Finally we have made it through spring and are now into summer, and we are still dealing with the pandemic as best we can. More outside activities are good for the body and soul. There is excitement in the air. Whether you have your vaccine or not, I hope you are feeling great about the possibility of dancing again. Getting back to “Normal” and dancing with our friends is what we have so missed, socially.
When you hear the words “square up” will you panic and wonder if you can still remember the calls? Just relax and enjoy yourself; square dancing is fun. Take a refresher lesson and start out slowly. Keep a positive attitude and encourage one another, rather than being critical. Enjoy the blessings of once again dancing with your friends. Being ever mindful of the Covid rules demonstrates respect for everyone involved. You aren’t the only one who has lived through over a year of a pandemic that has caused our activity and many others to come to a screeching halt.
Sadly, square dancing numbers have been diminishing over the years in most parts of the country. However, the pandemic doesn’t have to lead to our activity’s demise. This is a wonderful opportunity to promote our hobby by taking advantage of people’s desire to be involved in non-threatening, social activities like square and round dancing. We know so much of society is eager to socialize once again after enduring such a long isolation. We encourage callers and dancer leaders to “think outside the square” and work on new ideas for marketing our hobby to those who never before thought about square dancing.
Normally, as Federation President, I would have been visiting around the state, attending dances and festivals. Since that’s not the case, the only thing going on is Zoom meetings for the councils and clubs. If you would like me to attend one of your Zoom meetings, send me your link and I’ll do my best to log in and join your meeting. I’m sure you are all being proactive and working on ideas for getting started with your classes and square and round dances. I would like to be involved and help from the Federation level if possible.
Swing Your Partner………Into Summer.
Gary Clark, OFSRDC President
Ah, these lovely warm days and cool nights remind me why I love living in Oregon. Remember, when your club decides to open up again, let me know. We will all have to relearn our habits of creating and distributing flyers.
Click here to find out how to get your information into the OFN, including dances, lessons, photos, flyers, advertisements, and caller/cuer information.
We have set up an email mailing list to notify people when a new edition of the online OFN is available, and for other important news about the OFN. To subscribe to this mailing list, just fill out this information:
Here is a useful article about the COVID restrictions, written and maintained by Federation 2nd Vice President Tim Keck, with useful pages from the State of Oregon and from USDA, and links to some statistics, for those who like numbers. https://ofn.club/content/2021-07/Covid%20Guidelines%20(210608).pdf .
At the Federation teleconference on May 16, 2021, the results of the 2021-22 officer elections were announced:
The next Federation meeting will be a Zoom teleconference on July 17, 2021, at 9:00 AM.
There will be no Oregon Summer Festival in 2021. Washington's Summer Festival is scheduled for June 17-19, 2021, in Everett, WA.
There is currently no Oregon Summer Festival scheduled for 2022.
Mid-Winter Festival 2022 is scheduled for January 28-30, 2022, at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany.
The latest news about the National Square Dance Conventions® is located in the National Squares magazine, produced by the NEC. You can find the latest issue here: (http://nsdcnec.com/flipdocs/NatSqOnline/Natsq1120/index.html)
The 70th National Square Dance Convention® will be held in Jackson, Mississippi, June 23-26, 2021.
The 71st National Square Dance Convention® will be held in Evansville, Indiana, June 22-25, 2022.
The 72nd National Square Dance Convention® will be held in Mobile, Alabama, June 21-24, 2023.
The 73rd National Square Dance Convention® has just been awarded to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for June of 2024.
All clubs in the Oregon Federation are required to maintain their status as non-profit corporations with the State of Oregon. The Secretary of State's office mails out a renewal notice about a month before your registration expires every year. The following clubs expire this month:
June 10 -- Spin Cycle Squares
June 15 -- Cascade Callers & Cuers Assoc
June 19 -- Hayshakers
June 25 -- Oaky Doaks
Download a complete list of the Federation club dances this month, all sorted by date and city.
Everything in the When & Where is extracted from the state directory information. If you find that your club information is wrong, you can fix that by going to the directory information area and fixing your data.
We have received word that Karel Morris, long time Area Delegate from the South Coast Council, passed away on Saturday, May 15. We will add an obituary when one is published.
