Recent News

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a contra and family dance on Saturday December 21, 2013 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street.

Featured band is BOOM CHUCK from Asheville with Vicki Herndon calling.

Family Dance 5:00-6:00pm
Waltz 6:00-6:45
Class for beginners at 7:00pm
Dance from 7:30-10:30pm

Dancers are encouraged to bring your favorite holiday dessert to share at the 9:00pm intermission

$7 adults, $5 for HJDS Members and Students, Family Package is $15

For more information contact event organizer, David Wiley 423-534-8879

Contra Dance in Jonesborough!

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a community Contra Dance on Saturday December 7, 2013 at the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center at 117 Boone Street. A Class for beginning contra dancers will start at 7:00 pm. The dance will run from 7:30-10:30 pm with a waltz and Klondike Bar break at 9:00pm. Coming to Jonesborough to perform for the dance will be Celador from Asheville. Calling for the dance will be Mark Langner from Burnsville, NC.

Celador is relatively new on the contra dance scene. David Hayes, for several years, was the rhythm guitarist for Appalachian Storm. Early in 2013, he partnered with fiddler Gretchen Caverly to form a new contra dance sound that will appear soon in over 60 dance venues around the country starting in January. Celador is two musicians who are passionate about all things contra, love dancing almost as much as playing, feed off the energy, connection, and enthusiasm of the dance, relish the feel of the music - the building crescendo, the abrupt transition, the smooth sensual flow - add to that a bit of electronic wizardry, a touch of eccentric instrumentation, a heaping handful of eclectic musical selection, a generous dash of unusual arranging and you have a big sound, high energy, good time.

Mark Langer is a very popular caller in the area. Mark will delight you with his fun instructional style and smooth flowing dances. Be prepared to be challenged as the night goes on. His pleasant style and graceful teaching put dancers at ease and set the stage for a great evening.

Come as you are; wear soft flexible shoes for dancing. Come to dance or just to listen. No partner is necessary. All dances are taught. As always, our dances are smoke and alcohol free. Admission to the dance is $7, $5 for HJDS members and $5 for full time students. Families with their own children are all admitted for only $15 as a package.

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

Contra Dance & Food Raiser in Jonesborough!

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will present a contra dance on Saturday, November 16, 2013 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center. The featured band will be Contra Culture from Winston-Salem with Jack Mitchell calling. Admission to the dance is $7, HJDS Members and students $5. No partner is necessary. All dances are taught by the caller. All dances are smoke and alcohol free. A workshop for beginning contra dancers will be led by the callers at 7:00pm. The dance will run from 7:30-10:30pm with a waltz break at 9:00pm where, once again, Klondike Bars will be served to all who attend.

The Food Raiser, a month-long collection, is being organized to supply non-perishable food stuffs for the Jonesborough Area Ministerial Association Food Bank. Nationwide food bank donations continue to decline. Donor fatigue may be setting in as the economy puts more and more families at risk and unable to feed themselves. “We are asking all dancers and members of the local community to bring non-perishable food stuffs to give to those in need” adds even organizer, David Wiley.

Contra Culture is an exciting new contra dance band from the North Carolina Piedmont made of two established classical music teacher/contra dancers. Contra Culture plays a mix of contemporary fiddle tunes along with traditional Southern Appalachian, New England, Cape Breton, Irish and Scottish tunes. They create a beautiful balance in their sets by playing highly energetic tunes along with transcendent lyrical melodies. Guitarist Austin Murry began studies on the classical guitar at the age of seven and holds an undergraduate and master’s degree from the University Of North Carolina School of the Arts in classical guitar. Austin enjoys playing a variety of styles of music including traditional music. He was introduced to contra dance in 1997 and has been immersed in the contra dance scene ever since. Fiddler Jennifer Lane began playing violin at the age of 8 and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Jacksonville University in violin. She has been playing Irish, Scottish, and Bluegrass fiddle for 12 years and has a diverse background in dance including contra dance, English country dance, and ballroom.

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will hold a contra dance on Saturday, November 2, 2013 at the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street. Admission to the dance is $7, HJDS members $5 and full time students $5. A family package allows parents and their children to be admitted for one price of $15. All dances are smoke and alcohol free. All dances are taught and it is not necessary to come with a partner.

Performing for the dance will be the band Skeeziks from Greenville, South Carolina. The band is made up of Allan Dillman on fiddle, Wes Maluk on guitar and tenor banjo, Joel McConnell on banjo and bouzouki and Terry Maluk on percussion. The dance will be called by Tom Colwell and Myra Hirschberg from Canada.

Tom and Myra from Peterborough, Ontario, have called dances separately and together throughout the United States and Canada. They are known for their easy-going, low-key teaching style, their out-of-the ordinary dance programs and their quirky original dance compositions. They are currently renovating a house in Asheville and look forward to calling many more dances in the area.

