Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.917c, Connecticut Historical S…

Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 5 Session: French Quadrille Calling

PerformerPerformed by Conrad Depot Canadian, 1921 - 2008

Date2003 April 27

Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette

DimensionsDuration (side 1): 46 Minutes, 53 Seconds
Duration (side 2): 46 Minutes, 57 Seconds
Duration (total runtime): 1 Hour, 33 Minutes, 59 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionAudio cassette tape recording of a required public presentation of the Year 5 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in quadrille calling with teaching artist George Menard and apprentice Bob Livingston. George Menard and Bob Livingston are the callers. Conrad Depot and his band accompany during this performance. The performance took place at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, Rhode Island on April 27, 2003.

Object number2015.196.917a-d

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: The French-Canadian tradition of quadrilles, social dances featuring several sets of four couples each, remains popular in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. Like square dances, quadrilles depend on a caller to announce the dance figures, while musicians play traditional dance tunes. George Menard called quadrilles in New England throughout his adult life, and was the regular caller at the monthly Cumberland, Rhode Island dances. He and Bob Livingston, an experienced community square dance caller, shared their repertoires and expertise so that Bob could step in to call quadrilles as George began a long-awaited retirement in the early 2000s. Their goal was to ensure the continuation of this very traditional form of social gathering - capable callers enable quadrilles to be an active part of community life rather than becoming only a performance event for festivals. Octogenarian fiddler Conrad Depot joined the Year 5 apprenticeship sessions to provide the musical accompaniment as Bob learned the calls for quadrille dances. For the team’s public presentation, Bob Livingston called a quadrille along with George Menard and fiddler Conrad Depot at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, Rhode Island; Bob became a regular caller for the dances there.

Biographical Note: Conrad Depot (1921-2008) was born in Quebec and learned his French Canadian musical repertoire from his mother in the 1920s, at the age of 5. Mr. Depot moved to the Blackstone Valley in Rhode Island in the mid 1950s for employment reasons. He was the last fiddler of several who once played for quadrilles in the Woonsocket area. The quadrilles were once popular in the Franco-American community that settled around the mills in RI and other New England states. Mr. Depot became known for organizing the quadrilles at which he played with the assistance of callers; these community dances took place mostly in the town of Manville in the Blackstone Valley, adjacent to the French-American communities of Woonsocket and Cumberland. The quadrilles almost died out about thirty-five years ago. Fortunately, with the encouragement of the Folk/Traditional Arts Program of the RI State Council on the Arts, the dances experienced a revival in the late 1990s, which placed Conrad Depot once again at the center of a musical tradition that was dear to his heart. Along with caller George Menard, Conrad and his daughters with occasional musical guests from Connecticut sponsored quadrilles at the Blackstone Valley Theatre every Sunday. Conrad and George involved experienced square dance caller Bob Livingston from Connecticut in learning to call the English language quadrille set dances, in Year 5 (2002-2003) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

Biographical Note: Bob Livingston is a public square dance caller who uses the “Eastern Singing Style” of calling, a distinctive New England form with dances called in phrase to American fiddle tunes. He learned this calling tradition over fifteen years by attending dances, listening to established callers such as Doug Wilkins, and occasionally stepping in to call. Only when in his 40's did Bob begin to call a complete four-hour dance himself. Public or community square dances, which are different from contra dances, are open to anyone to attend so all ages can participate. The caller serves an important role here, because he or she has to guide both novices and experienced dancers through the steps, and sometimes has to “untangle” formations. Singing-calling depends a lot on the rhythms and timing of the live music too, and the caller has to know the movements of the dances. Bob can call French Canadian quadrilles that are popular in eastern CT and RI, as well as Virginia Reel and circle formations. He always calls to a live band, and tailors his calling to the type of dance as well as the level of the dancers.

Bob has appeared regularly at the monthly Killingly Grange community dance and from 1987 to the 2020s, Bob Livingston called the community dances in Bernardston, Massachusetts to music by the Falltown String Band. He worked with Mansfield Middle School string musicians to teach students and parents, and call their Country Dance Nights. He conducted two camp residencies in Brooklyn CT and Whately, MA, and has called at YMCA Camp Hazen, Chester CT. Other experiences include being caller, leader and teacher for a 4-H square dance club formed to conclude a season of meetings by demonstrating at the Durham, CT Fair; church social events; home school family groups; weddings; library programs; town celebrations such as Old Home Days in Halifax VT and barn dances in two new Amish barns built in Franklin CT (the Blue Slope Museum) and Woodstock CT. Bob is a regular caller for the Cornwall CT community dances organized by fiddler Rachel Gall from the Year 9 (2006-2007) apprenticeship in northwestern CT folk music.

Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and these activities.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Subject Terms