Dudley Laufman

Dudley Laufman
Laufman in 2009
Laufman in 2009
Background information
Born(1931-02-07)February 7, 1931
Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJuly 13, 2026(2026-07-13) (aged 95)
Canterbury, New Hampshire, U.S.
GenresDance
OccupationsCaller, musician
Instruments
LabelsF&W, Front Hall, Two Fiddles
Spouses
Cynthia Dunbar
​
(divorced)​
Patty Windus
​
(divorced)​
Jacqueline Gilman
​
(divorced)​
Partner
Nanci Aguiar

William Dudley Laufman[1] (February 7, 1931 – July 13, 2026)[2][3] was an American contra and barn dance caller and musician widely credited with having helped spur the revival of contra dance in the 20th century.[4][5]

Early life

Laufman was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1931, and grew up in the nearby town of Arlington.[4] He was the eldest of five children.[6] His father, M. Miller, was a businessman, and his mother, Marjorie (née Dick) was a civil rights activist.[1]

Laufman attended his first dance as a boy while working summers as a dairy farmer at the Mistwold Farm in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1948.[7][1] His boss's wife hosted "kitchen junkets" as a community gathering after work, which involved singing hymns and then removing furniture and dancing folk dances called from Henry Ford's Good Morning collection.[8] In 1952, he moved to Walpole, New Hampshire.[4]

Contra calling career

Laufman later attended the Norfolk County Agricultural High School in Walpole, Massachusetts,[6] where there were square dances every Monday night.[8] There he met caller Ralph Page, who became his mentor.[8] He took up calling, modeling his style after Page's, after a warm winter disrupted his ice hockey hobby and because he noticed that callers received romantic interest from women.[8]

Laufman graduated with an associate's degree from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, in 1952.[6][1][9] In 1957, his first wife, Cynthia, gave him a fiddle and he began to learn to play.[8] He also learned the accordion, concertina, melodeon, and harmonica.[4][9]

Laufman worked as an occupational therapist in Brattleboro, Vermont, from 1952 to 1955, followed by a stint at the New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord and as a proofreader for a typesetter.[1] In 1959, he moved to Canterbury, New Hampshire.[4]

He began calling and playing for dances, which became known as "Dudley Dances".[10] They became popular with adherents of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1950s.[1] At times, he was the only remaining caller of contra dances with live music.[4]

In 1965, he was hired to perform at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island to a 16,000-person crowd.[8][1] Together with other musicians who went there with him, he founded the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra that year.[8][11][4] His dances became popular with hippies belonging to the countercultural movement of the 1960s.[8][1]

In the 1970s, his orchestra averaged more than 300 engagements per year,[7] mostly in New England.[9] The tradition spread across the United States as dancers moved to other regions.[12][1]

Personal life

Laufman's house, "Wind in the Timothy"

Laufman was noted for his charisma.[1] A Quaker, he was a conscientious objector to the Korean War.[1] He was married three times, to Cynthia Dunbar, Patty Windus, and Jacqueline Gilman, and partnered toward the end of his life with Nanci Aguiar.[1] He had five children.[1]

From 1959 until his death, Laufman lived in Canterbury in a house called "Wind in the Timothy"[4] (a reference to the grass species[1]) which he built, with assistance from Cynthia Dunbar,[3][13] on a 1.75-acre (0.71 ha) plot.[1] It initially had no electricity or running water.[1][9] His home garden provided much of his food.[13]

Later career and death

In the 1970s, other bands and callers began working dances.[1] More aerobic "modern urban" contra dances, in which there was no longer an inactive couple, came into fashion. These were of less interest to Laufman, so he turned his attention to traditional barn dances.[8] Beginning in 1978, he started working with the New Hampshire Artists-in-the-Schools program, teaching dances to children.[4]

Although Laufman recovered from a fractured hip in November 2025, his health began to decline after that.[9] He died on July 13, 2026, at his home in Canterbury, at the age of 95.[14][7] He received a natural burial in a clearing at the edge of his property at a gravesite marked with timothy grass.[3][9]

