BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro will once again be host to one of the longest on-going Dawn Dances in the country, held twice a year on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends for up to 400 dancers at the Gibson-Aiken Center, 207 Main St.
Featuring three callers and three bands for the contra dance portion, which runs from 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, until 7 a.m., on Monday, May 25, this dance draws people of all ages from Maine to California, northern Vermont to the Southeast.
Contra dancing has been a feature of the New England landscape for quite some time. With lively music of Irish, French Canadian, Scottish, Appalachian, and New England roots, dancers find the energy to dance through the night with friends, loved ones, and strangers.
Callers teach each dance with brief walk-throughs, and the bands launch into tunes with music at times driving, lyrical, playful, or mesmerizing. With each dance, dancers change partners. There are breaks throughout the night to sweep the floors and change bands and for the dancers to catch their breath.
Starting off the Dawn Dance is an afternoon English Country Dance (ECD), held at the Stone Church, across from the Gibson-Aiken Center, on the corner of Grove and Main streets from 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Leading the dancing and teaching all dances is Barbara Finney, a caller from the Boston area who is knowledgeable about the English repertoire of dances - which has a great variety of tempo, formation and music. Playing for this event are two of the best ECD musicians in the country, lydia ievins, fiddler, and Peter Barnes, pianist and guitarist, who hail from Turners Falls and Greenfield, Mass., respectively.
Tickets for this dance are $10, and because of the size of the hall and the spacious quality of the dancing, only 70 of them will be sold. Online tickets are sold at www.dawndance.org.
The contra portion of the Dawn Dance has three featured callers and bands.
Kicking off the evening at 8 p.m. is Spare Parts, whose members are Liz Stell, flute; Eric Buddington, violin; Bill Matthiesen, piano; and Mark Murphy, bass. It is a well-known and highly-regarded band from western Massachusetts that has performed for several decades at festivals like the Flurry in Saratoga Springs, the Adirondack Weekend on Lake George, N.Y., the New England Folk Festival Association, and many weekend dance events all over the area.
Bill Olson, a caller from Maine, will be bringing his brand of robust dances from Downeast.
The second band, Frost and Fire, and caller, Adina Gordon, hail from the Burlington area and Addison County.
The two fiddlers, Viveka Fox and Peter MacFarlane, and their piper/flutist/whistle colleague, Hollis Easter, bring their repertoire of Scottish, Cape Breton and Celtic music. Aaron Marcus on piano and concertina and feet brings the rhythm.
Other instruments of this set iinclude bodhran, guitar, and banjo. Caller Gordon will select dances from midnight to 3:30 a.m.
Finishing off in the early morning is a more recent band, the Gig Hunters, featuring some younger musicians, Julie Metcalf, a fiddler from the Boston area, Eric MacDonald, a guitarist, and Stuart and Matt Kenney, father and son, bassist and percussionist from Leyden, Mass.
Dave Eisenstadter from the Keene, N.H., area will be calling.
Tickets need to be bought online at www.dawndance.org by late Friday, May 22, although there will be a number available as well at the door while supplies last. General admission is $25, $20 for students and seniors. Bring clean, soft-soled shoes to dance in. For more information, call 802-257-1571.