Traditional square dancing will again be featured from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the West Plains Civic Center Exhibit Hall as part of his year’s Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival.
“Bring your dancing shoes and join in! Andy and Jane Elder will emcee the dances this year,” invite promoters. “Their enthusiasm always brings out the best in the dancers.”
The two-day annual festival in downtown West Plains celebrates Ozarks music and culture. Admission to all festival events is free. Festival hours are from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Traditional square dancing has been an integral component of the Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival since the first event in 1995. Fiddler Bob Holt and caller Edna Mae Davis of Ava introduced the art form that year, and their influence continues to be felt, say organizers.
Square dancing has been an important vehicle for both artistic expression and social recreation in the Ozarks region since the arrival of the first white settlers, organizers explains, adding that it is closely associated with traditions of fiddling and string band music, as well as traditions of solo dancing such as jig dancing.
Square dancers in the Douglas County area, especially Ava, maintain a distinctive tradition of square dance characterized by brisk tempos, the incorporation of solo jig dancing into square dances during transitional segments and the participation of the callers as dancers, say organizers.
Traditional square dancing still takes place at least occasionally in some locations within the Ozarks. Additionally, Western square dancing, a pan-regional, popular-culture version of the art form that is related to traditional square dancing but does not have long-established local roots, has become popular among some Ozarks residents in recent decades.
Experienced string band musicians from south-central and southwest Missouri who are thoroughly familiar with regional square dance traditions, led by fiddlers David Scrivner and Ashley Hull Forrest, banjo player Nathan McAlister and guitar player Joel Hinds, provide live musical accompaniment for the dancing.
Forrest has been playing the fiddle since she was 6 years old and loves to play old-time fiddle music any chance she gets. A wife and mom to two girls, Forrest works as a school nurse for a local school district.
McAlister resides in the small mining community of Granby and has spent the last 25 years studying traditional Ozarks banjo and fiddle playing.
Scrivner began playing Ozarks music when he was just 6 years old. A native of Mansfield, his family ties in the Ozarks go back generations with roots in Douglas and Taney counties. Scrivner has been playing traditional Ozarks fiddle music for 25 years, including several years as a student and apprentice of renown Ozarks fiddler Bob Holt. Focused on preserving Ozarks dance and music traditions, Scrivner also won the 2019 Arkansas State Old-Time Fiddling Grand Championship. He has his master’s degree in English and is currently employed in the marketing field in Springfield.
Hinds began playing guitar and banjo when he was 8 years old. In 2015, he was an apprentice in the Missouri Folk Arts Program, learning old-time fiddle under Howell County fiddler Cliff Bryan. A sixth-generation native of Howell County, Hinds lives on the family farm with his wife Casey and their six children. He works as headmaster of a Christian school in Willow Springs.
2022 festival partners include the West Plains Council on the Arts, the city of West Plains, the Ozark Heritage Welcome Center, West Plains Civic Center, and Missouri State University-West Plains. Partial funding for this event is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
For more information on the festival email info@westplainsarts.org, visit the website at www.oldtimemusic.org, or follow @Old.Time.Music.Festival on Facebook.
