Traditional Square Dancing and Music Workshops featured at Ozarks Heritage Festival

Traditional square dancing will again be featured at this year's Ozark Heritage Festival in downtown West Plains, Mo. Square dancing will take place Friday and Saturday night from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Civic Center Exhibit Hall. Bring your dancing shoes and join in!

 

The two-day annual event in downtown West Plains, Mo., celebrates Ozarks music and culture. Admission to all festival events is free. Festival hours are 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16 and 17.

 

Traditional square dancing has been an integral component of the Ozark Heritage Festival since the first event in 1995. Fiddler Bob Holt and Caller Edna Mae Davis of Ava, Mo., introduced this art form that year, and their influence continues to be felt.

 

Square dancing has been an important vehicle for both artistic expression and social recreation in this region since the arrival of the first white settlers. 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, Mo., 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. Traditional square dancing still takes place at least occasionally in some locations within the Ozarks.

 

Experienced string band musicians from south-central and southwest Missouri who are thoroughly familiar with regional square dance traditions, led by fiddler David Scrivner, his team of Ashley Forrest, and Joel Hinds will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancing and the jig dance competition which is scheduled for Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

 

David Scrivner began playing Ozarks music when he was just six years old. A native of Mansfield, Missouri, David's family ties in the Ozarks go back generations with roots in Douglas and Taney counties. David has been playing traditional Ozarks fiddle music for 26 years, including several years as a student and apprentice of renown Ozarks fiddler Bob Holt. Focused on preserving Ozarks dance and music traditions, David 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.

 

Ashley Hull Forrest has been playing the fiddle since she was 6 years old and loves to play old-time fiddle music any chance she gets. Ashley was also a student of Bob Holt and David Scrivner. A wife and mom to two girls, Ashley works as a school nurse for a local school district.

 

Joel Hinds began playing guitar and banjo when he was eight years old. In 2015, Joel 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, Joel lives on the family farm with his wife Casey and their six children. Joel works as headmaster of a Christian school in Willow Springs.

 

Workshops - Dogwood 1

Friday, Oct. 16

 

Musical Saw–Duane Porterfield, 12:00 noon; Rhythm Guitar–Debbie Kamps–Down Yonder, 1:00 p.m.; Ozark Fiddle–Mike Fraser–Shortleaf Band, 2:00 p.m.; Clawhammer Banjo–Jeff Kamps, Down Yonder, 3:00 p.m.; and Ballads–Julie Henigan, 4:00 p.m.

 

Saturday, October 17

Musical Saw–Duane Porterfield, 12:00 noon; Music of the Ozarks–Shortleaf Band, 1:00 p.m.; Beginning Dulcimer, Fawn Cochrum, 2:00 p.m.; Dulcimer, Duane Porterfield, 3:00 p.m.; and Blues Guitar, Clarence Brewer, 4:00 p.m.

 

The Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival is the signature event for West Plains. The festival seeks to celebrate, preserve, pass on and nurture an appreciation of the old-time music and folk life traditions distinctive to the Ozark Highlands.

 

2026 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. Additional support has been provided by Missouri Humanities.

 

For more information on the festival e-mail info@westplainsarts.org, visit the website at https://www.oldtimemusic​.​org, or "like" the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Old.Time.Music.Festival