elcome to Peter Yarensky’s New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance web site. There is a variety of material here: music and dance related, stories, photos, etc. This is the official web site for several music and dance events and organizations in the area:

  1. ‣The Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend (Durham, NH, January; more information and a link to the main RPDLW page is in the next section)

  2. ‣The Star Hampshire Traditional Music and Dance Weekend (Star Island, September (brought back to life - web site updated; thanks to the new organizers!)

  3. ‣ The Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter (published monthly although temporarily in limbo)

  4. ‣The Lamprey River Band (we’ve been around since 1983, and play for the Dover dance on the First Thursday and anything else we’re hired for)

  5. ‣The Wednesday Night Canadian Jam Session in Durham (a friendly, nondogmatic jam session; we play what we want with a Canadian emphasis; but we also play New England and Swedish tunes, waltzes and foxtrots, and who knows what else.)

Look below for more detail on each of these and for other features of the web site.

Note: This web site is best viewed in a modern browser; i.e. it may not work well in Internet Explorer 6 or earlier (IE 7 is still questionable I think since it doesn’t follow any known rules!). If you’re using a Windows computer my understanding is that for the sake of computing safety you’d be better of using Firefox anyway.


 


NH Old-Time Country Dance Web Site Home Page






Music & Dance Weekends

  1. Ralph Page Weekend

  2. Star Hampshire Weekend

Music & Dance Community, History & Stories

  1. Photo Page Index

  2. Music & Dance Story
    General Index

  3. NE Contras & Squares Index

Dance Pages

  1. Country Dance Newsletter

  2. ‣Dance Calendar Page

  3. Lamprey River Band

Music Pages

  1. Wednesday Jam, Durham

  2. Canterbury Fiddlers Picnic

  3. Fiddle Tunes - Index, abc

  4. ‣The Tunes, PDF Format

  5. abc Musical Notation

  6. ‣Peter’s abc Help File

  7. Links - Recorded Music Sites

Site Information

  1. Contact/Link Information

  2. Update Notes

  3. Feedback Page






NH Country Dance Site Navigation

  1. Section Home Pages are listed here; a few major Subpages may be as well.

  2. A more detailed listing of each section may be found on each Section Home Page.

 

Old New England (Bob, Jane & Deanna) playing at the Deerfield dance in December, 2006.

Randy Miller,  one of our outstanding musicians, on the porch of the Dance Hall on Star Island, 9/06.

NH Country Dance News

Web Site & Local Music/Dance Community News

For complete details on updates to the web site go to the Updates page. Here are some of the important recent highlights as well as occasional updates on events in the music and dance community.

Jan. 18:  Evaluation Forms for the Ralph Page Weekend are online.

Jan. 14: Added parking information to RPDLW site.

Jan. 11: Final RPDLW schedule is posted, and the admission fees are posted on the main page.

Jan. 5, 2010. RPDLW Preliminary Schedule is now posted.

Dec. 30. I added a slide show/photo page for the 2008 Ralph Page Weekend (finally!). Hopefully I’ll be able to keep things more up to date now.

Dec. 1. I updated the Star site main page today I plan to work on other aspects of the site soon.

Sept. 8. I added a photo page for the Warren Farm, where the Barrington Natural Heritage & Agricultural Fair will be held.


Older News Items are Displayed Below on the Left

 

Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend

Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend. This is now the official web site for the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, sponsored by the New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA). It’s a very enjoyable weekend of wonderful dancing and great music in Durham every January on the weekend ending with Martin Luther King day; it doesn’t get any better than that!

  1. ‣Check out the photo pages to get an idea of what the weekend is like! The 2010 staff is now listed, and it should be an outstanding weekend. Weekend callers: Lisa Greenleaf & Tony Parkes. Weekend musicians: Latter Day Lizards and Old New England.

  2. ‣Look for the link for the Preliminary Flyer just below the photo of Bob McQuillen on the left. More information will follow when available.

Star Hampshire Traditional Music and Dance Weekend

Star Hampshire Traditional Music and Dance Weekend. This is also the official web site for the Star Hampshire traditional Music & Dance Weekend on Star Island every September. After being in limbo following Patrick’s death it’s now been revived  by new organizers and we’re happy to annnounce its return. Look for Publicity and Registration Flyers, Photo Pages, an Archival Page, and more.

General Music & Dance Pages

Music & Dance Stories. This page contains stories about events in the music and dancing world that I think might be of interest to people. I’ll add new stories as they happen, so check it out now and then. [temporarily missing]

Music & Dance Photos. So far I have photos of the Ralph Page Weekend and the Ride in Canterbury. More to come! This is an Index Page with links to each individual page.

Photo by Evelyn Roberts, 4/06, used with her permission.

 
 

Dance Pages

Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter. I publish the Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter which lists all the dances I know about from Nelson NH in the west to Tamworth NH in the north to Rockport, ME in the East, along with some commentary, stories and historical notes about the local dance scene. For now, to avoid some of the inaccuracies I’ve seen on a web sites that have sent dancers to nonexistent dances, I’ll only keep the current issue available on the web site. (Temporarily in limbo but I will be reviving it during Winter/Spirng 2010 I hope.)

Lamprey River Band. That’s one of two bands I play with, and it has its own page. We’ve been around since 1983!

Dover, NH First Thursday Contradance. The Lamprey River Band plays for it every month; sit-in musicians and guest callers are welcome.

Musical Chairs. That’s my other band. We’re a bit newer, and based more in the central part of the state, but we still have our own page.

Music Pages

Wednesday Night Canadian Jam Session in Durham. It’s been going on for a couple years, and grew out of an earlier Wednesday night soiree that lasted for many years. The photo below is from that jam session, taken in April 2006 by Evelyn Roberts, used with her permission.

Canterbury Fiddler’s Picnic. Going on for over a decade, it’s an enjoyable afternoon of music, socializing and picnicking every August; I’m sure you figure out where.

Fiddle Tunes. I’ll present tunes in abc notation and also in PDF format. The tunes will include both tunes that we play at the Wednesday night jam session and some other tunes that I think are of interest. I’ll also include some notes on the tunes where relevant.

Peter Yarensky. That’s me; I figured I should have my own page as long as it’s my web site.

Site Information

Contact & Linking Information. Here’s my contact information, and information about the best URLs to use if you want to add a link to any part of this site on your web site (thanks!).

Site Update Notes. This page contains a listing up updates I make to the web site in case you want to see what’s changed since you last looked at the web page. If you didn’t already know I was compulsively organized (about some things - certainly not my housekeeping!), now you can figure it out!

Feedback Page. This page is for you to give me feedback on the web site and for reporting broken links. This site is still in the process of being developed. Some portions don’t yet exist, and a couple pages may be renamed at some point. But it’s getting there! I hope you enjoy it and can overlook the peculiarities. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let me know! [Temporarily missing.]


Older News Items ~ Continued from the Main Listing Above


August 15. I added a page for the Barrington Natural Heritage & Agricultural Fair on September 12, for which Teresa and I are organizing music.

July 31. The Kingston Dance schedule is now available through the end of the year. I also corrected the link to the page containing links to many web sites with recordings of fiddle music and related types of music - if you haven’t checked it out you may find it worthwhile.

July 14, 2009. The newsletter is online; it’s a combined July/August issue. I’ve also repaired the photo index page so it works better now.

 
 

Since 2/6/07: