamount to the social event of the counter culture.

Sincerely
Dave Cousineau

davebonnie@aol.com

From: "Sand & Tara Dalton" dalton@rockisland.com>

Dear Dudley,

Word of the dance weekend and a chance to send something to you came to me from an 80+ year old woman who lives on our island. She said I HAD to send the picture below to you (or she would). SO…here it is.

You played and called for my 16^th birthday dance and for my wedding, 13 years later (or 21 years ago). I followed you and the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra around from Town hall to Town hall with Inge Thompson and Glenn Towle and later Ken Segal. It was the best part of my misspent teenage years. We sometimes managed to make it to 3 dances in one weekend, even in Glenn’s old VW bus. I loved the dance weekends at your place in Canterbury.

We still have a functioning turntable and periodically I pull out the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra records, old memories coming rushing back and we go "around to the right and we balance." I’ve danced to "Tara’s Reel" performed by local west coast musicians and over the years often wished that I could entice you out here (but it’s not an easy place to get to).

I turned 50 years young this year and chose to have a contra dance for the Lopez Island community and swing my way into the next decade. I still love to dance and am trying to keep community contra and square dancing alive on our island on the opposite side of the country. (Luckily, I work with a very talented folk musician and there are a few other New England transplants here, otherwise the dances can be a bit rough around the edges.)

I saw a flea heave a tree, fie man fie.

I saw a flea heave a tree, who’s the fool now?

I saw a flea heave a tree forty miles out to sea.

Thou hast well drunken man, who’s the fool now?

I wish I could be there to honor your years of keeping traditional music and country dance alive in New England, but 3,000 winter miles makes it very unlikely. I’ll be there in spirit, in fact we may be dancing on Lopez that weekend.

Anything’s possible…………… Don’t miss a beat.

Best wishes, Tara

Tara Garland-Dalton

P.O. Box 786

Lopez Island, WA 98261

Email: dalton@rockisland.com

From: "lacontradancer" <lacontradancer@artkitchen.com>

Hi Patrick,

Attached please find a pdf file of a tune I composed for Dudley. Let me know if you have any problems printing it for the scrapbook.

"DUDLEY’S WALTZ" (SEE APPENDIX)

Best regards,
Leonard Ellis

Penn Fix
fixschultz@earthlink.net

Hello,

I was biking in the White Mountains with friends in the early summer of 1977 - just about thirty years ago. That evening they took me to my very first contra dance.  The caller was Dudley Laufman.  Like everyone else who has experienced their first, it was a whirlwind exhilarating experience for me.  I remember mostly the intense energy of all us (at that point) young people, many of whom were dancing without shoes. My guess is we were dancing in a town called Tammarck but I could be wrong.  This experience led me to seek out dancing in Boston where I lived at the time .... and well I have not stopped since!

Thanks Dudley!

Penn Fix
Spokane, Washington

From: "Lynn Jensen" <madrigal@charm.net>

Hello!  I don't believe we've met, but I got the message from David Millstone about the scrapbook you are putting together for Dudley Laufman, and have a jaunty New England-style march tune to contribute.  The zip code I was given turned out to be wrong, but I got it fixed and the tune should be on its way to you tomorrow. Good luck with this project!

MARCH (SEE APPENDIX)

Best,
Jonathan Jensen

koths@sbcglobal.net

Here are some recollections for the Dudley celebration.

Dudley and the Dance

Contra dancing began for me, as it did for several other future callers, at Dudley Laufman's contra in Nelson, New Hampshire. It was the winter of 1968, and I was a student at Amherst College in western Massachusetts. A dedicated folkie, I had just been introduced to contra music by banjo player, Ted Levin (now Professor of Ethnomusicology at Dartmouth). He and local fiddle repairman, Jerry Wein, were members of the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society and made frequent trips to Dudley's dance in Southern New Hampshire to play with an amazingly diverse group of musicians known as the Canterbury Dance Orchestra. One dark and stormy night they convinced me to join them.

It was a full-blown Nor’easter with three-foot snowdrifts when we packed into Jerry's tiny VW station wagon. He assured the five of us that there would be room for his stand-up bass and other instruments. And there actually was, provided I snaked my 6-foot five-inch frame into the curve of the bass viol and plastered my face against a side window that wouldn't quite close. It was truly the most uncomfortable ride of my young life, and several times I envisioned it ending in a New Hampshire snowdrift, garroted by a D string.

But when the historic, snow-covered Town Hall in Nelson finally came into view, the magic of the place and what was about to begin made all previous suffering seem insignificant. The sound of the huge band was indeed full, needing no particular amplification, grounded in tasteful accordions and a straightforward fiddling style, punctuated by the occasional descant of a piccolo. And in front of it all stood the broad-shouldered Dudley, draped with his accordion and gently guiding folks through dances they seemed to know intuitively. I have never been to a dance with a stronger sense of tradition.

The first contra I attempted was one of the classics, possibly "Rory O'More". I ended up hopelessly lost, even with the helpful locals pushing me from all directions. After the dance, one of the fiddlers, Newt Tolman, invited us to his house for more music. (Newt's 1969 publication of "The Nelson Collection" carefully documented New England's contra dance music as it had survived for so many years in these small towns.) There was no way to miss the profoundly important role that music and dance played in the social fabric of this community.

As I subsequently was inspired to spread the gospel of contra dancing to other communities, on the west coast, I always recalled the spirit of the Dudley dances. Of course this spirit is challenging, if not impossible, to maintain in an urban environment with dancers who become impatient with the classic dances. But the important thing is that we are still dancing. And we have Dudley to thank for that!

Kirston Koths
2646 Mira Vista Drive
El Cerrito, CA 94530
510-233-7929

Sylvia,

I first met Dudley at my father's parent's house in Manchester, NH, where each year we held a family gathering on thanksgiving day. Dudley called contras, played the fiddle and accordion, and sang songs. I was born in 1957 and its possible he was there before I arrived on the scene but my early memories are of him leading everyone in singing "Who's the fool now" and teaching us to dance, and of course playing the accordion. He was very funny, made us all laugh and had a huge repertoire of songs and tunes. It seemed that he was responsible for all the fun that we had and I wanted to be like him when I grew up.

Jerry

beekamac1@yahoo.com

Hey.  I am Bob's daughter. Just tell Dudley that as a second dad, he was the bomb!!! And that I love him much.

From: "John Ramsay" johnberni@sbcglobal.net

I am old enough to have seen traditional dance before and after Dudley.  He truly did change the entire country dance landscape. 
We applaud him for his talent, contagious enthusiasm, and remarkable vision.
Sincerely,
John M Ramsay
St Louis, Missouri

Hello Patrick,

I understand you may be putting together a scrapbook of sorts for Dudley’s tribute (roast?) in January at the Ralph Page Dance Weekend.  As a former member of the CCDO (I don’t think there are "former" members once a member, always a member) I dug up some old schedules, circa 1973, of Dudley dances. Some additional explanatory notes:

Files "Concord Contra1" and "Contra Concord2" attach to each other.  The paper was too large for the scanner. But you get the idea from 1^st file.

ATTACHMENTS (SEE APPENDIX)

"June 10  - caller Jack" , refers to Jack Perron.

The fiddler for most of the Monadnock region dances was Allen Block; Fancestown, New Boston, Dublin, Nelson and sometimes Fitzwilliam.  The piano player for most all the dances was (you guessed it) Mac. Peter Colby was there as well accompanying Allen on the banjo and providing a steady rhythm for the dancers … he was nicknamed ‘the human metronome’, as well as Larry Delorier on flute who would play most of the dances in these skeds.  Many of "us" would be sitting in the orchestra for most of these dances. The ‘us’ would be Jack Perron, Randy Miller, Rod Miller on occasion, Art Bryan, Teddy Levin and myself. Of course, there came and went other musicians throughout the years.

Let me know if you have a hard time with these files and I can try and snail mail copies to you.

Best, Ken Segal

Ken Segal, EA

207-865-1489 voice/fax

207-751-2191 mobile

I had just obtained my Masters in Science education from Southern Connecticut State College (now University) in New Haven in the summer of 1975. With a K-12 teaching certification in hand, I moved out to nearby Branford and started a job teaching at the Wightwood School, an alternative elementary school based on the British integrated-day primary school system.

In October of that first fall of teaching, I was looking through the New Haven Advocate for some ideas to get me out for some social time, still being fairly new to the area. The Advocate is a weekly alternative paper that lists local cultural events, movies, and local news. I spotted a listing in the Calendar section for an old-time contra-dance. The listing had a picture of Dudley Laufman. The dance location was Hendrie Hall at Yale University.

I was vaguely familiar with Dudley Laufman's name at the time because my Mom's family used to vacation in Jaffrey, New Hampshire when she was a teenager. They were friends with Newt Tolman and went to dances at the Nelson Town Hall. But all during my growing-up years, I never heard of contra dancing. However, in elementary school, we always had square dancing for physical education class in the winter months when snow covered the playground. I always enjoyed that square dance activity since I was not very good at other sports at the time.

So off I went on that Saturday night in October. Hendrie Hall is one of Yale's venerable buildings that borders the large, central New Haven green. The great hall in the building is the rehearsal location for several musical groups, primarily the Yale Men's Glee Club. The Glee Club at that time was directed by Fenno Heath. I later learned that Fenno and his wife Carol were good friends with Dudley. They had been recently sponsoring a Dudley dance at the hall once or twice a year. Athough New Haven had active international and Scottish dance groups, Dudley's once or twice a year visits were the only hint of contra dancing at that time.

Hendrie Hall has a very wide and grand staircase winding its way through the center of the building. The Glee Club hall is on the second floor. It's windows face out over the New Haven green. As I arrived at the second-floor landing, and the entrance to the hall, a woman (Natalie) approached me with a questionnaire asking how I found out about the dance. She was part of an early group of people who were interested in doing more contra dancing in New Haven and was checking out the most successful avenues for advertising.

