All the Way Around

Out of New England, south into Georgia, west across Texas and into California, up the coast to Seattle, then back across the Midwest, arriving at last in Nelson, New Hampshire.

More than two hundred years ago, probably many more, the residents of Nelson began their contra dance. Today, the dance not only survives, it flourishes. Every Monday night, rain, snow, sleet, or otherwise, there is a dance in the Nelson town hall–the locals boast it occurs 56 Mondays a year.

As Lisa and I entered the hall, I reflected that truly nothing had changed about the look of the place since I was brought to my first Nelson dance five years earlier, my first contra dance ever. It’s a small Utah-shaped room with a stage up front inches above the hardwood floor. Old benches line the faded walls under great windows. Dim lights hang from the ceiling. This was a place filled with history and magic.

The familiar faces started to roll in. The callers, Don Primrose, Lisa Sieverts, the musicians, Harvey Tolman and Roger Treat on fiddle, Lloyd Carr on piano, and the regular dancers. Many dancers we’d seen in Greenfield and the Dawn Dance in previous nights came to join them.

Harvey started the first tune while Don and Lisa Sieverts partnered up for the first polka of the night. For Lisa and I, it was the last polka of the trip, and we danced it with bittersweet feelings. Other couples joined us, performing the dance just as we did: forward, back, twirl, then turn.

The hall was crowded with a dynamic mix of all ages. Nearly 100 people crammed into 4 lines for the next few contras that barely fit in the space. Among them were my parents, who had come to dance with us on our final stop.

After the walkthrough of the second dance, Don called for everyone to “sit down!” He continued, “Welcome to Nelson,” to which there was a smashing applause. “There’s a box on the table, the dance is three dollars, until nine O’clock when it becomes ten dollars!” He made announcements as everyone in the hall listened. Then, Lisa Sieverts took over with upcoming events. When that was done, she moved on to the awards ceremony portion of the evening.

“Every time there is a Brattleboro Dawn Dance,” she said, “we in Nelson hold the Iron Dancer challenge: five consecutive nights of dancing including the Dawn Dance and finishing right here in Nelson. This time around, we had 31 Iron Dancers!”

Everyone cheered as she announced the names of each Iron Dancer, beginning with the first timers, and proceeding until she got to Kelly Strauss, a 7-time recipient and one of the inventors of the challenge. As each dancer came up, Kelly distributed medals he forged himself with the insignia of the Iron Dancer.

At the end of it all, Lisa Sieverts said, “And finally, they traveled around the country for 101 days and contra danced for 51 nights, our TITANIUM dancers are Dave Eisenstadter and Lisa Weiss!” We got up and joined the rest to clapping and cheers.

The next dance after all the commotion was Chorus Jig. Don called it, and sang out the chorus: “la la la la la la la!” The regulars sang along, and the newcomers in the crowd caught on quickly. “Right to your partner, left hand up!” Don sang during the contra corners and the dancing had boundless energy. In my experience, nothing can top a Chorus Jig in Nelson.

After Chorus Jig, the calling was open microphone. Many people participated, including myself. My calling of Trip to Lambertville was critically acclaimed by my mother.

Lisa and I danced our final waltz of the trip together. When the music began, I found that the tune was Amelia, by Bob McQuillen, the same as the final waltz at The Dance Flurry back in February, the first stop of our trip. As we made our turns across the floor, we reflected that everything had come full circle. All the way around.

-Keene, NH

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 7:32 pm and is filed under 32 New Hampshire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.