There will be a class for beginners at 7:00pm. The dance will run from 7:30-10:30pm with a waltz and Klondike Bar break at 9:00pm.

For more information, contact event organizer,David Wiley, 423-534-8879

Halloween Contra Dance & Family Dance in Jonesborough!

The Historic Jonesborough Dance Society will present a contra dance on Saturday, October 26, 2013 at the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street. The featured band will be Joseph Sobol and Trae McMaken from Johnson City, with Laurie Fisher as caller. Admission to the dance is $7, HJDS Members $5, Students $5. No partner is necessary. All dances are taught by the caller. All dances are smoke and alcohol free. A workshop for beginning contra dancers will be led by the caller at 7:00pm. The dance will run from 7:30-10:30pm with a waltz break at 9:00pm where, once again, Klondike Bars will be served to all who attend Costume judging and prize awards will take place during the break.

The evening will begin with a family dance from 5:30-6:45pm. The family dance is truly a family event where parents or grandparents and children ages four and up learn traditional dances. The dance will consist of easy steps for participants of all ages taught by Katy Tarter German of Asheville. The goal is to teach the fundamentals of dancing with a focus on having fun and placing less of an emphasis on dance techniques. Types of dances include circles, long-ways sets, squares, and odd number sets. All dances will be taught and called with high-energy live music from students in the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time & Country Music program. Family dances promote community, inter-generational interaction, and bring traditional dance to a new generation, making the dance community stronger and enduring. Admission to the family dance is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Family package costs $15 for parents and all their children. If the participants wish to stay for the regular dance, their Family Dance admission can be applied to the regular admission costs.

Storyteller, musician, folklorist, and author, Joseph Daniel Sobol is an artist of wide-ranging accomplishments. An artist-in-residence for many years in North and South Carolina, he received a Masters in Folklore from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. He toured the country from 1994 through 1999 with his award-winning musical theatre piece In the Deep Heart's Core based on the works of Irish poet W. B. Yeats. His book on the American storytelling revival, The Storytellers' Journey, was published in 1999 by the University of Illinois Press. In addition he has released a cassette and three CDs of music and stories, alone and with his group Kiltartan Road. His most recent recording, Citternalia: Celtic Music for Cittern was honored with a "Homegrown CD Award" by Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which called the album "a watershed project--dazzling speed and precision." After eleven years in Chicago, Illinois, doing folklore residencies with high school ESL and multilingual programs and performing regularly with some of America's top Irish traditional musicians, he is proud to have been named Director of the Graduate Program in Storytelling at East Tennessee State University.

Having grown up on the Michigan-Ontario border, from a young age Trae McMaken imbibed varied styles of fiddle playing including Irish, Scottish, Quebecois, Ontario Old Time, and Michigan Old Time. Trae can not only switch between these stylistic accents, he melds them into a dynamic creolized language of fiddling that reflects the diverse traditional heritage of his home region.

Trae's 2011 album For the Long Winter Nights takes a vivifying look at the fiddle and song traditions of Michigan and the Great Lakes and also incorporates some of his original numbers. His love for the folk cultures and music of the Great Lakes led Trae to found MichiganFiddle.com as a resource for centralizing historical collections of Michigan fiddling and for promoting this often neglected tradition. Not many people play the old Michigan tunes any longer, but Trae studies the playing of the old fiddlers from Michigan and the Great Lakes region in order to carry on the wonderful music of the lumbercamps and the windjammers, the fur trade and the farm.

While pursuing a master’s degree focusing on storytelling, traditional music, and regional studies at East Tennessee State University, Trae actively performed Appalachian music both in Appalachia and also during a short tour with the ETSU Old Time Pride Band to the Czech Republic in the summer of 2011 where he performed on fiddle and claw-hammer banjo. He recently performed with the same group on the PBS concert series, “Song of the Mountains.” Trae is a singer, songwriter, storyteller, and multi-instrumentalist who love opportunities to share his passion for traditional arts and the blending of music and story.

Since receiving his degree, Trae has started teaching old time fiddle and banjo as an adjunct professor in East Tennessee State University's Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Program.

“Joseph and Trae will dazzle us with their Celtic and Old Time tunes. The jigs and reels will be great fun to dance to. We are all very lucky to have them in the area. Now and then, Joseph will drop by for a dance or to jam with the hired band for the night” adds Wiley. Both Sobol and McMaken will have numerous CD recordings that will be offered to contra dance crowd.

Its Halloween weekend which means that all comers are invited to tap in to
their costume creative talent. “Last year’s dance brought so many wonderful costume ideas that we had a hard time picking the winners” offers David Wiley, President of HJDS. At the break, costume contestants will promenade around the dance floor as the judges select the finalists. Then, by applause from the crowd, the winners will be selected. Winners will receive gift certificates from local Jonesborough merchants or free passes to future contra
dance events. Costumes are recommended but not required for the dance.

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