Christmas season is past, gifts have all been exchanged, both with family and friends and back at the store for something else. Wrapping paper is all disposed of and decorations are coming down. Now we look forward to 2022. 2021 seemed to go by fast despite the mask mandates and other rules. Some clubs have been able to hold dances and classes is spite of the fact that masks are required. Face shields do make it easier for some folks to dance. I am glad to see that our square dancers are pushing through and doing the best they can to keep the activity humming.
Back in the spring, we thought we would be fully dancing by fall. In the fall, we thought we would be fully dancing by January. Now it looks like that may be pushed back even further. Not good news. BUT, some clubs are starting classes this month. Others are still being cautious. Please check the OFN to see who is dancing in your area and go and support those clubs.
Mid-Winter is still on the horizon. If you have not purchased your ribbons yet, please consider doing so. This festival needs our support now, more than ever. We must all do our part to support square dancing and……
Let’s Get Back to Dancing
George Hermann
OFSRDC President 2021-2022
Here's hoping for a much better 2022 for us all. See you at Mid-Winter.
Click here to find out how to get your information into the OFN, including dances, lessons, photos, flyers, advertisements, and caller/cuer information.
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The coronavirus situation is very fluid. The state-wide indoor mask mandate is still in effect in Oregon. As always, it is up to each individual club and facility to decide what restrictions make them comfortable. Please honor their wishes.
https://ofn.club/content/2021-07/Covid%20Guidelines%20(210608).pdf .
The next Federation meeting will be at the Linn County Fairgrounds for Mid-Winter Festival, Sunday, January 30, 2022.
Mid-Winter Festival 2022 is scheduled for January 28-30, 2022, at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany. You can click here to download the Program Book.
The 2022 Summer Festival will be hosted by the Interstate Highlanders and Rogue-Sis-Q Councils, and held at the Blanchet School in Salem, a nice central location. The dates are July 15-17, 2022. The featured caller and cuer are Pat Carnathan and Rikki Lobato. Don't forget to buy your Mid-Winter Ribbons so you can attend our pre-registration kickoff party on January 29, 2022, from 1 to 2 pm in the mainstream hall.
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 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® will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 26-29, 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:
January 3 -- Heads to the Center
January 16 -- Columbia River Dancers
January 21 -- Corvallis Squares
January 22 -- Cherry City Cloggers
January 25 -- Happy Hoppers
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.
Click on the title to see the article.
The Alliance of Round, Traditional, and Square Dance (ARTS-Dance) brings together the major dance organizations in the USA. Our goal is to revitalize our activity and educate the public on the m ultiple benefits of dancing. Quite sim ply, we have this wonderful, healthful, and fun activity, but with so much competition with other leisure pursuits, we need to figure out the best way to bring more people into it.
There are currently nine Members of the ARTS Board. These organizations include:
All Member organizations maintain their independence and concentrate on their individual goals and missions. Each member has an equal voice in the decisions of The ARTS and is encouraged to provide the views and input from their organization. The true beauty of the alliance is its ability to increase the cooperation among the Member organizations. The ARTS has been able to bring together the varied dance forms to work toward the common goal of increasing the public’s awareness of the activity and to increase the number of dancers.
Since our first organization meeting in 2002, The ARTS has built a close relationship with all Member Organizations. We have actively supported National Square Dance Conventions (NSDCs) and USAWest Conventions. We have participated in most of the activities offered during these conventions including:
Our participation in the 71st NSDC® includes:
Immediately following the 712st NSDC in Evansville, IN we will hold our annual meeting. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 AM on Sunday, June 26,2022. All dancers and dance leaders are invited. If you would like to attend, please contact our Executive Director, Jerry Reed at ExecutiveDirector@arts-dance.org
For more information please check out our website at www.arts-dance.org If you have ideas or comments regarding our activity or for more inform ation please contact our Executive Director at: executivedirector@args-dance.org.
The world got a little quieter with the passing of Dan Richard Allen, 68, on Dec. 6, 2021.
Known and loved for his senses of hard work, comic relief and the skill to be able to chat with just about anyone, he was born Jan. 13, 1953, in Corvallis to Wayne and June Allen.
He spent most of his formative years between Philomath and Lebanon. As an adult, he spent most of his working years driving log, chip and dump trucks, including 20 years as owner/operator of his own log truck. His CB handle was "Pepsi Wino," for his love of Pepsi.
