Henry Koretzky, Todd Clewell and Barb Schmid, also known as the Contra Rebels, will provide live music for a contra dance May 21 on Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square as the annual Fine Arts Fiesta nears its close.
Times Leader file photo
Event will be part of Fine Arts Fiesta
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When the Fine Arts Fiesta comes to Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square May 18-21, live entertainment will range from high school orchestras to a brass band, a flute ensemble, theater groups and Friday night’s headliners The Spin Doctors.
But another group of artists — the Harrisburg-based Contra Rebels, who provide music for traditional contra dancing — is generating excitement as words spreads that they will play for a free dance between 2:45 and 4:30 p.m. on May 21, the final day of the Fiesta on Public Square.
“Oh, yay! I hope to be there,” Kristin Curtis of Sterling summed up her feelings.
“I will be there with several friends,” Burt Scouten wrote via email. “I didn’t realize I would miss contra dancing so much until it became unavailable.”
For close to 30 years a folk-music-loving entity called the Chicory House sponsored a series of monthly dances in the Wilkes-Barre area, most recently in the Church of Christ Uniting Fellowship Hall in Kington, where the music frequently was provided by “Contra Rebels” Henry Koretzky, Todd Clewell and Barb Schmid.
But the last local dance took place in March 2020, before the pandemic. So people who know and love this gentle, sociable style of movement — which often features children, grandparents and everyone in between dancing together — may well be hungry for it.
If you’ve never done any contra dancing before, you are more than welcome to come to the stage area at Public Square on the afternoon of May 21 and join in. Caller Bob Nicholson will be on hand to explain what to do. Dancers who know him have so often repeated the sentence“he’s good with beginners” that it seems to be part of his name.
Contra dancing is similar to square dancing but is danced in two long lines instead of a square shape. Its origins can be traced to English country dancing.
The May 21 event will be a rare chance to enjoy something that once was more commonplace in the Wyoming Valley. The next closest venues that still have regular contra dances appear to be the Cooperage in Honesdale (48 miles from Wilkes-Barre) and at the Donald Heiter Center in Lewisburg (68 miles from Wilkes-Barre.)