Above nationally known Tony Parkes was the guest caller and with an exceptional live band, including fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and Sue Hunt on piano, the Barn on the Pemi was alive and packed for a delightful Wednesday night for the young and young at heart. Paula Tracy photo
Editor’s Note: Time to dust off Paula Tracy’s column ‘Out and About’ to show New Hampshire how to have some fun indoors and out as she kicks up her heels with some new friends in Plymouth.
By PAULA TRACY, Out and About
PLYMOUTH – As the days shorten and the cold weather brings many inside, square dances and other American folk dance events are popping up across the state, allowing both young and old, experienced and novice to enjoy the music, movement and fun group activity.
One such regular event are the monthly Plymouth Square Dances, which began this week for a second year.
Nationally known Tony Parkes was the guest caller and with an exceptional live band, including fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki and Sue Hunt on piano, the Barn on the Pemi was alive and packed for a Wednesday night.
The barn is located at 341 Daniel Webster Highway, located next to the Italian Farmhouse.
More dances, with David Millstone as the caller, will be held Dec. 6, Jan. 4, Feb. 1, March 7 and April 4 with a suggested donation of $15 to pay for the band and caller.
More than 100 people of all ages came to the barn where the band, including Canterbury caller, and 92-year-old Dudley Laufman https://dudleylaufman.com/, who played accordion enjoyed two and a half hours of dancing.
Above, far right is Dudley Laufman who introduced Paula to square dancing as a fourth grader at the former Millville Elementary School in Concord. Pictured here, he is playing the accordion at the Plymouth Square Dance. Paula Tracy photo
Dudley Laufman introduced me to square dancing as a fourth grader at the former Millville Elementary School in Concord, where he called the dances and I went up to him to introduce myself and recall those dances, when my whole family joined in for a night of fun on the painted red floor. I would go home exhausted with my bare feet covered in red paint from the floor, I told him.
COVID-19 seemed to rob everybody of the ability for a few years to hold hands with strangers or be in such a physical space together. But it seemed joyful to me again as all took in the experience of live dancing again.
Joining hands in squares on the wooden floors, Wednesday night were students from nearby Plymouth State University. People from as far away as Vermont and Dover were also drawn to the event.
There was free ice cream, cookies, coffee and tea at intermission, provided by The Common Man, who donated the venue and the refreshments for the second year. A cash bar was also available.
When Common Man founder Alex Ray rebuilt the Peverly barn – relocated in pieces from Canterbury – he indicated to friends he would love to someday hold square dances there and now that hope has been realized.
Although I am pretty rusty at this, and came alone to the dance, I made friends and made a lot of mistakes on the dance floor.
People in our squares were helpful and non-judgmental as I tried to remember my left from my right, who was my “corner,” what hands go first in a promenade, how to do-si-do.
At the table next to the door were brochures for English Country Dancing, held in Concord through June. They are held the first Sunday of each month from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Howard Recreation Center in the Gallen State Office Park off Pleasant Street.
Dover’s David Bateman, head of the NH English Country Dance Society, was at the dance Wednesday. Since retiring from engineering work he came all the way to Plymouth for the first square dance of the year.
“We are trying to restart a dance in Dover,” he said, “it would be a mix of contras, and squares, a little bit of English, a little bit of Scottish, an old style country dance,” he said.
Across New Hampshire, he said there used to be regular dances in town halls but the traditional country gatherings faded. In some small ways they are being revived and those who recall them and know the dances are there to help the next generation.
Eloise Steiner came with her youngest daughter from Lebanon to enjoy the music and did join a square for a bit of dancing.
She now lives in a nursing home but had a nice night out enjoying the music and the visuals as well as recalling her past dances.
Steiner said she began both square dancing and contra (which is a long line dance) as a young girl in Brattleboro, Vermont. She recalls the hay on the shiny floors of the barns and how the men would go out during intermission to drink beer by their trucks, while the ladies sipped soda pop.
Watching a group of young adults, laughing and trying to follow instructions in front of her as she sat one out, she said “I’m not used to any of this jumping up and down.”
She said there is a cadence and flow to a dance with the music providing a rhythm to the movement and she said the caller was doing a terrific job of combining the songs with the instruction.
Polly Whiteside, one of the organizers, said she was pleased with the turnout for “fledgling dance series.”
Genevieve Howe, another organizer, said she was pleased all comers “were able to experience the overwhelming joy this dance is bringing to so many people throughout Central NH and beyond.
“We are deeply satisfied with the results of our organizing. Of course, the event would not be what it is without the generosity of the Common Man, an excellent caller, and top notch musicians. It’s a marvelous confluence of energy, talent, and the Common Man’s commitment to building community and happiness.”
More on the Plymouth Square Dance, what to bring, expect and when to go, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/585375086652571