LINK Wednesday August 25 at 7 pm "Diversity iin Square Dance"

Tony Parkes

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4140851861

Meeting number 414 085 861

Tony Parkes, the nationally and internationally known caller from Massachusetts, will present an on-line talk for Catskills Folk Connection on Wednesday, August 25 at 7 p.m. Tony and his wife Beth Parkes have presented dances and offered workshops in 35 US states and in several countries in Europe, and Tony has written two books on calling and dancing. According to the Square Dance History Project, Tony’s calling has “specialized in old and new contra dances, traditional and contemporary New England squares, and squares from the 1950s (arguably the Golden Age of recreational square dancing).” He has long been interested in square dance history and has unearthed “long-forgotten dances and developed an appreciation for the breadth and depth of American dance traditions.

Tony’s current research has focused recently on inclusiveness in the square dance tradition, especially by people of color in North America, from the Caribbean to above the Arctic Circle. His talk, entitled “Diversity in Square Dance,” will review the influence of African and African American music in the history of American traditional dance – and especially the development of calling dances – and then will use lively videos to visit a wide variety of living traditions of square dance. Among them will be Jamaican dancers, US Western club square dancers, community dances in far north indigenous communities, and dance performances by First Nations people in Canada.

Join Catskills Folk Connection on August 25 at 7 p.m. for this review of the vibrant living tradition of square dancing in unexpected places. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4140851861 For those who can attend Zoom meetings with just the meeting number it is 414 085 1861. 

 For more information, contact Ginny Scheer gscheer.mcs@gmail.com or 607-326-4206.

Catskills Folk Connection is sponsored by the Roxbury Arts Group and is funded in part by NYSCA Folk Arts Program, by Gov. Cuomo and the NYS Legislature, by Humanities NY and by the O’Connor Foundation.