Where the fiddles have come from...

This is Dennis:


His violin making, repairing, selling & renting shop is McCarten Violins, on the first floor of Hope Artiste Village, just down the road from where our fiddle lessons take place in Pawtucket! His shop is right by where the Wintertime Farmer's Market takes place. Dennis has donated fiddles that have come his way as well as the labor needed to fix them up and make the violins playable for our students.

This is Emily:


She is the Rental Workshop Manager at Johnson String Instrument (which has shops in Newton & Waltham, MA). Johnson String is where my own full-sized violin came from back in 1996. I was lucky enough to meet Emily through Community MusicWorks -- which has been a recipient of Johnson String donations for a number of years.

Thank you to Dennis & McCarten Violins and thank you to Emily & Johnson String Instrument for helping to make the start of the Fiddle & Dance Project possible.

IMPS!

I'm immersed in Community MusicWorks'
Institute for Musicianship and Public Service this weekend!
We're sharing ideas, successes, & challenges in doing the work that we do. Institute participants include leaders at:
Music Haven
Boston Public Quartet
Kidzymphony
& more...
We'll be talking together about many aspects of our work, but also doing playing & performing together as well as what's most important: eating together!

Check it out...

I'm in the early phases of developing

Fiddle & Dance Project's new website!

It's got info about the program, the people, flickr photos, video & more.

Community Dance a Success!

It was a beautiful, warm November day, during which over 60 people joined us inside the Carriage House for Fiddle & Dance Project's first ever community dance!

It was a warm, welcoming environment for first-timers. We had 5 squares going at one point (that's 40 dancers), plus lots of smiling people looking on from the side. Less than 10 of the people there had ever attended a contra dance before. Families had heard about the dance through the Fiddle & Dance Project, the Carriage House and Friday Night Live, Community MusicWorks, and the Rehoboth Jammers.

Andy Davis - who has literally written the books on leading dances like this (along with the Amidons & Mary Cay Brass as a part of New England Dancing Masters) - led us through an afternoon which got us moving in circles, spirals, squares, sicillian circles, and scattered about the room during "Sasha":



Can't wait 'till we can do it again!

We interrupt this count-down to Community Dance (3 more days!) to bring you...

7 days of practice!



This week, Ashley brought this colorful, completely filled in practice chart to her lesson -- congrats on a job well done!!