my , THE MAGAZINE OF FOJ^K & SQUARE DANCING I J JANUARY • 1955 • 25c ITALIAN DANCES AND LORE THE MAGAZINE OF FOLK & SQUARE DANCING • JANUARY • 1955 Vol. 12 No. 1 Official Publication of The PAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS The Folk Dance Federation of Calif., Inc. 2 Calendar of Events 12 Meet a Girl Who Lives Folk 3 Host Cities Dancing 4 Italy Expresses Gaiety in Dance 13 Tarantella Villaggio and Music 14 Fresnotes CHARLES E. ALEXANDER 5 Origins of Italian Dance Forms 15 Tell It to Danny 6 A Designer's Paradise 15 Promenade ANNE ALEXANDER 6 Recipe of the Month 16 The Record Finder 7 Granddaddies of Dance 17 President's Message 8 Beauties in Miniature 17 Report from the Southland HILDA SACHS 8 Folk Dancers' Quiz I 8 Let's Dance Squares 9 A Do-lt-Yourself 19 Sacramento, North Bay Notes REN BACULO 10 Stockton Festival Program 19 The Editor Speaks PEG ALLMOND ROBERT H. CHEVALIER PHIL ENG ED FERRARIO LEE KENNEDY PHIL MARON DANNY MCDONALD ELMA McFARLAND PAUL PRITCHARD CARMEN SCHWEERS MARY SPRING LEE KENNEDY, 146 Dolores Street, San Francisco DOROTHY TA.M6URINI WILMA YOUNG ELMA McFARLAND, !77'/2 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena 4 Federation Festivals Regional Festivals President, North— Wm. F. Sorensen, 94 Cas- tro St., San Francisco, UNderhill 1-5402. JANUARY 9, 1955, SUNDAY, 1:30-5:30 p.m. JANUARY 31, MONDAY—7-11 p.m. Recording Secretary—Bea Whittier, 3435 T Street, Sacramento, Calif. Glendale Civic Auditorium Long Beach Silverado Park Club House President, South-Minne Anstine, 24211/2 New Year's Resolution Festival. Sante Fe and 34th street Castillo, Santa Barbara, Calif. Hosts: Pasadena Folk Dance Co-op. Hosts: Silverado Folk Dancers. Chairman: Nadine Straith-Mlller, Chairman: Tom Daw. Council Meeting: I I a.m. FEBRUARY 5, SATURDAY 8-12 p.m. Publication & General Office-Folk Dance Federation of California, Tilden Sales Harvey Memorial Auditorium Building, Room 521, 420 Market Street, JANUARY 16, 1955 SUNDAY Stockton Bakersfield San Francisco: SUtter 1-8334. Margaret Civic Auditorium Moore, Secretary. Two hours of Exhibition dancing followed Advertising, Circulation, Subscriptions- Center and Fremont streets by general Folk Dancing on the extended Federation Office above. Chairman: Patrick M. Merrit. stage. Editorial—1504 Highway Road, Burlingame, Council Meeting: 12:30 p.m. California. Diamond 3-6871. Hosts: Circle Eight Folk Dancers. Dancing: 1:30-5:30 and 7:30-10:30 p.m. Business Manager—Ren Baculo, 630 Valle Chairman: Wilma Linscott. Vista, Vallejo, Calif. FEBRUARY 5, SATURDAY—7-9 p.m. FEBRUARY 6, SUNDAY, 1:30-5:30 p.m. San Gabriel Dept. of Recreation Holtville City Park 250 South Mission drive Circulation—Trudi Sorensen, 94 Castro St., Carrot Festival—Holtville City-wide cele- San Francisco 14, Calif. Experiment Nite Festival—Jr. Folk Dance Sam Smoot, Petaluma bration. Federation of California South. Clarence Carlson, Martinez Hosts: Button and Bows. Bess Redd, Sacramento Chairman: Lou Price. Daphne Upton, Southern Caiifornia Sponsored by the Holtville Chamber of Clarence Carlson, Walnut Creek Commerce. FEBRUARY 13, SUNDAY. Sacramento Vi Brawley, Fresno Chairman: Faye Manley. Governor's Hall Frances Williams, Merced Hosts: Circle Square. James Berry & Gene Fuller, Peninsula Sponsored by: Sacramento Council of Folk Pearl Preston, San Francisco FEBRUARY 20, SUNDAY Oakland Dance Clubs. Oakland Auditorium Warm-up party for state-wide festival to Chairman: Jim DePaoli. be held in Sacramento May 27-30. Council Meeting: 12:30 p.m. Dancing: 1:30-5:30 p.m., Folk Dancing. LET'S DANCE is published monthly by the Dancing: 1:30-3:30 and 7:30-10:30 p.m. Folk Dance Federation of California. 7:30-10:30 p.m. Square Dancing. Subscription price: $2.50 per year. For- eign, $3.25 per year. MARCH 20, SUNDAY San Francisco FEBRUARY 22, TUESDAY, 8-11 p.m. Entered as Second Class Matter at the State Armory Long Beach Silverado Park Club House Post Office at San Francisco, California, under Act of March 3, 1879. Chairman: Harlan Beard. Sante Fe and 34th street Cover and Contents Copyrighted 1955 by Council Meeting: 12:30 p.m. the Folk Dance Federation of Califor- Hosts: Silverado Folk Dancers. nia, Inc. Dancing: 1:30-5:30 and 7:30-10:30 p.m. Chairman: Tom Daw. Stockton Your Host Pasadena A Folk Fantasy will start the year Cities It's Festival time—and New Year out right for energetic dancers. Resolutions are in order. IF A PERSON WERE TO FLY over Northern San Joaquin HEME FOR PASADENA Folk Dance Festival to be held Valley at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the picture below would TJanuar.y 9 at the Glendale Civic Auditorium is New Year's resemble a huge spider web, its silver threads stretching from Resolutions. Nadine Straith-Miller, president of the hosting