In 1974, he married Irene Bedient; they had two sons, Andrew and Ben. They divorced in 1996 and he married Ginger Cole in May 1999, which brought Dustin and Erika into the family. His grandchildren were a major part of his life.
Dan and Ginger were active members in the Sweet Home Squarenaders and Enduring A's Model A Club, and volunteers for several other organizations. Dan often provided tractors or cars for local parades.
A Celebration of Life service will be held on Jan. 15 at 1 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, 72 E. Elmore St., Lebanon. The family would appreciate photos of Dan from any point in the past 68 years. Please email them to benjamina921@gmail.com.
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 Rogue Sis Q Council has chosen the January Round of the Month:
"All Kinds of Everything II", Phase II+2 Waltz (Hover and Whisk), choreographed by Stella & Peter Tennant, music by Dana.
[Download your cue sheet here] (https://www.roundalab.org/CuesheetsDL2/All%20Kinds%20Of%20Everything%20II%2C%20Tennant%2C%20S%26P_Waltz_2%2B2.pdf).
For more information on the Round of the Month, please contact .
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.
Click a thumbnail to download the flyer.
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We did not have our October 30 dance because of COVID. We'll wait until it is safer. It does feel like the light may be finally showing at the end of the tunnel. We want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during the pandemic. It's hard, but we will make it and get back to dancing, calling and cueing.
Our next scheduled dance is now April 30, 2022. Surely, things will have slowed down by then. We're wanting everyone to be safe and feel safe.
Christina Corelli
We normally dance on Sunday afternoons once or twice a month to recorded music which can be halted so we can review moves that break down squares. We often will have two squares in attendance and are easy going and encourage participation from one and all at the advanced level.
Gaynor Hinz
Club reporter
We continue to dance once a month since we started back up last May. We normally have from 2 to 4 squares in attendance and on the floor. We have enjoyed dancing to Scott Zinser, George Hermann, Jim Hattrick, Terry Halley, Craig Abercrombie, and Darrell Kalmbach this year and hope to see more of them in 2022.
At this point we are not sure if we will have a dance in January so our next scheduled dance will be Feb. 25, 2022 with Jim Hattrick calling and possibly cueing our 58th Birthday Dance. If we have a dance in January it would be on the third Friday if the hall is available or perhaps the 3rd Saturday if our sister club Whirl-A-Ways decided to continue holding off on having dances. If we don’t see you at one of our dances, we hope to see you at either the New Year’s Eve dance at our Springfield hall which starts with pre-rounds at 7:30 and then mainstream with plus tips from 8-10PM. Masks or shields are required as well as vaccinations. Hand sanitizer will be provided. And of course the 4th weekend in January will see our annual Mid-winter Festival happening at the Albany Linn County Fairgrounds.
See you soon.
Gaynor Hintz
Thank you! Come and join us! We meet almost every Sunday whether we are dancing or not! Merry Christmas!
Christina Corelli
The club will continue with lessons and workshops into January and the students will be ready to join in the fun at Mid-Winter in Albany.
Marilyn Schmit
The club took three weeks off in November to allow our cuer and three others time to recover from an outbreak of covid in our area. All had been fully vaccinated and are feeling much better by now. We resumed dancing on December 2 with review to see how much we had forgotten in the three weeks we had not been on the dance floor.
We have a pre-holiday dance on December 23, to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s early since we are not hosting a dance on December 31.
We are hoping that your holidays were bountiful with lots of food, friends and most importantly, family. Did you get everything on your Christmas list? Marilyn Schmit
December found us dancing on three Fridays. Our 5th Friday dance is our New Year's Eve dance. We look forward to seeing more dancers as time goes on. Please support the clubs you can and let's remember we are all in this together.
Get your ribbons for Mid-Winter and we will see you in a square. Sheila Machado
Announcing our new club caller and cuer: Ian Craig and Julie Stiers. We are happy to include them in our club.
Starting in January 2022, we will be adding a second dance a month. This will be on either the fourth or fifth Saturday. We will have our second Friday dance, skip a weekend, and then have our Saturday dance. Please pay attention to flyers for details and to make sure we are dancing. Our Saturday dance in January will be cancelled due to Mid-Winter Festival. Also starting in January 2022, our dances will go until 11:00 pm.
We are hoping that we will know for sure this month if the Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Festival is happening this year. If it doesn't, we will be trying to arrange something with the Washington clubs. We will be selling raffle tickets at Mid-Winter to fundraise for our youth teams (2-3 squares possible this year). We might also have Teen Festival pins for sale - please stop by the youth table in the Mainstream Hall to see us.
