Dance Master: Tony Parkes - Contras, squares, couples dances, and more.

Music By: The Figments - Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, fiddle; Anna Patton, clarinet; Owen Morrison, guitar

Group Singing: There will be singing in another conference with Tony Barrand, Andy Davis, Peter & Mary Alice Amidon; Star Hampshire participants have been invited to join any of those singing sessions.

Publicity & Registration Materials — Latest Update: May 16 (Star Stimulus Plan)

There are two items for this category: (1) a one-sided Publicity Flyer suitable for downloading, printing, and putting out at dances and such, and (2) a two-page Registration Flyer which can be printed, filled out, and mailed in to the Registrar. Links and details follow.

1. ★Publicity Flyer, 2009 Star Hampshire Weekend. Standard 8.5 x 11 paper, PDF format, suitable for printing and putting out at your local dances - spread the word!
   

2. ★Registration Flyer, 2009 Star Hampshire Weekend. Two pages (one-sided), standard 8.5 x 11 paper, PDF format. Page 1 is the Registration Form. Fill it out and send it in to the Registrar (Chrissy Fowler; see form and see below) with your payment. Page 2 contains instructions and information; you should keep it until the weekend.
   

3. ★Star Island Economic Stimulus Plan. Star Island is sharing the economic problems facing the rest of the country. To make attendance a bit easier for those who have been attending regularly and to make it easier for newcomers to attend,  they’ve introduced the Star Island Economic Stimulus Plan. Recruit a newcomer (or someone who has not been to Star for a while (five years or so) and both of you will receive a 10% discount on your room and board fee.
   

4. ★2009 Star Hampshire Program. This is a nearly final program for the 2009 weekend. I’ll add the final program if I can get an electronic copy.
   

Contact Information

Here we reveal the identities of the people who have Revived the Weekend, to whom those of us who have attended the weekend for years are very grateful:

1. ★Chair: Peggy Martin, (603) 726-3033, pmartin03223 at yahoo dot com [usual substitutions]
   

2. ★Registrar: Chrissy Fowler, (207) 338-0979, ktaadn_me at hotmail dot com [likewise]
   

3. ★Program coordinator: David Millstone, (603) 448-2950, millstone at valley dot net [same]
   

I think all of us agreed it was great to be back on Star Island, and it was great to have the weekend continue. It was unavoidable that we felt Patrick’s absence in all aspects of the weekend; but what a marvelous time it was. The weather was great, the company was excellent, we had great music, really what more could you want? Between Star Hampshire and the Ralph Page Weekend we have two of the best dance events around right here in the Seacoast area. I’ll put up some photos when my life settles down, and expand upon this report, but for now I’ll just say thank you to all those who helped to organize the weekend, to those who attended, and to the staff for another great time in one of the nicest places in this part of the planet! Look on the main page for details about this year’s weekend as they become available.

Dance Master: Tony Parkes - Contras, squares, couples dances, and more.

Music By: The Figments - Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, fiddle; Anna Patton, clarinet; Owen Morrison, guitar

Group Singing: There will be singing in another conference with Tony Barrand, Andy Davis, Peter & Mary Alice Amidon; Star Hampshire participants have been invited to join any of those singing sessions.

Publicity & Registration Materials — Latest Update: May 16 (Star Stimulus Plan)

There are two items for this category: (1) a one-sided Publicity Flyer suitable for downloading, printing, and putting out at dances and such, and (2) a two-page Registration Flyer which can be printed, filled out, and mailed in to the Registrar. Links and details follow.

1. ★Publicity Flyer, 2009 Star Hampshire Weekend. Standard 8.5 x 11 paper, PDF format, suitable for printing and putting out at your local dances - spread the word!
   

2. ★Registration Flyer, 2009 Star Hampshire Weekend. Two pages (one-sided), standard 8.5 x 11 paper, PDF format. Page 1 is the Registration Form. Fill it out and send it in to the Registrar (Chrissy Fowler; see form and see below) with your payment. Page 2 contains instructions and information; you should keep it until the weekend.
   

3. ★Star Island Economic Stimulus Plan. Star Island is sharing the economic problems facing the rest of the country. To make attendance a bit easier for those who have been attending regularly and to make it easier for newcomers to attend,  they’ve introduced the Star Island Economic Stimulus Plan. Recruit a newcomer (or someone who has not been to Star for a while (five years or so) and both of you will receive a 10% discount on your room and board fee.
   