You can download this list of callers and cuers who are available and ready to call or cue a dance for you.
Callers:
Cuers:
The Umpqua Area Council has chosen the June Round of the Month: "Mellow Moonlite Waltz", Phase II+2 Waltz (hover and chair), choreographed by Stella & Peter Tennant, music by Foster & Allen. Set speed to 38.5 RPM.
[Download your cue sheet here] (https://www.roundalab.org/CuesheetsDL2/Mellow%20Moonlite%20Waltz%2C%20Tennant%2C%20S%26P__2%2B2.pdf).
For more information on the Round of the Month, please contact .
Please note that, due to the coronavirus, there will probably not be any square dance lessons this fall.
Everything in this section is taken from the state directory information. If you find that your class information is wrong, you can fix that by going to the directory information area and picking to the "Lessons" tab.
June 16 (3rd Wed)
July 21 (3rd Wed)
July 23 (4th Fri)
January 9 (2nd Sun)
April 8 (2nd Fri)Click a thumbnail to download the flyer.
Click a thumbnail to see the full-sized picture.
Click a council name to go directly to that section.
Thank you for your continued vigilance regarding the pandemic.
Can't wait to call and cue for you,
Christina Corelli, Secretary
Stay safe and well and hope to see you on the dance floor soon,
Gaynor Hintz
Club Reporter
Our May 14 dance went very well. We had three squares on the floor for the mainstream tips and two on the floor for the plus half hour from 7:30 to 8PM. Scott Zinser was calling his best to a floor which was a bit rusty to say the least, but everyone did remarkably well considering our last dance was on Feb. 14, 2020 as president Larry Reetz reminded us. Jackie Gale called to a full round dance floor, and we were so happy to dance to her fine cueing. Scott was kind enough to say he would call a “star” tip of plus at 10PM if enough people wanted to stick around and so we did—two squares again stayed while another square stood on the floor talking to one another. Everyone was so happy to see one another again. Now with clubs up and down the I-5 corridor dancing we should be back up to par in short order!
We are encouraging those who should to wear their masks and continue to follow CDC guidelines and to fill out a contact information sheet at the first dance they attend with us We will also take temperatures at the door for a while. Those of us who have had our vaccinations can dance without masks if we choose as of May 13 according to the CDC and Governor Kate Brown.
Our next dance will be June 25 with George Hermann calling and Jackie Gale cueing. We will offer plus from 7:30 to 8PM and have mainstream tips from 8-10PM with no official break. At this time we are asking people to bring food and beverages just for themselves and not to share although perhaps by June we can consider going back to sharing our goodies and offering coffee, tea on the break bar. We’ll have to see how things are going by then. Watch for our email posts. If you want to be on the list, please contact me at (541) 741-4149.
Meanwhile, happy dancing!
Gaynor Hintz
Club Reporter
Yay to dancing again,
Christina Corelli
We will continue to work on Bolero through the end of May and then see where we go from there. The Covid took us out of our hall for the first Thursday of May, and it is unknown at this writing what happens after that. We have a dance planned for May 15, a phase 3-4 dance with some 5’s. Will see what the risk level is by then as to whether we have it or not. Stay tuned for next month’s article to see what is reported.
I am also working on thoughts for a phase 2 dance in late July or August to get the easy dance level dancers ready for lessons in September. It is intended to be kind of an early kick off dance to get some floor time for them. Details to follow when more plans fall in place. Marilyn Schmit
The latest round of restrictions meant that we had to cancel our 5th Friday Plus Dance but we were able to start our 1st Friday Dance again for May.
We are averaging 4-5 squares on the floor each dance. Our numbers have stayed below the 50 person limit for the hall.
Thank you to all of the dancers for wearing their masks or face shields. Hopefully sooner rather than later we can dance without them.
We will continue to dance our regular schedule as long as we are able to. Our club does not go dark for the summer months.
Dances will be posted on our FaceBook page - Salem Swingin' Stars Square Dance.
Hope to see you on the dance floor.
