Join our celebration of
music and dance!

Harvard Square English Country Dancing

Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, 7:30–9:30 PM
(with extra instruction in basics starting at 7:10)
Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, 1555 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA
Cammy calling with music by “Mad Robin” (Van, Cam, John, and Mark)
$5–15
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I am delighted that Boston CDS wants us back and has invited to open their fall season of newcomer-friendly English Country Dances in Harvard Square. Once again, “Mad Robin” is Van Kaynor (fiddle), John Hicks (guitar), Mark Proctor (percussion), and Cammy Kaynor (fiddle, recorder, calls). We’re looking forward to a thrilling evening of dances including a few originals and some new ones I have picked up lately along with our standard Playford repertoire.

Contradance

Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, 7–9:30 PM
Kenneth A. Brett School, 881 Tamworth Rd., Tamworth NH
Cammy calling with the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra
$10
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Contradance

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, 6–9 PM
Peterborough Town Hall, 1 Grove St., Peterborough NH
David Millstone calling, I’m playing with many wonderful musicians
$12–20 (Proceeds benefit Maine Fiddle Camp)
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Block Party for Melrose Porchfest

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, 2–5 PM
(Rain date: Sunday, Sept. 20)
Hugo’s Appliance, 424 Main St., Melrose MA
Cammy calling squares, contras and ceilidh dances with music by “Tourner a Trois”
(Cammy Kaynor, Mark Procter, and John Hicks)
free
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No Melrose UU Church Community dance this month because we are doing a Melrose Porchfest, BLOCK party instead!

On Saturday, Sept 19, the owner of Hugo’s Appliance in downtown Melrose MA has invited me to hold a block party. Community Contra and Square Dance will take place in the alley next door to his store as part of a citywide “Porchfest,” festival of music.

Traditional community dance will include a mix of easy Ceilidh dances, barn dances, squares, Virginia Reel, and more. The band, “Tourner a Trois,” (fiddle, guitar, and percussion) will provide energetic music. Cammy will teach carefully and prompt the dancing. Newcomers and those with young children can join in and we will lead some very simple dances, accessible to all. Anyone just wanting to experience the thing, come laugh and point, enjoy the energy of the music, and chat with friends, please DO!

Dudley Memorial Events

I’m sure many have heard that Dudley Laufman, who did so much to preserve and spread the joy of New England contradancing in the 1960s and 70s, passed away at 95 on July 13. Around 1970, it was Dudley who saw that I had a recorder and was trying to pick up some tunes. Inviting me up on stage to join the band, he gave me some terse instructions:

1) Forget about reading the music. Dance musicians play by ear.
2) Forget about playing it in the key you learned. Dance musicians can play the music in whatever key the band has chosen

I have been playing for and then calling contradances ever since. I had the pleasure of playing for Dudley a few weeks before he passed. He was still testing me — “play Speed the Plough in A” he said, and then — “Now I want to hear Lady Walpole’s in Bb.”

So you can imagine I feel incredibly honored and thrilled to be asked to call the Tamworth Contradance on Saturday the 12th! And the band is the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra — the band I sat in with in 1970 and the band on the first LP Album of contradance music I ever listened to.

There is a memorial service in Canterbury on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 13. I’m playing for a second contradance to honor Dudley in Peterborough NH that evening. Details for this weekend of celebration are in the poster pictured in this Facebook post. If you don’t have Facebook and you want more details, write to me and I’ll forward the pdf.

English Dances we have done at Bay State Cohousing to date: 

Picking Up Sticks
Prince William
Rufty Tufty
Saint Margaret’s Hill
Sellenger’s Round
Siege of Limmerick
Upon a Summer’s Day
Well Hall
Zephyrs and Flora