The 29th Annual Snow Ball
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Dancing from noon to midnight
Mary Wesley with the Moving Violations
Will Mentor with Casey and Molly and Sam Zakon-Anderson
Lisa Greenleaf with Oliver Scanlon, Jeremiah McLane, Owen Marshall
Steve Zakon-Anderson with Stomp Rocket
Admission: $28.00
Peterborough Town Hall
1 Grove Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
Face Masks are optional and encouraged
Contra Dance in Peterborough NH on Saturday, November 4
The Monadnock Folklore Society presents the Peterborough, NH First Saturday Contra Dance on NOVEMBER 4, with our own Steve Zakon-Anderson calling with musicians Eric Boodman on fiddle and feet and Sam Zakon-Anderson on keyboards.
Contra dance is a fun, easy folk dance style that has flourished in New England since the 1700s. Partners form lines and dance a short sequence of steps with their neighbors. Over the course of the dance, each couple travels the length of the line and dances with every other couple. Dancers are welcome to bring a partner or a group of friends but it’s not necessary – traditionally, dancers are encouraged to change partners throughout the evening.
The dancing begins at 8:00 PM. The dance has a workshop for new dancers at 7:30 PM.
Admission is $12-20 sliding scale. $30 Family rate.
Masks optional.
Gender-free calling terms: Larks and Robins
The dance takes place in the historic Town House in Peterborough, NH at 1 Grove Street. For more information call 603-547-5831 or visit www.facebook.com/peterboroughcontra.
The Monadnock Folklore Society has presented contra dances and concerts of traditional music since 1982.
Download the Schedule
Download the Map
The life of legendary New England contra dance musician and traditional music composer Bob McQuillen will be celebrated with a festival in Peterborough Saturday, July 1.
Running from 1 to 11 p.m., KwackFest commemorates the 100th birthday of the National Heritage Fellow who died in 2014. A longtime resident of Dublin and Peterborough in the Monadnock region and a fixture at contra dances throughout the Northeast and in Washington state, McQuillen drove to dances in a Jeep with a license plate reading “KWACK.”
Bob McQuillen was a contra dance musician, ConVal High School shop teacher and weightlifting coach, and, in his own way, a philosopher. He was a mentor to many, and his impact on the lives of his students and his fellow musicians was profound.
The event will be held in the Peterborough Town House and the adjacent grounds of the Guernsey Building. It will feature dancing, music, food trucks, and more. Admission is free.
KwackFest is sponsored by the Monadnock Folklore Society and supported in part by grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts & the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Country Dance and Song Society. An Indigogo campaign is raising additional funds for the event and also to cover costs of printing McQuillen’s 15th and final tunebook, which features tunes he wrote for each town in the state.
For more information on KwackFest, please visit HTTP://kwackfest100.com.
Steve Zakon-Anderson calling
Alex Cumming accordion, piano
Carol Bittenson fiddle
Len Bittenson fiddle, viola, recorders
Saturday, June 3
Dancing from 8 PM – 11 PM
New Dancer Orientation at 7:30 PM
Admission is FREE for this month thanks to a generous donation
Masks optional, vaccination recommended, and please don’t come if you feel ill in any way.
Calling will be non-gendered
Due to weather and many of our performers either being out of town or unable to get to Nelson, we are cancelling the Monday Night Contra on January 23, 2023.
In the past, there have been dances held in the Nelson Town Hall on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
For a variety of reasons, neither of these events will be held in 2022.
https://facebook.com/events/s/nelson-winter-solstice-celebra/554531473234585/
This year the evening will begin with a holiday concert featuring a selection of traditional and original seasonal music performed by The Solstice Sisters (Alouette Iselin, Melanie Everard, Kim Wallach, & Heather Bower) and friends; as part of the concert we feature a performance by one or more of our Johnny Trombly Scholarship recipients. This year, due to COVID protocols, we will not be serving refreshments and THERE WILL BE NO DESSERT POTLUCK. We’ve altered our format this year in an attempt to keep everybody healthy during the holiday season. Various groups of unsavory characters presenting their idea of seasonal entertainment will not surprise us as they will be part of the scheduled entertainment and once they are on their way we can decide if there is enough interest and energy to complete the evening with a traditional New England contradance.
Everyone aged two and up must wear a high-filtration (N95, KN95, KF94) mask inside the building at all times (except for *brief* sips of a beverage) and not eat inside the building. Masks will be available for sale at the door.
Performers may choose not to mask and are asked to take a same-day rapid test.
Everyone should be vaccinated and boosted.
If you get sick within 5 days after the dance, contact contrainfo@monadnockfolk.org.
Please consider taking a rapid antigen test no more than 24 hours before the event.
If the CDC reports any of these NH counties as Red, the event will be canceled: Cheshire, Hillsborough, Sullivan.
If you have any symptoms, we’ll be sorry to miss you, but please stay home and rest!
The Monday Dance returns on November 14
We had such a good time dancing on Halloween that the Monadnock Folklore Society is resuming the Nelson Monday Night Contra Dance beginning on November 14.
New Start Time: 7:30 PM
No musician’s slow jam yet but we hope to restart that soon.
Everyone aged two and up must wear a high-filtration (N95, KN95, KF94) mask inside the building at all times (except for *brief* sips of a beverage) and not eat inside the building. Masks will be available for sale at the door. Performers playing music on stage may choose not to mask.
Everyone should be vaccinated and boosted.
If you get sick within 5 days after the dance, contact contrainfo@monadnockfolk.org. Sign up for the Nelson Mailing List to be notified about potential exposure as well as other dance news.
Please consider taking a rapid antigen test no more than 24 hours before the dance.
If the CDC reports any of these NH counties as Red, the dance will be canceled: Cheshire, Hillsborough, Sullivan.
If you have any symptoms, we’ll be sorry to miss you, but please stay home and rest!
From Callers David Millstone and David Smukler:
In November of 2020, David Millstone and I sent out a call for stories about Ted Sannella to mark the 25th anniversary of his death on November 18. There was a terrific response, and we are proud to announce a new website, Sannella Stories, where these memories are shared. Nearly 70 people sent in their “Sannella Story.” These range from serious to silly and include brief acknowledgments and more extended entries.
In addition, we’ve assembled a collection of photographs, audio files, and videos. You’ll also find dances and tunes that were written for Ted, an index of all his dances, and links to other sites with information of interest.
Of course, it’s still possible to add to this collection; you’ll find that link on the site as well.
The two of us will be presenting a short “Ted Talk” as part of the virtual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, an event scheduled for Sunday afternoon, January 17. Details are still being arranged, but updated information will be available at the RPDLW site.
Our sincere thanks to the many people who contributed and in this way are helping to keep alive the memory of a major figure in the world of New England traditional dance.
David Smukler
