New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance Web Site R R Contra & Square Dancing The Related Fiddling Traditions of New England, Canada and the Scandinavian Countries Serving the Dance and Music Communities of Seacoast NH
and Surrounding Areas Hosted by Peter Yarensky R R
 
 
Welcome to Peter Yarensky’s New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance web site. Here’s a summary of what you can expect to find here.
Note: All links open in the same window. To keep this window showing and open the link in a new window, hold down the Control key while clicking on the link and choose Open Link in New Window. This web site is best viewed in a modern browser; i.e. it may not work well in Internet Explorer 6 or earlier. If you’re using a Windows computer my understanding is that for the sake of computing safety you’d be better of using Firefox anyway.
Complete Site Map: For a complete map of this web site with links to all pages on the web site, look near the bottom of the Site Navigation menu.
General Music & Dance Pages
Music & Dance Stories. This page contains stories about events in the music and dancing world that I think might be of interest to people. I’ll add new stories as they happen, so check it out now and then.
Music & Dance Photos. So far I have photos of the Ralph Page Weekend and the Ride in Canterbury. More to come! This is an Index Page with links to each individual page.
Dance Pages
Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend. This is now the official web site for the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, sponsored by the New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA). It’s a very fun weekend of dancing and great music in Durham every January on the weekend ending with Martin Luther King day; it doesn’t get any better than that! Check out the photo pages to get an idea of what the weekend is like! The 2009 staff is now listed, and it should be an outstanding weekend.
NH Country Dance News Web Site & Local Music/Dance Community For complete details on updates to the web site go to the Updates page. Here are some of the important recent highlights as well as occasional updates on events important to the music/dance community. July 8, 2008: I added a photo page for the Canterbury Fiddler’s Picnic today; check it out! July 7, 2008: I’m sad to have to report that Marianne Taylor is in much worse health and will be returning home for hospice care tomorrow. There’s more about her in the July Newsletter, or click on the link. July 7 2008: The July newsletter is online, and hopefully future newsletters should be more timely. I’ve also modified this section to explicitly include important community news as well as site news for obvious reasons. June 19, 2008: This site hasn’t seen much activity for quite a while due to complete lack of time on my part. I’m hoping to do some interesting things with it over the next couple months with any luck! April 24, 2008: The remaining Ralph Page Weekend staff for next year have been announced! I think we have a first class Weekend coming up next January. April 11, 2008: The April Dance newsletter is finally here. Also, Chrissy Fowler is doing a series of workshops for new callers that you may find of interest. Click here for her announcement. March 16, 2008: The first Ralph Page Weekend staff for next year have been announced! We’re off to a good start. March 4, 2008: I added the March newsletter, and also an expanded article on local dances. Feb. 10, 2008: I added the Feb. newsletter, and also an expanded report on the Ralph Page Weekend and a story about the Bradford Square Dance reunion. Dec. 22: Very upsetting news: Patrick Stevens died of a heart attack Wednesday night. The late December dance newsletter is online, with more news about Patrick. It’s also in the Music & Dance Stories section. Nov. 2 & 4: The November newsletter is online. Also, I put up the article on how I started to call in a new section on Contra And Square Dancing, added a story about three nights of going to dances, each of which being different, and got the preliminary RPDLW grid up. October 19: The brochure for the Ralph Page Weekend is online, including a brand new version on 8.5x11 paper, easier to print. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to keep the web site up to date more frequently. October 2: The October newsletter is up! Sept. 16: The September newsletter is up on the web site. Sept. 13: The October Dover dance will be a benefit for the great Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland who is seriously ill with cancer and is in need of and very deserving of much support from the music and dance community. See the Dance Newsletter page for more details. July 1: The July newsletter is online. I’ve also put up a photo page for Maine Fiddle Camp where we went a couple weekends ago. June 8: I added several more tunes to the music section of the web site. June 5: The June newsletter is ready to upload as soon as the approaching thunderstorm goes away; I’m about to shut down and unplug my computer! June 4: I’ve added a photo page for Tod Whittemore from the 2006 Ralph Page Weekend, and included