25 in 25: Dudley Laufman | New Hampshire Public Radio

Dudley Laufman

Contra dance music revivalist

When he raised the roof at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Dudley Laufman energized the youthful crowd and helped re-light the torch for traditional country dancing, building a movement that has played out in the churches and barns of small town New England to this day. We talk with the man called "the pied piper of Canterbury" about his life in music.

NHPR Stories and Programs: Contra Dance

1930: Born in Newton, Massachusetts

1947: Comes to Fremont, New Hampshire, to work on a farm. One night at the farm, attends country dance; says later that a "driving force in my approach to music and dance [is] to re-create the feeling I had [that night]"

1948: Begins calling his own dances in New Hampshire; he wins a reputation for calling dances that encourage beginners to try the form

1952: Moves to Walpole

1959: Moves to Canterbury

1964: Begins publishing his poems; has had over 15 volumes published

1965: Founds the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra; performs at Newport Folk Festival

1972: Releases debut album, "Canterbury Country Orchestra," the first record by a dance orchestra

1978: Begins work with New Hampshire's Artists-in-the-Schools program, teaching contra dancing to students

1986: Begins performing with wife Jacqueline as Two Fiddles

1990: Donates his papers to the University of New Hampshire

1999: Selected to represent traditional dancing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C.

2001: Receives New Hampshire Governor's Award in the Arts for Life Achievement and Folk Heritage

2006: On the eve of marking sixty years in contra dance music, releases "Where'd You Get Them Great Chunes" with Jacqueline Laufman and the Sugar River String Band

What are the most significant ways that New Hampshire has changed over the past 25 years?

100% more traffic on most roads

cell phones

What are the most significant ways that contra dance and music have changed over the past 25 years?

"Contra" dancing has become more technical and perhaps not as hands on for the common man.

What Granite Stater(s) would you say inspired you? In what way?

Newt Tolman of Nelson

Bob McQuillen of Peterborough

Bob Brown of Moultonborough

They were or are all self-employed, smelled of woodsmoke, lived in the woods

What would you consider your favorite spot in New Hampshire and why?

Portsmouth. Has a small town feeling, even though it is a city with narrow streets on salt water.

What would you like to see accomplished in New Hampshire over the next 25 years?

Get rid of the NHIS in Loudon