Contact Information

Here we reveal the identities of the people who have Revived the Weekend, to whom those of us who have attended the weekend for years are very grateful:

1. ★Chair: Peggy Martin, (603) 726-3033, pmartin03223 at yahoo dot com [usual substitutions]
   

2. ★Registrar: Chrissy Fowler, (207) 338-0979, ktaadn_me at hotmail dot com [likewise]
   

3. ★Program coordinator: David Millstone, (603) 448-2950, millstone at valley dot net [same]
   

Links of Interest

In this section there are a few links that will be of interest in learning more about the Weekend, about Star Island; and for those of you who already know about it, for reminding yourself of what a marvelous place it is and what a great time the weekend is.

Star Hampshire Sample Program (2007 Weekend).  This should give you a good idea of what to expect in the way of programmed activities. There are more gaps than you might expect, but it’s such a wonderful place to be that you’ll want those gaps.

1. ★I’ve included an account I wrote of the 2006 Weekend below so you can get an idea of what the actual experience was like, at least from my perspective. [Unfortunately I was unable to attend the 2007 Weekend, and of course there wasn’t a regular 2008 Weekend, so that was the last time I’ve been. Thanks to David M. for providing the 2007 program.]
   

Star Island Corporation Home Page. The Star Island Corporation owns and runs Star Island and coordinates all the conferences that occur there, of which Star Hampshire is one. From their web site you can learn a lot more about the island and you can get an aerial tour of the island in a slide show.

Star Hampshire Photo Pages. I’ve assembled two pages, one for 2003-2005 and one for 2006. You can’t go wrong with photos of Star Island! This is the Main Photo Page; check out some of the other Photo Pages while you’re there.

Star Hampshire Archival Page, 2007. This is a recreation of the original 2007 page for reasons of enjoyment, curiosity, and historical interest. It adopts the new design but the text is from the old page.

A Brief History

Star Hampshire was started and run pretty much completely by Patrick Stevens for its first 16 years. That would have been a remarkable enough accomplishment in itself, but along with that Patrick was the chair of the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend Committee for several years, organizer of the Kittery Dance during the earlier period, photographer, swimmer, father, husband, even managed to work full time on top of all that, and who knows what else he did! He did everything with an amazing amount of energy and enthusiasm. He always was coming up with ideas for Star Hampshire and for the Ralph Page Weekend. Of course not every single one was good, but a large proportion of them were.

Perhaps it’s the location; how can you not have a sense of history and tradition when you’re completely surrounded by it? It was also partly because Patrick encouraged that sort of atmosphere in a variety of ways, and because so many of us who attend the weekend lean in that direction.

Certainly we do modern dances; and when we have people like Rod Miller as musicians no one could complain that the music is old-fashioned or anything! But out on that island how could you not have a sense of historical perspective? Take a look at the photo pages and you’ll see what I mean!

Sadly Patrick’s heart wasn’t as strong as the rest of him, and he died of a heart attack in December 2007. We had a small gathering on Star Island in his honor last year (2008) on the usual weekend, and there was discussion of the idea of reviving the weekend.

It is with great joy that I am revising this page because it actually has come to be, and I have to think that Patrick would have been glad to know such a thing would happen.

Some Specifics: The Island & The Weekend Program

Star Island: Star Island is part of the Isles of Shoals, several miles off the coast of New Hampshire. As our coastline is only 13 miles long you shouldn’t get too lost. But there is a boat that takes us over and back; currently it leaves from Rye Harbor. It’s surrounded by the ocean, and home of a turn of the (last) century resort hotel with a large porch on three sides looking out over the ocean and with many comfortable rocking chairs. Thus, if you’re not dancing or engaged in other activities, you can hang out in a rocking chair and socialize and watch and listen to the ocean.

What Happens: It’s a weekend of music and dancing, but the schedule is relaxed. We do a goodly amount of dancing during the weekend; I’ve never heard anyone complain about there not being enough. But there’s also time to walk around, explore, socialize, hang out on the rocking chairs, and take advantage of the other possibilities associated with the island.

1. ★There’s generally one caller and one or two bands; the staff is chosen with care so that they are able to put on an excellent program. In addition to contradancing there’s generally some additional programming, depending on the skills of the staff (e.g. singing, English country dance, Balkan dancing, etc.).
   