We have had 13 youth students in our Mainstream class (3-4 squares at lessons). Our plan is to graduate them just before Mid-Winter. Julia Buchheit has been teaching a 2-step class and has 10 students. Our Plus class has 6 students. We really thank all our angels for helping at all of the classes. Petrina Buchheit
In January 2022 we will resume our dances on the fourth Saturday as usual. The Salem Square Dance Center where we regularly meet requires that everyone wear a mask or face covering.
Our longtime caller, Sandy Harris, has announced she will be retiring. We all appreciate her support, expertise, and enthusiasm over the years.
A Happy, Healthy New Year to everyone! We look forward to dancing with you all next year on the fourth Saturday of each month! Jodee Howard
Jim
Our Pre-New Year’s Eve dance will be primarily for new dancers, and features B-48 moves, and a plus tip at the end so there’s fun for everyone.
To be honest, there are probably too many clubs for the number of dancers we have, and the sooner a club starts to dance again, the more likely they will still be in business five years from now. We want to be one of the clubs still dancing in five years, which is why we started dancing last June; after all, one can’t grow a dance club by not dancing.
Jim
A visitation to Bachelor and Bachelorettes was December 8th - Dan Nordbye kept the squares moving (laughing) and enjoying ourselves. Julie Stiers cued to a busy floor of rounders. Both visitations helped the clubs financially - which was the goal. Look to dancepac.org calendar for future visitations planned.
Chaps and Petticoats met on December 6th and chose to cancel lesson plans and 3rd-Sunday dances, for now. Please continue to join us at our first and third Friday 'regular' dances.
Happy New Year everyone … Chaps will see you at Mid-Winter.
Happy Feet
Betty Chipps
We had our usual two dances in December plus a game night social between Christmas and New Years for our members.
We enter the new year with our club dances scheduled every second and third Saturday. They are from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Face masks are still required or full face shields that cover the entire face.
We will be offering square dance lessons for both new and returning dancers each Sunday from 5-7 P.M., beginning January 9. The lessons are for singles, couples, and adolescents 12 years old and up. Adolescents must be accompanied by an adult. Our caller Darrell Kalmbach is the instructor. Lessons will be at the Milwaukie community Center at 10666 SE 42nd Ave in Milwaukie, 42nd and Jackson) . This is also the location of our club dances.
Here is to a great New year of square dancing,
Carol Mendenhall
Our Tuesday SSD class should be graduating in early January; the class is small, but everyone has a good time. New SSD classes should be starting on January 18th, and we hope to get more dancers to participate. We also hope to have SSD dances on the 2nd Friday each month; with dates TBD when there is a Festival or another event happening that same nite.
Thursdays continue with a Mainstream Workshop and Plus class/workshop.
Our next dance will be January 15th. This is our Jack Frost Dance AND Amateur nite. If you've ever wanted to give calling/cueing a try come on down and you can try it with a great group of fun dancers who will encourage you!! It's always a fun time! Chuck and Rikki will be calling/cueing/mc'ing.
We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and may 2022 be the best year possible. We would love to see you in a square and look forward to seeing you soon!
As we get close to year's end, we want to wish all of our square dance friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope that next year will be the best you have ever had.
This past year we had our ups and downs, personally and as a club. Like many, we were on hold due to the pandemic and everything associated with it. We had hopes of starting a new dancer class and using the SSD program, but again due to the restrictions of the pandemic locally, statewide, nationally and dancers who were reluctant to get out socially we were not able to start classes. While we {Sherrie & I} have had our Covid vaccine, the booster, also our Flu, and Pneumonia shots we understand and respect people who choose to not get any of them and choose to not come out and dance and socialize. We were able to have our "Pepsi Booth" at the county fair, this is always a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Once again we want to thank all of the people who braved the heat and volunteered to help make it a success. We also want to thank Elaine for agreeing to be our council rep. She kept us informed on what is happening with the council and other necessary news. She has agreed to be our rep again next year. It has also been an extra treat to visit with and share memories with her since we've known each other for over 50 years. Sherrie and I only attended two dances this past year, and they were both fantastic, it was great to get out and kick up our heels and connect with friends. On another note because we only attended two dances, {mainly due to my work schedules} I have not called in almost two years, so when I get back into it, I will be like many dancers and will need to take it slow. As we look forward to next year, we hope to try new dancer classes again. We are also planning to have party nights and dances, ALL of these at least for a while, will be SSD, Mainstream, and some Plus, and NO Advanced. {Unless we have a guest caller} We don't have a start date yet. As always this will hinge on the Karuk Tribe and their restrictions and requirements. As I said in my last post once we start getting into the full swing of dancing all of our dances will probably be held at the Karuk Wellness Center. Once again, a big thank you to everyone who helped at the fair and Elaine for all she does for us. We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year.