Awards and honors

  • In 1990, the University of New Hampshire Archives approached Laufman to donate his recordings, writings, personal photographs and other materials to a special collection, which was named the "Dudley Laufman Collection No. 107".[3]
  • In 2001, he received the New Hampshire Governor's Arts Award for Folk Heritage, and received several proclamations through the years, including one at his bedside on June 22, 2026.[3]

Works

  • Okay, Let's Try a Contra, Men on the Right, Ladies on the Left, Up and Down the Hall; or Blow Away the Morning Dew and Other Country Dances. New York: Country Dance Society. 1973. ISBN 9780917024023.[11]
  • Numerous poetry books[7][15]

Discography

With Jacqueline Laufman

  • Where'd You Get Them Great Chunes (alongside the Sugar River String Band) (Two Fiddles, 2007)[16]

With Canterbury Country Orchestra

  • Mistwold (F&W Records F74-FW-5, 1974)[17]
  • Swinging On A Gate (Front Hall Records, 1974)[11]
  • Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra With Dudley Laufman (F&W Records CD-01-FW8, 2001)[11]
  • Welcome Here Again (F&W 74WWC, 2016)[18]
  • Here's to Every Country Dancer (F&W F72-FW-3, 2019)[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Risen, Clay (August 3, 2026). "Dudley Laufman, Eminent Folk Dance Caller, Dies at 95". The New York Times. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Notable New Hampshire Deaths: National Heritage Fellow Dudley Laufman of Canterbury". InDepthNH. July 16, 2026. Archived from the original on July 17, 2026. Retrieved July 16, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "W. Dudley Laufman". Concord Monitor. Concord, New Hampshire. July 24, 2026. Retrieved August 1, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Guide to the Dudley Laufman Papers, 1962–1998". UNH Special Collections and Archives. University of New Hampshire. December 14, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  5. ↑ Pich, Tom (2009). "Picture Perfect". NEA Arts. Vol. 2009, no. 3. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Koziol, John (August 28, 2023). "Already recognized as a New Hampshire and national treasure, contra and barn-dance caller Dudley Laufman honored by Lakes Region summer camp". New Hampshire Union Leader. Archived from the original on July 18, 2026. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "National Endowment for the Arts Statement on the Death of National Heritage Fellow Dudley Laufman". National Endowment for the Arts. July 15, 2026. Archived from the original on July 16, 2026. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Reed, Josephine. "Dudley Laufman". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on July 4, 2026. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pereira, Rebeca (July 31, 2026). "Dudley Laufman goes back to the land". Concord Monitor. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  10. ↑ Vallimont, Julie. "Episode 1: Dudley Laufman". Contra Pulse (Podcast). Country Dance and Song Society. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Dudley Laufman". Masters of Traditional Arts. Documentary Arts. Archived from the original on June 13, 2025. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  12. ↑ Horton, Laurel (2001). "Material Expressions of Communality among Dance Groups". Western Folklore. 60 (2/3): 203–226. doi:10.2307/1500377. JSTOR 1500377.
  13. 1 2 "Dudley and Jaqueline Laufman". Society of Folk Dance Historians. Archived from the original on July 18, 2026. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  14. ↑ Koziol, John (July 18, 2026). "Canterbury caller: Dudley Laufman, RIP". New Hampshire Union Leader. Archived from the original on July 18, 2026. Retrieved July 18, 2026.
  15. ↑ Boehm, Rose Mary. "And for something completely different – Dudley Laufman". Houseboat. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  16. ↑ Alper, Eric (July 17, 2026). "Contra Dance Legend Dudley Laufman Dies At 95". That Eric Alper. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  17. ↑ Evans, David (July 1975). "Folk Revival Recordings". The Journal of American Folklore. 88 (349): 333–336. doi:10.2307/538910. JSTOR 538910.
  18. ↑ "Welcome Here Again". Maine Public Broadcasting Network. August 4, 2019. Archived from the original on July 17, 2026. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
  19. ↑ "Here's to Every Country Dancer". Spotify. Archived from the original on July 19, 2026. Retrieved July 17, 2026.
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