January 12-14, 2007

Weekend Callers: Tony Parkes, Carol Ormand

Sat. & Sun. Music: Bob McQuillen, Vince O'Donnell & Laurie Andres and Old Grey Goose (Carter Newell, Doug Protsik & Smokey McKeen)

Friday Night: Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra! Calling by Tony & Carol plus Dudley Laufman, Peter Yarensky and Lynn Ackerson

Retrospective: Dudley Laufman, with many guests, and a video by David Millstone!

Above: I guess Dudley noticed he was being photographed! Photo by Patrick Stevens, used with permission.

Below: Doug Protisk, obviously enjoying himself. That’s my keyboard by the way.

The 2007 Weekend: A Brief Report.

This report is modified from an article written for the February 2007 Seacoast Country Dance Newsletter.

This was one of the few years I can remember in which my driveway wasn’t dangerously slippery for the Ralph Page Weekend.

It started out on Friday night with a reunion of the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra. While some of the key members aren’t around any more, and some weren’t there for various reasons, the band still had the old CCDO sound, and it was great to dance to them. It was also fun to hear all the old favorite tunes that aren’t played much any more. Better yet, since many of the Orchestra members were around for the weekend, we heard them all throughout the weekend: Coleraine, Prince William, Mistwold, the Earl of Mansfield, and many others.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of viewing a film that David Millstone had assembled about Dudley, who was being featured at the Retrospective. While you might wonder about showing a more than hour-and-a-half film at a dance event, the hall was packed, and I’d guess that for nearly everyone there it was one of the major highlights of the weekend.

It’s hard even to list the parts of the film I enjoyed. We got to see the Canterbury Orchestra at the Newport Folk Festival, which I’ve heard about for years. We got to see some of the members who aren’t around any more, like Pete and April whom a number of local dancers should remember; and to see many others quite a bit younger - including Dudley looking remarkably young! Even Dudley hadn’t seen all of the clips that were in the film. We saw clips of people dancing going back to the 1960’s and earlier, including some of Ralph Page’s Orchestra. Altogether it was fun, interesting, at times sad and very moving.

The Retrospective for Dudley was a good time of course, with good stories and dancing. So many people know Dudley that it brought out an amazing variety of people, with lots of great surprises throughout the weekend. Many of the other sessions were also lots of fun. Of course it was fun to dance to the music of Old Grey Goose, and it was fun to visit with them as well; I even got to play piano for them at one session because Doug had been accidentally booked to play a silent movie Saturday morning.

As always the dancing was excellent, the music was excellent, it was nice to see many friends, and it was nice to have a chance to socialize with them as part of the weekend.

Check out the RPDLW Photo Page!

Back to the main RPDLW page.

Check out the Photo Page for a variety of photos of the weekend contributed by several different people!

Also, check out the Flickr page put up by RPDLW attendee and photographer Doug Plummer.

Back to the main RPDLW page.

Some Links of Historical Interest:

RPDLW Brochure. The 2007 brochure, in PDF format, 8.5x14".

RPDLW Flyer. The 2007 flyer, in PDF format, 8.5x11".

RPDLW Program. The 2007 program and description of workshops, in PDF format, 8.5x11".