We will be working with the Waldo Hills Community Club on maintenance on the hall over the summer. Petrina Buchheit
June 26 (4th Sat)
June 26 (4th Sat)
We’re going to be moving rapidly, and once we find out what dancing we can do, we will immediately send out caller/cuer contracts and be dancing within a couple weeks after that. Whether this will involve squares and rounds, or just rounds, we do not know; it depends on government and National Grange edicts at the time. Actually, to dance at all, we are at the mercy of the National Grange!
Jim
June 16 (3rd Wed)
June 23 (4th Wed)
June 30 (5th Wed)
Chaps and Petticoats had an outside Club fellowship on Sunday, May 16th at a member’s home on the water - perfect 80-degree temp and no-mask freedom. Our primary focus was to discuss reopening our lessons and dances. Since our venue is a Grange, when we open depends first on the State mandates and second on insurance compliance with National Grange - so opening is in a ‘holding’ pattern as of this meeting.
We covered dancing and lesson options in our meeting: SSD Lesson followed by SSD Dancing, same night, was popular though how to blend from an SSD lesson plan (after graduation) into Mainstream teaching was unclear - more ‘Zoom’ training discussions are needed. To keep dancing, other dancing options were discussed: Contra, Line-dancing, Rounds and even “ABC dancing (where one learns on the fly) were some - perhaps Chaps will choose another night to dance the other options.
It was nice to think about increasing our membership with these dancing options, though for now, we closed with lots of options, lots of questions and lots of decisions to make.
Happy Feet,
Betty Chipps
Beginning in September we start 8-week sessions every 8 weeks. People advance as they are comfortable in doing so, often repeating basic and doing mainstream and plus all in the same evening. Angels galore! We do plus first and those who can stay for the rest of the evening do so.
We also talked about our club picnic in August. Typically, we introduce new officers at the picnic. Our elections are going on right now. This year, as with the PAC, our 2021 officers volunteered to serve again. There will be only one change: Tom Halpenny, who has been serving as secretary for years, will continue on as our web manager (and data preserver) and Matt Driggers volunteered to run for the secretary position. So unless someone does some right-in running, which is doubtful, that will be the only change for 2022.
Hope this finds you all well vaccinated and healthy! Keep on Keepin' on!
Janet Linebarger
Hoppers PAC Delegate
Our club members keep in touch with email, phone calls and occasional zoom meetings. Officers for this coming year will be elected soon.
Carol Mendenhall
The annual TVC directory is being prepared for 2021-2022. Due to Covid, the directory was not published last year.
A message from TVC President Mike St. Clair: "The TVC is alive and well. I just wanted to say from looking at the reports that for the most part clubs are communicating and planning the future of our dancing. Also the TVC is going to plan a picnic this summer just to get every one back on track. No dancing just a social activity. We don't have venue or date yet but it will be bring your own picnic and just visit. We will keep you posted. I am excited about the future even as slow as it is progressing."
Ferrous Steinka
Jim Hattrick was supposed to have had some surgery at the end of May and if he is healed, he will be calling for us this fall. He said he was going to do round dance reviews before the club lessons on Tuesday nights.
Until then, GET YOUR SHOTS, and remember that the Right and Left Grand usually starts with the right hand.
Stay healthy.
Nick Johnson
Sally Duyck
June 7 (1st Mon)Craig Holt
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun,
And I say it’s all right.
Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter,
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here.
Maybe not years but over a year and an indelible part of our lives changed and was diminished. Hoedowners believe we have a plan to be on our way back.
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces,
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here.
Have you had a chance to drop by our Saturday night round dances? It had been a wonderful way to see familiar faces and smiles behind the masks.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
We have been feeling the warmth during our round dances with a nice group attending on alternate Saturdays. Thank you Randy for accommodating everyone including my husband and I who are novices. Thank you to all the experienced round dancers who have tolerated our short comings. Waltz away!
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right
We will be all right! And on that note keep your eyes and ears open about Hoedowner doings in May! We may have a surprise or two.
Our Rounds on the second and fourth Saturday; practice or brush up 6-7pm, dancing 7-9pm. Singles are welcome. Masks and social distancing required.
If I don’t get to see your smiling face, at least let me see your smiling eyes.
Krystal Laas
We normally have been dark during the summer anyway, so our next dance will likely be held in September.