Hope to see you soon please stay healthy and safe. Take care of yourself and those close to you. Remember that life is a precious gift.
Dean & Sherrie
Since the OFN is published around the 20th of December, you still have time to plan on the TVC's annual New Years Eve dance at the Hillsboro IOOF Hall. This dance features Darrell Kalmbach & KC Curtis calling with Tami Helms & Julie Stiers cueing. Beginning with rounds at 7:00 the dance will continue with squares at 7:30 until 10pm. Every third tip will be plus with a celebration break at 9pm coincident with New York time. Masks and/or face shields are required.
The next Council event in January will be our annual TVC Presidents Meeting & Potluck to honor current and past club Presidents. It will be held at the IOOF Hall, 267 East Main Street, Hillsboro, OR 97123 on January 31st. The evening will begin at 6:00 with a meeting at 7:00. All TVC club Presidents & dancers are invited to join us. The TVC wishes to thank all the presidents of the TVC Clubs for volunteering their time and efforts into this activity we all love. Also at this meeting the presentation of the Tualatin Valley Council “2021 Recognition Award” for outstanding service and special contribution to the square dance community within the TVC geographical area.
A message form TVC President, Mike St.Clair: "It's the beginning of a New Year and things are looking a lot better. By now we will have had our first TVC dance, the first one in two years, Yahoo!! We will be working on further dances and will have more info coming. The one thing that I really want to make happen this year is our TVC Recognition Award so put that on your calendar. This is to honor a person or persons that have gone above and beyond for square and round dance clubs. We will follow the current mandate from the Governor. This means if masks are required that is what we will do. At this time we are not going to require proof of vaccination. We missed out on this award in 2020 so I have contacted the board of midwinter and got an ok to present that award at midwinter. Please help me make this a significant event on both occasions. Those honored have worked hard to ensure that we can have fun and dance with our friends. Hope to see you on the dance floor."
Ferrous Steinka
Vaccinations are not required but mask wearing will be. Face shields only without a mask on underneath are illegal at events in Washington state.
Jan and I want to wish everyone the Happiest of New Years and look forward to seeing you in a square soon.
Nick Johnson
We have five dance days in January at Aloha Grange. Come enjoy our great callers any Monday for a fun afternoon of dancing and fellowship. On that note, Daryl Clendenin has resigned as one of our callers. We have appreciated very much his time with our club, and he will be missed. Daryl is looking to stay closer to his home. He is the caller for Oaky Doaks at the Oak Grove Community Center. Thank you Daryl for your years with Eager Beavers. We send our love and best wishes to you and Yvonne.
The new year will bring lessons. Monday February 14th we start our afternoon Plus square dance lessons, noon to 1:15 pm. Come to learn and/or refresh. Our regular Plus dance will be from 1:15 - 3:00 pm immediately after lessons.
We continue to require face masks or shields, along with proof of vaccination, to ensure the safety of our members and guests.
Happy New Year Friends! Be well be safe. Please check for up to date information at www.EagerBeavers.info.
Karen Steinka
Craig Holt
Now, I have great memories of past Hoedowner dances. Who can forget Sally Duyck, wearing a leotard, swinging from the rafters at our Circus Dance or Sally, at one of our Western Dances, sitting on the back of an upright piano in her dance hall outfit while Donnie Laas pounded out boogie woogie tunes? We’ve had memorable anniversary and pirate dances, dressed in pajamas and black and white, revisited the 60’s and our school days and had a great time doing it. We’ve found that crazy produces fun, excitement and those all-important memories. I’m excited for 2022!
The new memories we’re making: on November 11th, we had our annual Turkey Toss Dance. Have you ever tossed a frozen turkey? Of course not, but the bean bags of a corn hole game substitute perfectly! We sent lots of frozen fowl home with lucky dancers and one with our caller, K.C. Curtis. Connie Clark was our cuer that evening with Terry Halley and Beth being our guest caller and cuer. On the 27th of November, we danced to Daryl Kalmbach and Connie Clark. We had anticipated keeping dancers posted on the Civil War, pardon me, rivalry game scores throughout the evening. Lo and behold the game was played in the afternoon and was over before the dance began. Ducks won 38 to 29. Accuracy counts, even if it’s just one point.
