Ralph Page gave this title to a regular
column in his Northern
Junket
magazine,
in which he shared information he had gleaned from looking through
old newspapers in New Hampshire and Vermont. For those of us
interested in dance history, he’s absolutely right.
Late
last month, CDSS member Karen Mueller-Harder heard a wonderful
story on Vermont Public Radio.
In it, VPR reporter Steve Zind tells about John Stone, who in 1956
recorded a dance in Newfane, Vermont. Stone recently donated his tape
to the Vermont Folklife Center, which digitized the recording. (Dance
caller and CDSS youth intern Mary Wesley has worked at the VFC—small
world!) Zind’s story describes how listening to the tape brought back
a flood of memories for Stone.
Karen sent a link to the story
to Steve Howe, at the CDSS office, who shared it with fellow staff
members. Pat MacPherson in turn passed on the link to me and to Bob
Dalsemer, one of my colleagues on the Square Dance History Project
(SDHP). It was, indeed, a lovely and evocative story.
The
VPR story included only a few snippets from the actual dance
recording—the focus is Stone’s reactions to hearing the music once
again—but I was interested in hearing more of the source material.
I went to the website of the Vermont Folklife Center and spent a
frustrating time trying to locate the original, without success. I
turned to Google and easily located VFC ‘s posted file of the
recording, a beautifully preserved digital file. A few minutes later
I added a reference to this audio
clip of three singing squares
(the Dick Perry Orchestra and caller Ira Huntley) to our SDHP
website.
But wait! There’s more! I wasn’t familiar with all
three dances, and Bob quickly identified one as “Belle of the
Ball,” which he knew from the calling of Otto Wood. Otto
(fiddle) and his wife Marguerite (piano) hailed from Michigan, but
were regulars on staff at Pinewoods and at the John C. Campbell Folk
School in Brasstown, NC, as they made their way to and from Florida
each winter. Bob’s e-mail included a typescript of Otto’s calls for
that dance and an an appreciation of the Woods on a website
celebrating Michigan fiddlers.
It
turned out that Belle of the Ball was just one page from a larger
collection of Otto’s dances that had been prepared by storyteller and
occasional dance caller Donald Davis, working closely with Marguerite
some time after Otto’s death. (Donald Davis has been a frequent staff
member at our CDSS
family camp
at Ogontz, and he will be on staff again this summer; “Otto and
Marguerite” is among his vast repertoire of stories.) After a
few more e-mail exchanges we had his permission to post the complete
set, so we’ve added Otto’s
calls for 17 singing squares and Marguerite’s music
to the SDHP website.
All in all, a very
enjoyable and productive few days. It’s fun to hunt!