2. ★For the morning people in the group there’s a waltz session before breakfast. There are also various workshops and jam sessions which vary depending on the staff and interests of the campers.
   

3. ★There are generally between 50 and 80 dancers each year. The dancing is fun, tending to be on the traditional side but with some modern dancing, and some unusual dances thrown in since it’s possible to get away with that with people who have been dancing all weekend! The final dance on Sunday is on the hotel porch; what a nice place for a final dance party!
   

4. ★Nondance events include the chapel, singing sessions, jam sessions, social hour, staff concerts and more. Here’s a description of the chapel from David Millstone; many consider it to be one of the highlights of the weekend. “You can participate in a memorable camper-organized non-denominational chapel service by climbing in silence to the historic stone meeting house and sitting in candle lantern light as dancers and musicians share tunes, songs, stories, and poems.” And of course don’t forget hanging out on the wonderful porch in a rocking chair by the ocean as one of the more enjoyable experiences in life.
   

Other Details You Might Want to Know About: Since it’s on an island interesting things can happen. Major storms have blown up causing people to have to be very careful, go indoors, etc. Hurricanes have forced cancellation of some or all of the weekend or at least worry about whether it would occur on more than one occasion. On the other hand, it’s hard to beat seeing the Northern Lights from Star Island, and watching the waves; especially during a storm. It’s a great place to hang out, which is why there’s more free time built in to the schedule than in most other music and dance weekends and why no one complains about it.

If you haven’t been and you still need convincing, reading an account of the weekend together with looking at the photo pages may be just enough to convince you. This may be a few years old, but I can assure you: it doesn’t matter!

Peter’s Report on the 2006 Weekend

The 2006 weekend was on the weekend of Sept. 15-17. It was a glorious weekend, sunny and warm; a great time to be on an island in the middle of the ocean! Chris Ricciotti was the caller. Music was provided by Celticladda (Randy Miller, Dedo Norris & Tom Hodgson) and members of Moving Violations (Becky Ashenden, Ron Grosslein & Chuck Corman). Needless to say, with Randy and Ron as the fiddlers, and considering who filled out the bands to provide accompaniment, the music was quite outstanding. Randy’s band provided more traditional New England dance music, while Ron, Becky and Chuck provided somewhat wilder but always very danceable, well-phrased, fun, melodic music - indeed on Sunday at one point I was too tired to dance anymore so I just watched them playing for a while. The music was quite amazing, and they were obviously having a great time - Ron and Becky both with big grins on their faces as they were playing, and Chuck a bit more reserved but obviously also thoroughly enjoying himself.

Chris was an excellent caller for the event. He called a nice mixture of modern dances, chestnuts and singing squares. We danced Money Musk, Chorus Jig, Rory O’More, Petronella and Hull’s Victory, maybe others. We danced Dip and Dive as the singing call to Redwing, Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, a version of Girl I Left Behind Me that I’d never encountered before, and several other great singing squares. And of course we danced a variety of modern contras, most of which I don’t know by name. All were taught and called very well. It turns out that Chris danced squares in high school and developed a real love for singing squares. He rarely is in a situation where he gets to call them, so he was happy that we encouraged him to do so on Star Island. He also developed a love for the chestnuts through the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, and doesn’t get to call them all that frequently so he was happy to find out that we like to dance them at Star Hampshire.

There are always multiple conferences happening at the same time on Star Island; usually when we’re there they include a wonen’s conference and a yoga conference; this year there was a singing group. This year Patrick organized a jam session followed by a pick-up band for an all-Island dance to which everyone was invited. It was a good time, and some people who had never danced before showed up and were introduced to contradancing. We had a fun combination of Ron, Randy, some of the other staff musicians and some of the musicians among the campers. It was one of the most fun parts of the weekend for me - getting to play with Ron and Randy and all the rest was quite marvelous! I told Dave Bateman, who called the dance, that I hoped he and the dancers were having as much fun as we were having in the band; he said he thought they were having more fun!

As always, there’s the time spent visiting with friends, the time spent on the rocking chairs on the porch, and everyone takes some time to do something they’re interested in doing since the schedule allows some free time. Teresa went swimming, I played music a bit more, Ron explored the island; everyone has a unique experience. It’s a great weekend, and when they told us it was time to head down to catch the boat, I think it’s safe to say almost none of us were ready to go home!