The hall will be decorated with

autumn leaves, candles, and

lights to set the festive mood.

We encourage dancers to

dress up in something elegant,

formal, colorful, or a period

outfit for this event.

PROGRAM

4:30—5:30pm

Doors open (to heat or prepare

food for the potluck dinner)

5:30—6:45pm

Candle Lit Potluck Dinner

7:00—7:25pm

Warm up Waltzes

7:30—11:00pm

Evening Ball (with decadent

dessert potluck at 9:15pm)

ADMISSION

$15 in advance

$18 at door

$7 for students

Free for children under 12

Work exchange slots are avail-

able for discounted admission

To reserve tickets or more

details, contact Chris Ricciotti

at 339-204-7644

or ricciotti@aol.com

More information can also be

found here on the LCFD

Google Calendar or here on

the Facebook event.

C ome join us for the

festive and elegant

18th Annual Autumn

Harvest Ball in Jamaica Plain,

MA on Saturday, November

14. It is a great celebration of

our beautiful New England

Autumn — a sharing of good

friends and golden memories!

This event is sponsored by the

Boston Gender-Free Contra

Dance Series.

The Harvest Ball is a magical

evening where we take a step

back in time to enjoy the lively

and elegant contras, squares,

mixers & couple dances from

the Victorian Era. All of the

music played for this evening's

program will be traditional to

that era and in most cases,

tunes that were specific to the

dance itself.

We will use ball cards for this

event. Our tradition is to sign

off on each other's ball card

after each dance, rather than

the old tradition of booking

ahead. This helps us keep

dancing accessible and wel-

coming to everyone. At the end

of the evening, you keep the

ball card as a souvenir of all

the wonderful dances you

shared with your friends.

“Dance is

music made

visible.”

Martha

Graham

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Notes from Becket 2

Contra Exhibit

in New Hampshire 3

Dance Camp T-Shirt 3

Overheard 3

Did You Know? 3

Dancer of the Month 3

About LCFD 4

Upcoming Events 4

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E L A V E N D E R C O U N T R Y & F O L K D A N C E R S

N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 5 N e w S e r i e s , I s s u e N o . 2

Spare Parts =

Bill Matthieson, piano;

Lisa Stell, flute;

Eric Buddington, guest fiddle

Chris Ricciotti, Caller & MC

The decadent dessert potluck

A big round of thanks to the

Dance Camp Committee:

Arthur Prokosch — sound

Den Collins — registrar

Hanni Beyer Lee — camp coordina-

tor

Jim Babcock — camp programmer,

publicity

John Gintell — treasurer

Judy Hawkins — work exchange

Michael Miller — booking

Sam Arfer — food coordinator

A splash of applause for

Campers who led Activities:

Aaron Marcus — camper band, and

providing his piano

Ben Sachs-Hamilton — ice-breakers,

shape-note singing

Bob Peterson — techno contra

Charles Frisk — variety show co-

host, provider of tiaras, beads,

games

Chris Ricciotti — techno contra,

camper band

Janet Dillon — round singing

Joel Light — nature walk

John Burrows — Tea

Judy Hawkins — camper band

Lisa Marie Lunt — necklace work-

shop

Mark Galipeau — labyrinth

Mother Nature — snow flurry

Myles Dakan — shape-note singing

Peter Rivard — camper band

Robin Fox QFE — variety show co-

host

Sean Crist — bubbles

A shout out to the fabulous

Callers & Band

Will Mentor — contras

Robin Hayden — English

The Figments

Anna Patton

Ethan Watkins-Hazzard

Owen Morrison

And a camper reminisces….

Monday, October 19 at 2:38am

Reprinted with permission

© 2015 Lisa Marie Lunt

P a g e 2 B a l a n c e & S w i n g

Fun Fact : Attendees travelled from 14 US states, Canada, and Germany

COMING SOON

“Traditional Dance and Music in

New Hampshire: 1750-today” is an

exhibit on the long history of social

dancing in New Hampshire. It is

sponsored by the New Hampshire

State Council on the Art, in partner-

ship with the Monadnock Folklore

Society and the Monadnock Center

for History and Culture.

The Monadnock (south-western)

region of New Hampshire is one of

the few places in the country where

social dances (contras and squares}

have been done continuously since

the mid-1700s.

The exhibit features artifacts, docu-

ments, instruments, photographs

and audio recordings.

Presented at the New Hampshire

State Library in Concord, the exhibit

runs from Oct-14 to Nov. 25, is free

and open to the public. Library

hours are 8:00am-4:30pm Mon-Fri.

To learn more about this exhibit,

click here.

Campers definitely like tshirts. We

completely sold all of the first batch

of our vintage design (c.1997) by the

end of camp in Becket last month.

When all the payments are received,

we’ll have raised roughly $450 for

the Lavender Dance Legacy Fund.

Not too shabby.

Didn’t get one? No worries. You can

still order one. Some people asked if

tank tops might be available and the

answer is YES. Sizes S through XL

will be $15; 2XL and 3XL will be

$20. Payment at point of sale (in

person.) Net proceeds will go to the

Lavender Dance Legacy Fund.

Click here to reserve your very own

piece of dance camp memorabilia.

P a g e 3 N e w S e r i e s , I s s u e N o . 2

The LCFD Swag Shop is currently out of stock

of this excellent tshirt, but more are on order

The New Hampshire State Library, in Concord,

hosts an exhibit on traditional dance and music

@ Fall Dance Camp

Submitted by Lisa Lunt

Lisa: "How do men keep

their legs warm under

their skirts?"

Chris: "Fur."

Share something you over-

heard at a dance and send

it to lcfd@lcfd.org

Many of you know

that LCFD has a

presence on Face-

book. Five of the

seven affiliated dance series have

their own FB groups as well.

DID YOU KNOW that

LCFD also regularly

announces upcom-

ing local dances on

Twitter? If you tweet,

be a dear and start following us!

https://twitter.com/lcfd_dance

In an attempt to keep dancers connected and learning about

each other, this space will feature a dancer from our wide-spread

and growing community. If you’d like to be interviewed for this

column, please email your interest and how best to reach you to

lcfd@lcfd.org or phone 631-790-6917.

Coming in December: Nathaniel Banks from Lincoln, RI

Lavender Country and Folk Dancers (LCFD) is an

umbrella organization forming a loosely knit group of

gender-free dance clubs. (Sometimes the expression is

"gender neutral," "gender role free," or "role optional.")

We currently encompass several dance traditions and

welcome the opportunity to include more.

LCFD is an affiliate of the Country Dance and Song

Society (CDSS) and obtains its 501(c)(3) tax exempt

status from that relationship.

LCFD enthusiastically welcomes other local gender-free

dance groups, and other groups that want to run

gender-free dance camps. Affiliation with LCFD lets us

provide web site access, liability insurance, general

assistance, and the possibility of various forms of

financial assistance.

L A V E N D E R C O U N T R Y

& F O L K D A N C E R S

9 West Street

Cambridge, MA 02139

Email: lcfd@lcfd.org

The community for gender-free dancing

DATE CITY DANCE SERIES CALLER BAND

SUN NOV 01 Decatur, GA Quicksilver Country Dancers Maggie Cowan TBA

TUE NOV 10 Jamaica Plain, MA Boston Gender Free English Miriam Newman Nancy Knight, Sally Kolodkin,

Jonathan Gilbert, and

Stephanie Rogers

FRI NOV 13 New York, NY Village Contra Mary Wesley Sassafras Stomp

FRI NOV 13 Oakland, CA Circle Left Michael Karcher Dave Bartley, Anita Anderson, and

Ben Schreiber

SAT NOV 14 Jamaica Plain, MA Boston Gender Free Contra

18th Annual Autumn

Harvest Ball

Chris Ricciotti

Spare Parts

SAT NOV 21 Montague, MA Western Mass Gender Free

Contra

Ben Sachs-Hamilton TBA

SAT NOV 21 Palm Springs, CA New Gender-Free Dance Susan Michaels TBA

TUE NOV 24 Jamaica Plain, MA Boston Gender Free English Sue Rosen Bruce Rosen, Nancy Knight,

and Audrey Knuth

SAT NOV 28 Jamaica Plain, MA Boston Gender Free Contra Lisa Greenleaf Glen Loper & Friends

SAT NOV 28 Oakland, CA Queer Contra Dance Katia Kliban The wiNgNuts

For more information on each dance series, visit the LCFD Event Calendar