Recent News

Contra & Family Dance

Historic Jonesborough Dance Society welcomes GOLD AND LIGHT for contra dance on Saturday, March 15, 2014 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center.

Roger Gold on guitar is joined by Laura Light (Formerly of Avant Gardeners) on fiddle. Christi Bothwell is the caller.

Family Dance 5:30-6:45pm
Class for beginning contra dance 7:00pm
Dance 7:30-10:30pm

$7, HJDS Members and Students $5

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a contra dance on Saturday March 1, 2014 at the HISTORIC JONESBOROUGH Visitors Center & Museum, 117 Boone Street.

Ever wanted to play music for a dance? This is YOUR chance! Join a diverse group of community musicians who come together to provide music for dancing four times a year. Develop your skill at accompanying dancers and supporting this community activity. All instruments are welcome - please contact Lee Bidgood (blidgood@gmail.com) to learn more and to obtain the song sheets. Wind players are particularly needed to add a new element to a mostly string band.

Two practice sessions are scheduled:

7-9pm Wednesday 2/20/2014 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street

7-9pm Tuesday, 2/25/2014 in Room 306, Brooks Gym, ETSU, Johnson City, TN

The dance will be called by team Tom Colwell & Myra Hirschberg

Beginners lesson at 7:00pm
Dance 7:30-10:30pm

$7, HJDS Members $5, Full time students $5

We are definitely ON FOR TONIGHT Feb 15th! Come dance to the fabulous music of Roger Gold and David White. Bring your sweet treats to share! Contra dance in Jonesborough! Beginners at 7pm, dance 7:30-10:30pm. Shake off the cabin fever!

Valentine’s Contra Dance-You’ll Feel The Love!

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a Valentine’s Contra Dance on Saturday, February 15, 2014 at 7:30pm at the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center at 117 Boone Street. Performing for the dance will be “Steamshovel” from Asheville, NC with caller Clinton Ross. A class for beginners will be held at 7:00pm. Every dancer is encouraged to attend the class to become familiar with dance steps, formations and flow.

The evening will begin with a family dance at 5:30pm where caller Christi Bothwell will lead parents or grandparents and children in a series of fun and simple dances with music performed by students from the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music program.

Our dance will celebrate Valentine’s Day two days late. Clinton Ross will call such
Dances as “Heartbeat Contra”, “Sharie’s Valentine”, “Roll in the Hey”, “The Rendezvous” “The Hussy Bride” and the “Flirtation Reel” in hopes of sparking romance on the dance floor. Dancers are encouraged to wear something Red, White or Pink. Smiling, eye contact and flirtation are part of the fun of contra dancing. In addition, there will be a series of “Sadie Hawkins” style dances where the ladies get to choose their gentlemen partners.

A committee of volunteers will decorate the hall with pink and red streamers and Valentine cards.

At the 9:00pm break, members will provide tasty finger food such as chocolate fondue, truffles, cakes, fudge, candy and other chocolate and red colored delicacies. Every lady who comes to the dance will receive a long-stem red rose as a gift from one of our supporters.

“Our dancers are really getting the hang of it and the skill level is really getting better”, states event organizer David Wiley. Our dance is for all ages. “For some reason, I hear folks saying that they think our contra dance is geared to the older crowd. We have dancers of all ages from 8 to eighty. Plus, you don’t have to have a partner.” The best way to learn contra dance is by asking a more experienced partner to dance. It is perfectly acceptable for ladies to ask gentlemen to dance.

Admission to the dance is $7 for (yet-to-be members), $5 for HJDS members and full-time students get in for $5. A Family Package offer allows parents and as many children in their core family to get in for only $15.

Clinton Ross began his calling career in 2012. Ross, a member of the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music program, is an accomplished musician but took very quickly to contra dance after participating in the on-campus dances twice a month at the Culp Center. He was immediately drawn to calling. He attended the Cumberland Dance Week, a camp in Nancy, KY, two summers ago where he was tutored by one of the nation’s top callers, Seth Tepfer, from Atlanta. After calling in Jonesborough in January of 2013, Clinton has traveled around the country making calling appearances in many established dance communities. He will graduate from ETSU in May of 2014.

Steamshovel unites two career musicians who have played for contra dances in this region for many years. Roger Gold on guitar and foot percussion and David White on fiddle and banjo.

