Barnard Street Dance

Saturday, August 26th

3-10p

Barnard Town Hall
115 North Rd

Music!

Games!

Potluck!

Barnard Street Dance is a free, non-alcoholic family event! Donations to the Street Dance Fund are welcome either online or in-person.

BarnArts will be selling non-alcoholic drinks from 3-close and holding a 50/50 raffle.

Tables and chairs will be set up inside the BTH for the potluck, or anyone who needs a break indoors, but bring your own chair if you want to sit outside!

Lineup includes:

Sabouyouma (Afro-Funk)

Sabouyouma is a 7-piece Afro-Funk groove machine based out of Burlington and led by Guinean-born balafonist Ousmane Camara. If Camara is the heart and soul of the band, then Senegalese percussionist Assane Coly is the backbone. With his fluency in the Senegalese vocal-drum language and his religious roots in the Bayefal sect of Sufism, Coly’s rhythms often feel like percussive praise poetry that mystically conjures the audience into motion.

 

The Ben Kogan Band (Jammy Roots Rock)

The Ben Kogan Band performs Indie-Americana with jazz and bluegrass sensibilities. Ben brings 20 years of music experience to this project, including time in Boston, NYC, and Brooklyn, and a degree from the University of Miami for Jazz Bass. Over time he’s picked up acoustic, electric guitar, and songwriting along the way. Joining him is Michael Zsoldos with saxophone/vocals, Jakob Breitbach (of Beecharmer) with fiddle/bass/vocals, and Joe Chapman (of Zach Nugents dead set) on drums.

 

Blind Squirrel (Contra Dance)

Blind Squirrel features Upper Valley musicians and ardent dancers Erin Smith and Steve Hoffman on fiddle, Suzanne Long on fiddle/cello, Christina Jeske on whistle, and Chip Hedler on guitar. They have been an ensemble for nearly a decade and their love of the music and the joy of playing together for dancers keeps them going. Their repertoire draws on French Canadian, southern old-time, celtic, and northern New England traditions. They will be joined by Kevin Donohue who will guide everyone effortlessly through each dance.

 

Route 5 Jive (Roots Bop Dance)

Route 5 Jive is a Roots-Bop hot jazz revival. The core trio of Jakob Breitbach on swing fiddle and Kit Creeger and Christopher Billiau on double guitar in the style of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, is joined by Jeff Biron on drums and Eric Bronstein on upright bass. They start with a simmering pot of gypsy jazz and flavor it with jump, jive, bebop, big band swing, blues, boogie-woogie, western swing, Afro-Cuban, samba, and bossa nova.

 

History 

The Barnard Street Dance was a beloved community event in Barnard that ran 21 years from 1994 to 2015. Former General Store owners Carolyn Dicicco and Kim Furlong organized early dances, which featured a line-up of local musicians with the popular "Jeanne and The High-tops" headlining. The party took over the porch and street in front of the Barnard General Store, and people of all ages enjoyed the lively town center, beautiful Silver Lake, and music from talented local musicians.

The event came to an end in 2015, due to safety concerns following an accident during the event. In 2022, we brought it back with the help of Barnard Rec, but instead to the parking lot in front of the Barnard Town Hall which offers plenty of level space, paved and grassy, to dance worry-free.