Dudley Laufman (born 1930) is an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with helping spur the revival of contra in the 20th century.[1][2]
Dudley Laufman (born 1930) is an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with helping spur the revival of contra in the 20th century.[1][2]
Laufman was born in 1930 and grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts.[1]
Laufman attended his first dance as a boy while working at the Mistwold Farm in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1948. In 1959, he moved to Canterbury, New Hampshire. He was a founding member of the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra in 1965.[3]
He began calling and playing for dances, which became known as "Dudley Dances".[4] At times, he was the only remaining callers of contra dances with live music.[1] He worked to spread the tradition, which ultimately caught on and has since spread across the United States and internationally.
Beginning in 1978, Laufman started working with the New Hampshire Artists-in-the-Schools program, teaching contra dances to children.[1]
Laufman is a recipient of a 2009 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[5]