As I look ahead, I’m peering into 2022. What do I see? I see dancing on January 8th with Scott Zinser and Randy Dibble. On January 23rd we’re counting on our cuer, Randy Lewis, being fully recovered from Covid 19 and cueing both dances. Of course, the red ribbons for Mid-Winter, January 28-29 are appearing on badges, and we have room reservations in Albany so we’re ready to go. Hope to see you there.
Krystal Laas
We do require Proof of Vaccination and Masks since those requirements were the “will of the majority” in the survey we sent out. Please keep checking our website for any new updates.
Lindie Noonan
We have been contacted by Tri Squares to visit our club on January 10th. This would be an excellent time to visit us if you would like to see our facility in what could be our largest dance in possibly two years.
We are a “vaccination required” club to protect those we dance with. For information contact Linda Kitchin, (503)757-5716. See our website, http://oakhillsquares.com/.
Mike Duyck
We will also resume hosting dances in January! Our first dance, “Back in the Saddle Again”, will be Friday, January 14th. Plus dancing from 7:00 to 8:00 PM and Mainstream from 8:00 to 9:30. Craig Abercrombie is our caller and Susan Healea will cue. Our second January dance will be on the 22nd with Craig calling and Susan cueing.
As per Washington State mandate, face masks are required (no face shields) but we do not require proof of vaccination.
We dance the second Friday and fourth Saturday of each month until summer, but will be dark on the fourth Saturday in April and May. In June, July and August we will dance the second and fourth Wednesdays and then resume the regular schedule in September. All dances and lessons are held at Kelso Senior Center in Kelso, WA.
Come join us for a fun evening!
Chris Poole
We require dancers to wear masks or face shields and must be vaccinated to attend. We are going to revisit the vaccination requirement at our next club meeting. We are averaging two to three squares per dance and hope this will pick up after the first of the year.
Our Saturday dances are performed by Mike and Julie Stout and our Thursday dances are Darrell & Erin Kalmbach and Tami Helms &Tim Keck. Tami and Tim are also hosting Intermediate round dance lessons on Sundays at Odd fellow Hall at 3:30pm.
We are going to start square dance Lessons on the 16th of January. These will be mainstream and Mike and Julie Stout will teach them from 4pm till 6pm at our hall. We will be requiring masks or face shields and not sure at this point if we will require vaccinations. TBA. Also we are going to have phase two round dance lessons after the first of the year. Tami Helms and Tim Keck will be teaching.
If you are interested in either of these lessons let us know so we can get Idea of numbers. If you have someone who wants to take the square dance or round dance lesson and your club is not yet started we are more than happy to get them started. We need to get people on the floor. They do not have to be Sunset Promenaders to take our lessons. So if we can work together maybe we can get more interest. Contact for lessons. Joyce Clark 503-310-0272, Mike St.Clair 503-812-0553, Tom and Janice Sminia 503-501-7771.
Thank You...
Mike St.Clair
Toes had a very merry time decorating the hall for Christmas, and 14 of us went for pizza afterward. Time spent with friends is even more precious now.
Several of us are looking forward to the Tualatin Valley Council New Years Eve dance at the IOOF Hall in Hillsboro.
Please join us on January 21st for our “Alice in Wonderland” theme dance. Our own Kathy Roberts has gone “Mad Hatter” with the fabulous decorations! It is rumored costumes will be encouraged, so watch the OFN for the club flyer on that.
We dance at the Kinton Grange with KC Curtis (Linda) calling, and Connie Clark cueing our first dance of the month.
Kathy Degman
Gloria Davis
There will be no 4th Friday Mainstream Dance in January due to Mid-Winter Festival.
We will begin mainstream lessons on the 2nd Tuesday of January beginning at 6:30 pm at the Newberg Community Center followed by Advanced lessons at 8:00 pm. Randy Dibble will be our instructor.
Judy Zimmerman
Come join us at our January 15, 2022 dance, 7-9 pm at the Aloha Grange. We dance at the level of the dancers attending, Mainstream and Plus. Let's just have fun!
Our classes start January 11, 7-9 pm at Aloha Grange. Right now, I am staying positive that we will have them.
See you in a square,
Carolene Siebert
Bob Allen