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Hobby Forum Index » Folk Dancing » Larry Jennings to receive award
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| David Millstone |
 Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:15 am |
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Guest
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Country Dance and Song Society will present its Lifetime Contribution
Award to Boston dance leader Larry Jennings at a Cambridge dance on
Thursday, May 27.
Larry Jennings is being honored for his many accomplishments in the
field of contra dancing. A dancer and caller at various points in his
life, he is known for the national influence he has had through his
writings, a series of discussion sessions attended by callers and
organizers, and his individualized critiques of dance callers.
Originator of the phrase ³zesty contras,² Larry promulgated a style of
contra dancing featuring strong connections among dancers, meticulous
phrasing, vigorous swings, and smooth transitions from one figure to
another. This style of energetic contra dancing has spread around the
country in the past two decades, modeled in part on the series that
Larry helped shape, the Cambridge VFW dance sponsored by the New
England Folk Festival Association, NEFFA.
Larry will be presented with his award at a so-called NEFFA Night at
the VFW, a regular event that features several different callers. In
addition to affecting organizers with his ideas, Larry has had a great
impact on callers throughout New England and the United States, so this
particular evening seemed an appropriate time and place. Information
about the Thursday Night dance series can be found at
<http://www.neffa.org/Thurs.html>. C.D.S.S. Executive and Artistic
Director Brad Foster will present the award, accompanied by several
members of the organizationıs Governing Board.
In earlier years, Larry was an avid dancer, a member of the Black
Jokers morris team as well as an enthusiastic contra and square dancer.
The publication in 1983 of his first book, "Zesty Contras," marked a
turning point in contemporary contra dancing. Larry collected some 500
dances and introduced them with what he himself termed ³a provocative
explanatory text, ² a series of 14 mini-lectures examining various
aspects of contra choreography, organization, music, and instruction.
Callers who turned to the book as a handy compendium of dances also
found themselves reading a series of essays that touched on virtually
all aspects of this form of social dance. ³You may not have always
agreed with Larry,² said one New England caller, ³but his strong
opinions forced you to examine your own ideas and to think more clearly
about what you were doing.²
Along with fellow Boston area callers Ted Sannella and Dan Pearl, Larry
co-authored a ³Contra Connection² column in the CDSS News from 1988
through 1995; this colum examined various aspects of contra dancing
from the perspectives of three well-known figures in the contra dance
community.
Just last month, NEFFA published his long-awaited second book,
³Give-and-Take,² which contains 628 dances. In this volume, Larry
includes more provocative remarks, along with ³exhortative essays and
arcane analyses.² In this new book, fully half of the contents are
essays and minutes from discussion sessions. Detailed information about
the contents of both ³Give-and-Take² and ³Zesty Contras² can be found
at <http://www.neffa.org/give_and_take.html>.
As Dan Pearl and Shelagh Ellman-Pearl write in the Foreword to this new
volume, ³As long as we have known Larry, he has been consumed with all
things Contra Dance: dance sequences, calling skills, administration,
styling, the stuff that happens on the dance floor, what makes a dance
the ³place to be,² and so on. Larry also has an unquenchable desire to
share, educate and enlighten, and, with his enthusiasm for contra
dancing, it is a powerful combination.²
Larry Jennings is the second person to receive the C.D.S.S. Lifetime
Contribution Award, following English country dance leader Helene
Cornelius. Country Dance and Song Society, founded in 1915, is the
nationıs leading organization promoting English and Anglo-American
music and dance.
--
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH |
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