We hope to see you (and dance with you, talk with you, and maybe even hear you playing music) at the North Berkshire Community Contra Dance in Williamstown, on Saturday, November 11th.

Our caller this month is Andy Davis. Andy will teach all the dances in an inclusive and welcoming style, using gender-free phrasing. His goal is to put everyone at ease so they can have fun and dance.  

Music will be provided by an open band, led by Rebecca Weiss on fiddle and Becky Hollingsworth on piano.  “Open band” means that anyone with an acoustic instrument is welcome to join.  Tunes likely to be played are listed here: https://northberkshiredance.org/tune-list/

The dance will run 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Community Hall of the First Congregational Church, 906 Main St., Williamstown. Admission is pay-as-you-can:  $12 – $20 suggested, and barter is also welcome. 

Contra dancing is a living tradition in New England; for hundreds of years, neighbors and friends have made their own social entertainment in this highly collaborative dance form. All are welcome.  Come alone, or with friends — most people change partners for each dance throughout the evening. New dancers and families with children are encouraged to arrive by 7:30 for instruction in the basics.

Covid Policy: NBCD encourages masks, but no longer requires them. Be aware that, whoever your partner, you’ll wind up dancing with everyone in the room. You may wish to bring a spare mask to change into for comfort throughout the evening.

Please come to our first dance of the fall season, on Saturday, September 16th. We’ll haveh a lively community contra dance taught by caller Jeff Walker, and energetic, New England-style fiddle music.

As a community dance in a small college town, we like to welcome everyone into the ever-changing tradition of New England contra dances. Some of the dances are hundreds of years old, some are recently composed. This month, Jeff’s hallmark clear instructions and infectious enthusiasm will combine with the band’s high-energy music to create an unforgettable evening of dancing just right for the level of experience of the crowd. Everyone is welcome. New dancers and families with children are encouraged to arrive at 7:30 for an introductory lesson. Come with or without a partner; most people change partners for each dance throughout the evening.

Kathy and Jeff Walker have been playing New England-style dance music for over 40 years. Kathy plays fiddle and Jeff accompanies her on guitar and calls. Their repertoire spans the Celtic world drawing tunes from Ireland, Scotland, Galicia, French Canada, Cape Breton, and Appalachia, and includes many kinds of dance music from fast, energetic jigs and reels to slow, beautiful waltzes.

The dance will run 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Community Hall of the First Congregational Church, 906 Main St., Williamstown. Admission is pay-as-you-can, $12 – $20 suggested, and barter (especially help with cleanup) is also welcome.

Covid Policy: NBCD encourages masks, though they are no longer required. Be aware that contradance isn’t made to social distance, as whoever your partner, you’ll wind up dancing with everyone in the room. Bring a spare mask to change into, for comfort throughout the evening.

Role Terms: at our September 16th dance, Jeff will refer to “the person dancing the lady’s role” and the person dancing the gentleman’s role”, making it clear that these are roles taken within the dance, not social identities.

Hi, everyone,

We’re taking a little vacation in August, so I hope you already have plans for this Saturday evening (staying home to relax is a perfectly good plan).

Here’s our schedule for the remainder of 2023:
September 16th (a *third* Saturday) Jeff Walker will call and play guitar, and Kathy Walker play fiddle. They are coming all the way from Poughkeepsie, NY to lead our dance. They specialize in welcoming dancers all experience levels community dances like ours, and say Chorus Jig is one of their favorite dances.

October 14th: Quena Crain will call to music byThree Potatoes Four (Gianna Marzilli Ericson, Rebecca Weiss, and Rebecca Hollingsworth). Quena is a teacher in southern Vermont, and if we’re lucky, she’ll invite her students and their families to join us all at this event.

November 11th: Andy Davis will call, and likely play the accordion. You(!) are welcome to join the open band which will be led by Becky Hollingsworth and Rebecca Weiss. You’re also welcome to dance, watch, or split your time between dance floor and stage in whatever proportions you please.

December 9th: Caller Tony Parkes will come out from Boston to lead our dance; music will be supplied by master musicians Andy Davis, George Wilson, and Selma Kaplan. This is something of a reunion for these four (magnificent) performers, who have enjoyed working together as occaision permits for at least three decades (do I have that right?). Their pleasure in the event will almost certainly give us, the dancers, all a little extra joyous bounce. We know we’ll dance Chorus Jig, and if we’re lucky, we might get some additional old chestnuts beyond that, too. (Monymusk? Hull’s Victory? Lady Walpole’s? They’re all good.)

I hope we’ll see you there!

A few background reminders about our dance: as a community dance in a small college town, we try to be welcoming to and fun for a wide range of dancers. Novices and families with children are encouraged to arrive by 7:30 to participate in the introductory lesson. More experienced dancers can certainly enjoy the first half (simpler dances make socializing easier and more relaxed) , but some may prefer the second half ot the evening when we often shake out somewhat more complex or vigorous dances.
Role Terms: we’re making a slow transition from traditional to gender-neutral role terms, with a preference for gender-neutral. This year we are “caller’s choice”. Most of our callers have chosen to use Larks and Robins when they need to specify roles. Jeff Walker plans to say “the person dancing the gentleman’s [or lady’s] role” or similar, making it clear that these are roles, not identities.

Chorus Jig continues to be our dance of the year for 2023. It’s an “old chestnut” that has been taught and danced since 1820, at least. It has a different flavor from more contemporary contra dances, but is popular at least partly because it’s a very forgiving structure, with plenty of room for mistakes and/or silliness.

We’ve updated our Covid policy as described here (In summary, masks optional, no vaccine requirement, starting in September 2023.)

Location: in the Community Hall of the First Congregational Church, on Main Street, in Williamstown, MA. We hold dances on the second Saturday monthly (most months), and start promptly at 7:30 pm with an introduction for newcomers. From there, the dance runs ’til 10 (or 10:30 on a lively night).

Did I miss anything? If you have questions, please email using the form at the bottom of this page, and let us know!

I hope to see you on the dance floor soon!

-Doone

Hello dancers. We (the North Berkshire Community Dance organizing committee) met this week and decided that, beginning with our September 16th dance, we will not require dancers to wear masks. 

We do continue to require that if you have any symptoms or have been exposed to someone with Covid, that you stay home, recover, and come back next month!

Combined with our earlier decision to stop requiring proof of vaccination or any kind of registration, this eliminates most of our official covid policy for our dances – for now. As always, we are prepared to reevaluate our policy as public health circumstances evolve.

Discussion:

We made this choice recognizing that Covid is not over, neither objectively nor subjectively. Far from it! 

Objectively, the rate of covid infection is as high as it’s ever been. However the rate of hospitalizations (and death) are at their lowest since tracking began, and continue to decline. Because of this decline, we feel that it’s not necessary for us to continue to act in the role of public health authority or turn away dancers who are unwilling to wear masks.

At the same time, we cannot ignore how people feel about their own safety, on the one hand, and their eagerness to (for lack of a better term) “move on”. A beautiful thing about social dancing, and contradancing in particular, has been its willingness to change itself, devising codes of safe conduct and language and practices designed to ensure that every one of us feels safe, seen, and included. It hasn’t always been easy(!), and much work remains, but still, it’s genuinely wonderful to see all that we have done. It is in this spirit of social enlightenment that we ask that you have compassion for those among us for whom joining a line of unmasked dancers is still a little frightening. Personally, I plan to continue to mask, and I hope that you will too if you are even just a tiny bit more comfortable doing so, or just to show solidarity! At the same time, I want every dancer to know that I want them here exactly as who they are – with or without a mask, with or without a vaccine card. Dancing is about the magic of trust and even love among friends and strangers. It’s magic that we all create together. Let’s always remember that!

Pat Dunlavey, president North Berkshire Community Dance, on behalf of the rest of the organizing committee: Doone MacKay, Eric Buddington, Kate Abbot, Nick Adams.

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to answer our survey about Covid policy preferences! Responses showed roughly equal support for each of the three policy options we outlined, namely 1. continue to require both proof of vaccination and masking, 2. move to mask requirement only, 3. drop all covid precautions. After thoughtful discussion, we decided:

Starting with our July 8th dance we, will no longer require proof of vaccination to attend our dances. Masking, for now, is still required.

As the Covid public health situation changes, and dance community attitudes about personal and community safety evolve, we occasionally reassess our Covid policies. We have noted that the majority of dances in the Northeast no longer require proof of vaccination. Many dances no longer require covid protections of any kind. For us the decision to relax our Covid policies is driven not only by what our community wants, though obviously that is very important, but also by what our own consciences are comfortable with.

Hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid are at their lowest levels since the CDC began collecting statistics, and continue to decline. This fact is largely attributable to the degree of covid resistance in our population as we approach 100% of Americans having antibodies to the virus that causes Covid 19, acquired either through vaccination or exposure to the virus. However, Covid has definitely not gone away, and it remains a frightening health risk to a significant minority of our population. The mechanics of Covid transmission and re-transmission have not changed, nor has the risk that an infection poses to a significant minority of our population. Mask wearing while indoors with more than a few people, using a N95 or equivalent mask that fits tightly to the face, continues to be the most effective protection against both acquiring an infection and transmitting one, short of abstaining from dancing entirely.

These facts lead us to the policy that we have selected. We recognize that reasonable people draw different conclusions, and are grateful that our community is large and diverse enough to accommodate these different viewpoints. We hope that at some point in the not distant future we will feel comfortable expressing our masking policy as “masking wholeheartedly endorsed and supported, but no longer required”, so that we can continue to include those wonderful members of our community for whom masking makes dancing possible. For now though, we look forward to seeing your smiling eyes on the dance floor.

North Berkshire Community Dance: Pat, Doone, Eric, Kate and Nick.