Roger Gold grew up surrounded by music. His parents and older sister all sing and play various instruments. He knew at the age of six that he wanted to play guitar and persisted until his parents found a teacher. His interests took his guitar playing from the ever present folk, through electric teen-age-rock, to traditional, Celtic, and more. He likes to "play" with the music; turning waltzes to klezmer, Bach into swing, and doing even stranger things to the tunes he writes. Roger's guitar styles range from classical to hard driving, rhythmic, contra dance music. He enjoys contra dancing, and enjoys playing music for contra dances, and has yet to figure out how to do both at the same time. Roger partners with Mara Shea on fiddle to become the Elftones who just recently performed at an HJDS dance back in November 2011.

Currently living in Pickens, SC, David White has been playing stringed instruments for almost 30 years. Only in the past 16 years he became rather consumed by contra dancing and the music that drives it. David fell in love with traditional Appalachian old time music – especially that played by bands and musicians that create driving rhythms. That passionate driving style is evident when David plays guitar, claw hammer banjo or fiddle. The fact that David has always loved contra dancing has helped him become a master of creating great dance energy from old time tunes and melodies. He loves to sing as well. David has played in several bands in the past and more recently with Appalachian Storm, Steamshovel (w/ Roger Gold), the Inexplicabilies, Shifty Tweeds and the Carolina Coal Rollers. His habit of ‘gyrating’ while playing the fiddle while wearing his Dad’s old tweed hat earned him the nickname ‘the Shifty Tweed.’

For more information, contact event organizer David Wiley at 423-534-8879 or visit www.historicjonesboroughdancesociety.org on the web and on FACEBOOK.

Super Contra Weekend including the “FOOT BALL” on Super Bowl Sunday!

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a double-header contra dance Saturday and Sunday, February 1-2, 2014 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street. The featured band is ContraForce from Charleston, SC. The calling team is David Winston and Charlotte Crittenden. Admission to the dances is $7, $5 for HJDS members and $5 for full time students. All dances are smoke, alcohol and fragrance free. No partner is necessary. Families and children are welcome.
Saturday’s dance includes our firs “Eyeglass Roundup” in conjunction with the Lions Club of Johnson City. A class for beginners will be held at 7:00pm where the caller will invite everyone to the dance floor to review calls, steps, flow and other helpful ideas to get everyone started on the right foot. The dance will run from 7:30-10:30pm with a waltz and Klondike Bar break at 9:00pm.
Super Bowl Sunday brings the second event of the doubleheader. It’s the 6th Annual “FOOT BALL”. While the fans of the sport of NFL Football are gearing up for the championship game of the season, contra dancers will asked to enjoy a potluck dinner and an hour of waltz before the dance. ContraForce will play waltz tunes from 1:30 to 2:30pm. The contra dance runs from 2:30-5:30pm Admission is $7 for all comers. “We’ve done this event last five years and had well over 100 dancers come for the afternoon dance” states event organizer David Wiley, President of the Historic Jonesborough Dance Society. It’s a way to burn off a few calories before indulging in the snacks and treats at Super Bowl parties.
Contra Force’s goal is to bring the rock influence to some folk tunes. This three-piece powerhouse packs the frenzied bowing arm of Andrae Raffield, the Donkey Kong slammin’ palms of drummer and saxophone player Joey Dorwart, and the acoustic and electric guitar onslaught of Jimi “Two Nails” Periano, into a hurricane of wild, energetic, kick-in-the-mouth contra music that will leave you gasping for breath and begging for more.

Andrae and Joey were old hands at the contra band scene, having vetted themselves in local Charleston bands, Anna’s Bananas and Shady Groove, for over fifteen years before deciding to create ContraForce to explore their new and exciting vision for contra dance music. To complete the rockin’ trinity, Jimi “Two Nails” Periano came on board to begin experimenting with “rocking out some fiddle tunes”. This synergy quickly led to a period of this new band writing much of their material.
Thus, a new band was born merging traditional contra music with psychedelic, surf rock and metal to create a new force: ContraForce! With these crazy jokers at the wheel, there’s no telling where the dance will end up, but you can be sure that the hall will be filled with happy dancers as was the case when they played Jonesborough in December of 2012!

The dance will conclude at 5:30pm in plenty of time for dancers to change back over to football fans as the Super Bowl Game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks kicks off at 6:25pm or attend a post-dance meal and social at the Vega’s Fiesta Restaurant at 1976 11-E Highway in Jonesborough.

For more information, contact event organizer, David Wiley, at 423-534-8879 or visit www.historicjonesboroughdancesociety.org and the Historic Jonesborough Dance Society on FACEBOOK.