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 Dudley Laufman
New England Barn Dance Music & Calling; Poet
Description:
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, he 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.”
Today, Dudley and partner Jacqueline Laufman are the group Two Fiddles. They have a large repertoire of tunes and dances that includes community style dances played by early New Englanders in barns and community halls, as well as contra dances, squares, polkas, and waltzes. Most recently, Dudley has been experimenting with an entirely new genre of traditional music, what he calls “Electric Barn Dancing,” especially appealing to high school aged students. Joining him in those dances are like-minded musicians playing electric guitar, bass, drums and accordion.
Dudley also has a repertoire of traditional English songs with sing-a-long choruses and enjoys telling Yankee stories. He is a very active poet and has published numerous books and broadsides, many under his own Wind in the Timothy Press. His poems and stories bring focus to the beauty and rhythm of rural New England life. In 2001, Dudley received the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award in Folk Heritage for lifetime achievement and excellence in the preservation of New England barn and country dancing.
Preferred
activities and age groups: Participatory dances for all ages, performances, lecture-demonstrations, workshops, fiddle lessons, storytelling, and poetry programs of poems, stories and fiddle tunes. Master classes for apprentices. In-depth school residencies as well as shorter school presentations for all grade levels. School programs can be tailored to address curriculum needs in the area of music, dance, social studies, New Hampshire history, and physical education.
Availability:
Statewide year round.
Fees:
Negotiable.
Contact
Information:
PO Box 61
Canterbury, NH  03224-
Phone: 603/783-4719
Alt. Phone: 603/783-4719
email: jdlaufman@comcast.net
website: www.laufman.org
Notes:
Click here for information on Two Fiddles.
Click here for Wind in the Timothy Press.
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