Dover,
NH Contradance
Researched and written by Elizabeth
Faiella, July 2015
Location: Dover
City Hall, 288 Central Ave, Dover, NH
Schedule: 8-10:30
p.m., first Thursday of each month except July and August
Cost: $7, $5
students
Website: none
Current organizer: Peter Yarensky
Contact information: (603) 664-2513, peter.yarensky@unh.edu
The first
iteration of the Dover dance was going strong at the Dover City Hall in the
1940s and 1950s. Caller Phil Johnson led the dances, along with fellow callers
Mal Hayden and Guy Mann, and the band played without a sound system. The dances
drew a crowd that filled the large hall on a regular basis.
The dance program consisted of
three squares and a contradance, repeating that pattern until near the break,
when dancers would do folk dances such as Road to the Isles and the Boston
Two-Step. After the break, the pattern would repeat. Among the dances commonly
called in Dover were traditional contras such as Lady Walpole’s Reel, Lady of
the Lake, Sackett’s Harbor, Petronella, Hull’s Victory, and Money Musk; and
singing squares including My Little Girl, Marching Through Georgia, Crooked
Stovepipe, and Darling Nelly Gray. Some of these dances, which Johnson taught
current dance organizer Peter Yarensky, are still called in Dover.
The current
Dover dance originated with the Lamprey River Band, which in turn began as a jam
session in the 1980s. A group of musicians, who had been playing together
weekly, organized a dance in August, 1983 to benefit the Newmarket Town Hall,
where the main contradance in the Seacoast Area was. “And we had such a good
time that we decided that maybe we should keep going,” says Yarensky, current dance
organizer and member of the band.
The original band members were
Peter Yarensky, Steve Panish, Sarah Hydorn, Sarah Mason, Dave Cousineau, and
Rick MacAulay, among others. Modeled after the Canterbury Orchestra and the
Maine Country Dance Orchestra, the band played mostly common repertoire New
England tunes.
The band got hired for a few more
dances, and “with considerable discussion,” the musicians chose to call
themselves the Lamprey River Band. The band practiced weekly at the Durham
Children’s Center. “Since it was a daycare center, most of the chairs were quite
low, so there we were, all sitting there practicing on chairs that were two
feet off the ground,” says Yarensky. In 1985, Yarensky and fellow band member Sarah
Mason decided to learn to call dances.
The band
members soon decided to make their band practice into an open jam session once
a month, and then Yarensky suggested that they turn their open jam session into
an open dance where anybody would be welcome to come play music or call.
The first
dance was in October 1986 in the Madbury Town Hall. Admission was $2. The dance
took place Thursday nights so as to avoid interfering with other dances in the
area. It gradually grew, with more and more sit-in musicians and guest callers,
until it became the largest dance in the area.
The dance relocated
for a while to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Dover, before moving across the
street to its current location, Dover City Hall, in the early 1990s. Pianist
and contradance organizer Marianne Taylor played piano with the Lamprey River
Band for years. Dancer Paul Kanaly, who used to dance to the calling of
contradance legend Ralph Page, danced in Dover until he was in his 90s. Caller
Chrissy Fowler, now a well-known New England contradance caller, began her
career in Dover as a guest caller.
Over the
years, Yarensky says, there have been some lean times for the Dover dance,
especially in the late 1990s. “We had a period of two or three years when it
was only occasionally that we would make money,” he says. “Sometimes we made
four or five dollars apiece if we were lucky. And sometimes we would lose
$20-$50 in an evening.”
But these
days, the dance draws a considerable crowd. The atmosphere is friendly, with
some time between dances for dancers to talk and mingle. Though for a while
there was a mid-evening break, it was eliminated when the hall required the
dance to end earlier so as to clear the hall by 11 p.m. The age range and
experience level of dancers in Dover is diverse, and University of New
Hampshire college students often attend. Beginners are welcome.
The Lamprey
River Band now includes Peter Yarensky, calling and hammered dulcimer; Sarah
Mason, calling and penny whistle; Sarah Hydorn, flute and penny whistle; Steve
Panish, fiddle; and Burt Feintuch, fiddle. The band is joined frequently by Bill
Zecker, piano. Music includes traditional tunes from the New England, Irish,
and old-time Southern traditions.
Yarensky and Mason usually call at
the beginning and end of the evening, but they invite guest callers to call
dances throughout the night. Because guest callers are welcome, many different types
of dances are called in Dover. Yarensky tends to call more traditional contras,
or “chestnuts,” and singing squares, while Mason usually calls dances that are
more modern.
The guest calling tradition has
caused the Dover dance to become a gathering place for many local dance
organizers and callers. Sometimes nationally known callers who are planning
tours in the area will come by and call a dance or two.
Every
month, the evening begins with a dance called Lady Walpole’s Reel, danced to a
tune titled Fireman’s Reel. The band also plays the tune Road to Boston at some
point during the evening—just to exasperate one of the band members, says
Yarensky. “Sarah Mason at one point said that she was tired of that tune, so
Burt [Feintuch] decided to make sure he was going to make sure to play it every
time, usually as a surprise sometime later in the evening.”
When the
Smithsonian Folklife Festival featured New Hampshire in 1999, the Lamprey River
Band was invited to play on a the Smithsonian Folkways Recording created in
honor the occasion. The recording is titled Choose
Your Partners: Contra Dance and Square Dance Music of New Hampshire.
Source: Peter Yarensky
and Emeline Dehn-Reynolds, interview by Elizabeth Faiella, April 2015
