Dudley Laufman (born 1930) is an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with helping spur the revival of contra in the 20th century. [1] [2]
Dudley Laufman (born 1930) is an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with helping spur the revival of contra in the 20th century. [1] [2]
Laufman was born in 1930 and grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts. [1]
Laufman attended his first dance as a boy while working at the Mistwold Farm in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1948. In 1959, he moved to Canterbury, New Hampshire. He was a founding member of the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra in 1965. [3]
He began calling and playing for dances, which became known as "Dudley Dances". [4] At times, he was the only remaining callers of contra dances with live music. [1] He worked to spread the tradition, which ultimately caught on and has since spread across the United States and internationally.
Beginning in 1978, Laufman started working with the New Hampshire Artists-in-the-Schools program, teaching contra dances to children. [1]
Laufman is a recipient of a 2009 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. [5]
Contra dance is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th century. Sometimes described as New England folk dance or Appalachian folk dance, contra dances can be found around the world, but are most common in the United States, Canada, and other Anglophone countries.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 29, 1965. It is a sub-agency of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
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Ralph George Page was an American contra dance caller. He was influential in spreading it from New Hampshire to the rest of the United States and other countries, and was recognized as an authority on American folk dance overall.
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