Historical Dance And Music Will Coincide With Exhibition Opening

Newtown resident Patricia Campbell is a caller and leader specializing in 18th Century contradance, country and folk dancing. She works regularly with The Reel Thing, a group which specializes in live, costumed, authentic 18th Century Colonial dances and concerts, traditional dance workshops for all ages, and family or community barn dances.

In keeping with the historic programs and performances that have been part of the Tercentennial Celebration of Newtown, Ms Campbell and The Reel Thing will present a one-hour participatory program of “Historical Dance and Music in Newtown” this weekend at C.H. Booth Library.

The dance and music will be selections from documented primary source material of the social dance repertoire of the period that was done in New England from Newtown’s incorporation through the early 19th Century.  

The free program will be on Saturday, July 30, from 2:30 to 3:30 pm, in lower meeting room at C.H. Booth Library. “Historical Dance and Music in Newtown” will immediately follow the reception for Newtown Historical Society’s historical images archive exhibit, “A Passport to Newtown’s Past.”

The public is invited to both events; the reception for the photography exhibition will run from 10 am until 2 pm.

In addition to Ms Campbell, guitarist and mandolin player Bill Campbell and keyboard player Fran Hendrickson are also Newtown residents. The three feel they are donating their time as a way of giving back to their town.

The other two members of the band are Julie Sorcek from Bethel on flute and piccolo and Gwen Glasser from New Fairfield on fiddle.

Included will be tunes from The Blackman Collection, music for social dancing that was documented by Newtown resident Isaac Blackman in the early part of the 19th Century.

The music consists of jigs, reels, marches and such which were used for social dancing as well as in military settings.