User:FrederickPark

The Old Farmers Ball is the name of a contra dance community. Historically, the Old Farmers Ball celebrated local Appalachian, other American, English, and Northern European set and couple dances. The original dance hall, owned by Jerry and Lilly Wooten of Swannanoa, NC, was built and dances were introduced there by Raymond Peak, late of Old Fort, NC. In the early days of the 20th Century it was called the "Farmers Ball". The old, original building – the first building in the state of NC built exclusively as a dance hall – is located in Western North Carolina on Warren Wilson College Road just about .25 mile North of Hwy. 70 between Swannanoa and Asheville, NC.

The Old Farmers Ball, a revivalist tradition at inseption, began in 1982 under the direction of Frederick Park who was the primary organizer and dance instructor for more than 10 years. He was joined by his wife at that time, Jennifer Armstrong. Jennifer is a multi-instrumentalist and singer from a family of practitioners and traditional arts enthusiasts from Wilmette, IL.. Together Fred taught the dances and Jenny played the music. Many other musicians and callers were approached to come together and share in this new undertaking. Prior to this time there was not a traditional community dance celebrating a variety of traditions in the Western part of NC except in Brasstown, NC at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Too, John Cohen ran a small big circle dance at The Manor on Charlotte Street in Asheville during the early 70's.

The era of the 80's in the United States spawned a growing interest in traditional arts, especially music, dance and storytelling. Festivals too were beginning to take on a new life. The Old Farmers Ball community grew steadily in this period. New callers included Peter Gott and the Gott Family Band (Polly, Suzie and Tim Gott) of Marshall, NC., Bob Thompson, a teacher of English and American Dance, came from Asheville, Phil Jamison came from Flat Rock, NC to teach American Square and Round Dances and to play music. Additional musicians who came on board in the earliest days were Mark Mueller and Julia McCrory Weatherford of Black Mountain, NC and Bob Willoughby of Asheville. The Bannerman Family, also of Black MMountain, supported the dances with musicians and callers.

This dance community is ongoing in its development. Presently teaching is minimal and contra dances (French/English/New England root traditions) are the norm. Regular dances with live music occur presently at Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC on Thursday evenings at 8 PM.