We are a Plus club, but in general for the larger organization we support clubs going to SSD, and we support the TVC having their dances in the SSD format.
Lindie Noonan
Happy Memorial Day!
Marie Clem
We did determine that we are eager to be with dancing friends again, eager enough to show up for a meeting! It seems that not much has changed in the way people are thinking about moving forward with dancing. We discussed dance frequency, lessons and club activities without any change.
Last time I wrote about all the work on the Senior Center that John Poole, Dick Sims and others have accomplished. Now, it will be time for the ladies to sort, clean and organize the storage. After which, we will have lunch. Woo hoo, ladies lunch.
One of our more recent members, Terry Robbins, died at home with his wife, Londa at his side. We will remember the joy and smiles Terry brought to our dances and how much he supported our lessons.
Until our next communication may we all continue to smile and support our dance friends.
Annie Tietze
Dan Browning
June 17 (3rd Thu)A few of us Toes have had a couple of fun lunch dates, it is so nice to talk to friends face to face. We are even planning a Toes meeting at the Big Toe’s house & potluck for those that feel comfortably safe in doing so. We’ll also have Zoom on the computer for everyone else. Time to finally set some possible dates for returning to the grange & life as a square dancer & active community member. We’ve heard news of the Promenaders having 18 people at a round dance! Hope springs again!
Keep keeping on the safe side & stay well. See you all real soon.
Kathy Degman
Gloria Davis
Officers were elected with President, Secretary and Treasurer remaining in office for another year. New Co-Vice Presidents were elected and we are grateful for Ben & Kimberely being willing to serve in that position.
The meeting ended with some visiting time which was enjoyed by all who participated.
Judy Zimmerman
June 11 (2nd Fri)Hope everyone is well and getting through this time as best they can. Take care.
Carolene Siebert
Bob Allen
We dance the first and third Saturdays from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm. These are updated times and have recently changed, so please make note. We are also starting a “no experience” dance from 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm on our regular dance nights. Come join the fun and help introduce square dancing to a whole new group of dancers!
Mark your calendar now for the Buckeroo Round-Up weekend scheduled for June 11th-13th. This year we will welcome Dan Nordbye as our caller and Julie Stiers as our cuer. It is always a highlight of our year and helps us raise money to support our beloved barn.
Happy dancing,
Robin
Summer shutdown of existing classes: Phase 3 Cha classes will end the second or third week in May. Phase 2 Waltz and Phase 3 Jive classes will end on June 15th with a Graduation Dance Party!
Exciting Fall Plans
Phase 3 Slow Two Step (STS) classes (no previous experience required) will begin on September 14th, 2021, Tuesdays 6:30-8:30pm. It will be a mix of teach/dance for two hours. If all goes well, it will progress to Phase 4 at some point during the season. There is the possibility of an hour of workshopping STS from 5:30-6:30 on Tuesdays as well, stay tuned.
Intermediate Foxtrot(FT) dancers (those who have already completed Phase 3 FT) will tackle Phase 4-5 FT on Mondays beginning in September, date & time to be determined.
Possible new Phase 3 workshop (probably 1.5-2 hours on a weekday morning/afternoon). A workshop differs from a class in that the workshop format requires dancers to have completed beginner classes for the rhythms being danced. Specific dances are taught, it is a great opportunity for floor time, dancers refine what they’ve learned and might pick up a new move or two! Cuers are exploring this possibility, stay tuned!
4th Friday Dancing Friends Round Dance Party each month, beginning in May and continuing throughout the year. Phase 4/soft 5 mixed rhythms from 6-7pm, Phase 2-3-4/soft 5 mixed rhythms rotated from 7-9pm.
Dancing Friends welcomes you whatever level you are dancing at, come to the dances and workshops to get that all important floor time and have some fun with us! If you've never danced (and everybody can learn to dance), come to lessons in the fall, you just might amaze yourself!
We had an all dancers club meeting in April followed by an impromptu hour of dancing that was a lot of fun! We expressed gratitude for the opportunities we've had to dance this past year and then made some group decisions.
Summer shutdown of existing classes: Phase 3 Cha classes will end the second or third week in May. Phase 2 Waltz and Phase 3 Jive classes will end on June 15th with a Graduation Dance Party!