I told her about the listing in the New Haven Advocate, paid my admission fee to the dance, and went into the hall. At one end of the hall was a grand Steinway piano. On the wall was a huge painting of some famous Yale professor, maybe Fenno Heath's predecessor? Dudley was there by the piano, surrounded by a band of string players (but no pianist). His presence, command, and charisma was immediately noticeable as he led a dance already in progress.

That dance ended and the next dance was a Sicilian circle mixer, couples facing couples. I was always a shy person socially all through junior high and high school. So I bravely asked Natalie if she would like to do this dance with me. She hestitatingly said yes and off we went to claim a position in the circle. As the dance started, Natalie began turning her head around, as if looking for someone. After the third time through the dance, she abruptly excused herself, with no reason, and left me and the circle. Without a partner, I had to drop out, forcing another couple to drop out as well.

So there I was pressed up against the wall watching the dance instead of dancing the dance. Hints of pain from those early junior high canteen dances crept into my gut. As it turned out, I did not have the courage to ask anyone else to dance for the remainder of the first half of the evening before the break. Instead, I watched the band. I noticed that although there was no full-time pianist, one of the fiddle players occasionally put his fiddle aside and sat down to play the keyboard.

I noticed the rhythmic "boom-chic" beat that anchored the music. I was also pleased to see that this was an ensemble type that involved a pianist. I was always envious of my music major friends in college who, with violins, trumpets, and clarinets, always got to perform in the orchestra concerts (where a piano is almost never used except as a solo in concertos). I always prefer to perform rather than sit and listen! The tunes were sort of familiar to me from the elementary school square dance days, and from my growing interest in folk music at the time. With a strong background in classical piano, and a love of Gilbert and Sullivan, I thought to myself, "I can do this."

Dudley called for a mid-evening break. During the break I wandered over to the piano and said hello to the band members who were getting ready to do some jamming during the break. When I introduced myself as a pianist, one of the fiddle players, Michael Koenigsberg, invited me to play along during the jamming. It turned out that Michael was a key player for the live music used for the New Haven Scottish dances.

Things went well during the jam session and Michael asked me to stay on for the second half of the dance. Dudley came back to make announcements and to start the first dance of the second half. He noticed the new face at the piano (me) and leaned over the top of the piano to speak to me. I was rather nervous and slightly terrified of his approach. After all, this was "his" dance and I now had the ability to screw it up. He looked at me and said sternly, "Do you know what you are doing?" I said, "I think so." He responded in a classic New England minimalist way with "All right." He gave me the cue to start the music (Michael had warned me about the four-beat lead-in during the break) and off I went into history.

I held forth at the piano for the remainder of the dance. It was a huge success. Michael and I exchanged phone numbers and he invited me to join the musicians playing for the Scottish dances.

I soon met Lucy Heath, a daughter of Fenno and Carol Heath. She was, and still is, an extraordinary dancer and musician. Lucy (on virtuoso recorder) and her mother Carol (on fiddle) and I became the first contra dance and English country dance band in New Haven. Lucy was a very crucial friend in my early dance musician days. She said three things to me which allowed me to quickly become one of the better dance pianists: "Be a dancer yourself", "Keep the beat steady when you play", and "Always watch the dancers when you play". Wherever you are, these three rules separate the good dance musicians from the not-so-good.

Quickly after this, most of the core members of the future New Haven contra dance scene fell into place, became fast friends, and the New Haven dance series was born. Paul Englesberg and I founded the Fiddleheads Country Dance Band that included Michael Koenigsberg and Matthew Clark. Part-time members included Ellen Coen, Tina Kaarsberg, Ken Sweeney, Michael Bell, and others. Barbara Loeb became our dance series organizer and made sure that Dudley Laufman was invited back to New Haven on a regular basis. David Lindsay was our local caller - his house was also the scene for many pot-luck suppers. Sarah Elson did the imaginative graphics for our dance posters and flyers. Lucy Morse, David Sloane, Janet Milton, Peter Clark, and so many others made this the warmest and closest group of friends I have ever encountered in my life - even to this day. I miss our rare and rich comraderie, and the chocolate milkshakes and conversations at Clark's Dairy after the dances.

Thank you Dudley for all this.

Peter Spicer

From: "Jane J.Srivastava" jsrivast@sfu.ca

Hi Patrick,

just wrote, and will  mail tomorrow or Tuesday, a note for the DL scrapbook... enclosed will be a copy of a letter I got from Dudley in 1963, also for the scrapbook

(SEE APPENDIX)

Many thanks for getting the scrapbook together... it's a wonderful project I'm delighted to contribute to... as you'll see in the note for Dudley, I've asked David to put the letter, and the copy of his self published book it refers to, in the Dudley Laufman collection at UNH.

Jane J. Srivastava
604-922-6939

TWO FIDDLES

Jacqueline & Dudley Laufman

PO Box 61, Canterbury, NH, USA 03224

Tel: 603-783-4719   Fax: 603-783-9578 

New email as of January 2007: 

jdlaufman (at) comcast (dot) net

(Put the @ symbol in above address instead of the word (at) with no spaces and a . between comcast and net to deter spam.)