a downloadable flyer for the 6/29 dance. The site now has its own URL: <nhcountrydance.com>. I changed the name of the site slightly to match. May 26-28: I’ve put together two photo pages for the Star Hampshire dance weekend. If you’ve been to Star Island you know what to expect; if you haven’t you should check out the photos. I also added about a dozen new tunes to the web site. May 8: The May Dance Newsletter is online. The final Star Hampshire flyer is too. April 14: The 2008 Ralph Page Weekend staff are listed, and the Preliminary Flyer is available for downloading. April 8: I renamed the web site slightly to “New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance & Fiddle Music Web Site, reversing the first two phrases since I decided it sounds better that way. The April Newsletter is finally up; it contains an explanation of why it’s so late. March 12: I’ve put up a combined story/slide show for two soirees I called for; one in Rochester and one at the Sugar Shack near the Lee Circle. Feb. 22: Preliminary information is up for this year’s Star Hampshire Weekend, including a flyer. I’ll put up a photo page when I get a chance. Feb. 16: We just found out that George Hodgson died on Thursday, quite unexpectedly. I don’t think I can write about it yet, but I put up a page of some of my favorite photos of him. Feb. 6: I changed the name of the site, added in this News section, completed the 2007 Ralph Page Weekend Photo Page and updated the rest of the RPDLW site to reflect the weekend having ended. I also put an article about Marcel on the web site. Feb. 1: Feb. Newsletter is up, along with story about French Night in Rochester. Jan. 4: Canterbury Ride and Photo Page are up as is January Newsletter.update-notes.htmlhttp://www.facone.org/about/marianne.htmnewsletter-calendar.htmlralph-page-dance-legacy-weekend.htmlcontra-square-dance-music-nh_files/Chrissy%20Calling%20Workshop.pdfralph-page-dance-legacy-weekend.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5
Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter. I publish the Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter which lists all the dances I know about from Nelson NH in the west to Tamworth NH in the north to Rockport, ME in the East, along with some commentary, stories and historical notes about the local dance scene. For now, to avoid some of the inaccuracies I’ve seen on a web sites that have sent dancers to nonexistent dances, I’ll only keep the current issue available on the web site.
Star Hampshire Traditional Dance Weekend. This is a great weekend of dancing on Star Island, in the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast, organized by Patrick Stevens. It occurs every September and features some excellent music and dancing in one of the nicest spots you could ever hope to go for a dance weekend.
Lamprey River Band. That’s one of two bands I play with, and it has its own page. We’ve been around since 1983!
Old-Time New England Contra & Square Dancing. This is about what you might expect. Eventually I want to include a variety of historical material in this section as well as other material not connected with any particular event or organization, or just of more general interest.
Dover, NH First Thursday Contradance. The Lamprey River Band plays for it every month; sit-in musicians and guest callers are welcome.
Musical Chairs. That’s my other band. We’re a bit newer, and based more in the central part of the state, but we still have our own page.
Music Pages
Wednesday Night Canadian Jam Session in Durham. It’s been going on for a couple years, and grew out of an earlier Wednesday night soiree that lasted for many years. The photo below is from that jam session, taken in April 2006 by Evelyn Roberts, used with her permission.
Photo by Evelyn Roberts, 4/06, used with her permission.
 
Fiddle Tunes. I’ll present tunes in abc notation and also in PDF format. The tunes will include both tunes that we play at the Wednesday night jam session and some other tunes that I think are of interest. I’ll also include some notes on the tunes where relevant.
Peter Yarensky. That’s me; I figured I should have my own page as long as it’s my web site.
Site Information
Contact & Linking Information. Here’s my contact information, and information about the best URLs to use if you want to add a link to any part of this site on your web site (thanks!).
Site Update Notes. This page contains a listing up updates I make to the web site in case you want to see what’s changed since you last looked at the web page. If you didn’t already know I was compulsively organized (about some things - certainly not my housekeeping!), now you can figure it out!
Feedback Page. This page is for you to give me feedback on the web site and for reporting broken links. This site is still in the process of being developed. Some portions don’t yet exist, and a couple pages may be renamed at some point. But it’s getting there! I hope you enjoy it and can overlook the peculiarities. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let me know!
 
 
 
Old New England (Bob, Jane & Deanna) playing at the Deerfield dance in December, 2006.
Since 2/6/07: