Fiddles, Pumpkins and Dancin’ Feet!

Click to print a sample Harvest Dance poster 1 for your event

Click to print a sample Harvest Dance poster 2 for your event

Remember Turkey in the Straw? Remember what fun it was to dance to?

Harvest Dances – Evening or daytime dances for the entire community Arts In Education Programs – Daytime residencies/workshops in community dancing

With a combined half-century of experience, the dance/music educators of Homespun Community Dancing create enjoyable, wholesome participatory dance and music events. Your school community supplies the atmosphere—cornstalks, hay bales, cider, pies and artwork. Homespun supplies the dance caller and musicians on fiddle, guitar, banjo and tin whistle.

Homespun Community Dancing leads participants in square, contra and circle dances brought to America from Europe and Africa. Connect with centuries-old traditions and celebrate the bounty of the harvest as generations of Americans have done.

Homespun’s dances and workshops are community-building activities that get everyone up and moving.  Easy dances that everyone can learn in one session means fun for children and adults. They’re also a great way to practice mutual respect and group cooperation.

Traditional community dancing:

  • helps build a sense of community. Students have fun working together to learn the dances.
  • teaches history. Students learn firsthand how people have socialized for many generations and hear anecdotes from American (and global) history that inspired the dances and music.
  • develops students’ communication and listening skills.
  • improves physical coordination…dancing is great exercise!

We have played for elementary school family dances throughout the region. Parents, teachers and administrators tell us these dances are the only evening school events that parents and children can do together.

“Rhythmic movement, music, history, social skills and an opportunity to provide a FUNction for the whole family were just some of the benefits…”
-Blair McFarlane, Physical Educator Caroline St. Elementary School, Saratoga Springs, NY