the high Sierra in the east to the coastal range in the west. The Pasadena Folk Dance Co-Op, is Festival chairman. The pro- hub of this web would be Stockton where the Folk Fantasy gram includes an afternoon of new and old favorites inter- Federation Festival will be held in the Civic Auditorium on spersed with squares and exhibitions. Special attticuon will be January 16. Metropolitan Stockton covers some 20 square miles. the Moldavanetz, featuring five couples from the Yosemite To the south and east the mesh work would be the highways Workshop. leading to and from the Mother Lode area, and to the north Some of the suggested "resolutions" include: and west the 1,000 miles of waterways weaving through the Resolved—to know the history of our group. Pasadena Co-op rich delta farm lands. is one of the oldest groups in the southland, founded in 1941. Stockton, now an inland seaport, is one of California's oldest Its president, Allen Pelton, became the first Federation presi- settlements. The gold rush fever and the rich farm lands at- dent, South. tracted immigrants from many parts of the world. With this Resolved—to take an active part in the group of which we ancestral background the Stockton area has a natural environ- are a member. As a Co-op, Pasadena offers a variety of activ- ment for folklore. ities. There is the ten-member governing board for those inter- Perhaps the credit for folk dancing coming to Stockton in ested in the executive; the party nights whenever there is a the early 1940's goes to Lawton D. Harris, a former editor of fifth Friday in the month; the Co-op Workshop and program LET'S DANCE. It was through folk dance classes at the College planning section for those interested in programming and of the Pacific that he formed a nucleus that later helped him teaching dances. start group classes at the local YMCA. Many of these early Resolved—to know more about our city; to see how it and students were later to be found teaching Adult Education classes folk dancers can assist each other. The Pasadena Art Fair and throughout the city. In the Fall of 1943, Harris became senior Continued on Page 19 program secretary for the YMCA. Through this position, it was possible to inaugurate weekly folk dance classes. As an out- growth of these classes, the Polk-Y-Dots was founded in Jan- uary, 1946, and was the only folk dance club in Stockton for Cover for several years. It was also in 1946 that Harris experimented with the idea of bringing outstanding leaders from out-of-State to January teach groups of dancers. His first choice was the well-known Mary Ann Herman from New York. She conducted classes for To set the Italian theme of the Pacific Recreation Conference dancers. This is generally this issue, the spirited dancing regarded as the seed that later grew and developed into the couple was created especially for LET'S DANCE. The artist is, widely known Stockton Folk Dance Camp with its staff of top at this time, anonymous. If you leaders. The local schools took an interest in folk dancing and would like to see more of his the teachers requested classes both in the elementary and sec- work, write to the Editor and it ondary fields. From this beginning, the Y classes for the teachers might be arranged. and the general public were formed and organized. Many of Continued on Page 14 from Slavic Countries. Authentic dances, JAN. 29, SATURDAY and JAN. 30, SUNDAY Special Events music and costumes. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium JANUARY 8, SATURDAY Concord No admittance charge. in Oceanpark Sponsored by: Stanford University Com- National Guard Armory Anatol Joukowsky Institute sponsored by mittee on Public Exercises. Federation South. Benefit: March of Dimes. JANUARY 29, SATURDAY. San Francisco Everyone welcome 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 Hosts: The Pleasant Hill Folk Dancers. Gym of Central YMCA p.m. Sunday. Dancing: 8:00 to 12:00 p.m. 220 Golden Gate avenue Chairman: Vivian Myers. Hosts: Mission Dolores Belles & Beaux and FEBRUARY 19, SATURDAY. Oakland Portola Bailadores. Oakland Auditorium JANUARY I I, TUESDAY. Stanford University Sponsored by: San Francisco Council of Federation Pageant. Memorial Auditorium Folk Dance Groups. Theme: An International Cavalcade. Starting at 7:30 p.m. Purpose: Warm-up party for March Federa- Starting: 8:00 p.m. to be followed by Folk Anatol Joukowsky, Yania Wassilieva and tion Festival. Dancing for everyone. 80 dancers presented in Ethnic Dances Dancing: Starting 8:00 p.m. General Chairman: Jim DePaoli. JANUARY, 1955 Expresses Gaiety In Dance and Music There is never the question of when to dance or sing. Every season brings good reason for traditional f estes, and the music is as light and bright as the costumes.