Community Dance
Mary Alice and Peter Amidon
Friday, July 25th – 7:00 – 9:00 PM
You are invited!
Join us for the Feierabend’s Annual Strawberry Social and Contra Dance.
The 2014 Contra Dances will be called by Mary Alice and Peter Amidon, New England Dancing Masters. Friday’s festivities are open to all conference and Hartt SummerTerm attendees.
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon will lead their favorite traditional dances to both live (Mary Alice’s accordion playing) and recorded music. Dances are in longways, circle, scatter and surprise formations; no experience necessary, all dances will be taught. Although this is intended as dance party, the Amidons will put up a post-workshop webpage with all of the dances and sources after the workshop.
Peter Amidon co-directs both the Guilford (VT) Community Church Choir, and Hallowell, southeastern Vermont’s a cappella SATB hospice choir. He has led Sacred Harp singing at the Old Songs Festival for twenty years, and was handpicked by Pete Seeger to run the Circle of Song, a participatory singing stage at the Great Hudson River Clearwater Revival Music Festival, for four years. Choruses throughout the US and the UK are singing songs from the two collections of Amidon SATB choral arrangements and compositions: “Fifty-five Anthems for the Small Church Choir” and “Twenty-five Anthems for Interfaith and Community Choirs”.
Peter leads solo elementary school residencies, and, with Mary Alice, duo school assembly concerts of traditional dance, song and storytelling. He has been the featured storyteller, contra dance caller, and harmony singing leader at several of the Country Dance and Song Society of America’s summer camps of traditional dance and song.
Mary Alice Amidon is an annual favorite in elementary schools for her music, storytelling and dance residencies with K-4 students. She presents music teacher workshops throughout the U.S. by herself and with Peter Amidon. In addition to her duo recordings of songs for children with Peter, Mary Alice has recorded two solo albums of songs for children and one for adults (“Keys to the Kingdom, produced by son Sam Amidon, and including old and new songs including several originals). She has led harmony singing at Adult Village Harmony and Country Dance and Song Society summer camps. Mary Alice was the co-editor of all three of the New England Dancing Masters singing games collections, including their most recent “I’m Growing Up” book/CD/DVD geared to pre-school through second graders. She is one of twenty-five composers commissioned to compose an original choral piece (‘Sweet is the Day’) for the Social Band’s Vermont Composer’s Project. Mary Alice has a particular gift for enhancing picture books with music, song, storytelling and movement.