DanceFlurry News Volume 1 September 2007 Published annually by the DanceFlurry Organization, PO Box 448, Latham, NY 12110-0448 In this Issue President’s Message 1 President’s Message by Bill Matthiesen 4 Interview with Paul Rosenberg by Don Bell 6 Keep On Swingin’ by Joshua Fialkoff 8 Can’t We All Just Dance Together? by Audrey Seidman Bill Matthiesen 9 Book Review by Don Bell: The past two to three years have been exciting but Dancing In the Streets: A also very challenging times for the DanceFlurry History of Collective Joy by Organization. Barbara Ehrenreich New members may not realize we sponsor not only 11 A Brief History of the the big festival in February but also quite a range of Adirondack Dance other dances throughout the year. These include contra dances in Ballston Spa and at the by Peter Stix Weekend Buhrmaster Barn and the Brunswick Grange, along with special family dances ... English dances at the 11 New Contra Dance in Stockade Assembly and Rensselaer series ... swing Glens Falls by Bill Schwarz dances through Capital Swing and Albany Chill ... and the wonderful Adirondack Dance Weekend each 12 2008 Flurry Festival – fall at Lake George. What’s Up? by Peter Davis Each of these events requires a fair amount of volunteer work to sustain the dance energy in our 13 Contra Dancing in Costa region. But the February DanceFlurry weekend has Rica by Emil Jarczynski a scale all its own, involving hundreds of performers and volunteers who work throughout the year to provide one of the country’s most exciting dance weekends. Continued on page 2 DanceFlurry News * page 2 * September 2007 President’s Message cont. attendance at our local events by 2012 – with a special emphasis on bringing in younger Our organization ran for many years under participants. Many of us who were dancing the “charismatic leader” model, with much of twenty-five years ago still remember the the direction and energy coming from energy we used to enjoy when our events founder Paul Rosenberg. Paul not only attracted twice as many dancers as we do created many of the dance events in our today. So we know it’s possible. Our dance area, he also was responsible for community is aging – we need to introduce serendipitous new combinations of callers new dancers to this wonderful music and and musicians, as well as inspiring many dance tradition. volunteers to help make these wonderful events possible. * The DanceFlurry Festival is already pretty big, so we’re trying strategies to reduce some About three years ago the organization he of the crowding, while also keeping the event founded began doing some real soul- diverse. We want a good balance between searching about how we could become more local performers and big-name groups from useful to the various events we sponsor. We farther afield. We especially want to keep the also had to assume responsibility for the festival accessible to younger dancers and to advance planning needed to make the Flurry families. festival happen. We split the responsibilities between three people – Peter Davis took on * We want all our dance events to have a the booking, Doug Haller directed the friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Each of us logistics for the festival, and Ginny Gokhale started as a beginner, so we want to show oversaw the finances. It was difficult, it was the same patience and caring for each scary – but things came together very well newcomer. No dance snobs please! This is for the 2006 event. now a specific goal of our organization, not just a wish. Then a big storm changed everything: It knocked out the power for the entire 2006 * The scale of our activities means we’ve festival weekend, suddenly leaving our small been working hard to maintain our financial organization with financial losses of management systems in the very best order. staggering proportions. It was only through All our events have liability insurance the generosity of our performers, our coverage. We also carry directors and officers dancers, dance organizers, and the local insurance, as well as special disaster community that we were able to recover for a coverage for the Flurry Festival itself. stronger-than-ever festival this past Having long been an affiliate of the Country February. Dance and Song Society, we are now obtaining our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, The scale of the festival and our other year- which will allow us to more easily pursue NY round activities creates significant State grants and other funding sources. challenges for us. So this seems like a good time to review where we’re headed as an * We are focusing more attention on organization. membership development and membership communications (like this newsletter). We’ve * At a board retreat in the summer of 2006, spent a lot of behind-the-scenes effort to we set ourselves a goal of doubling upgrade our web presence, outreach and DanceFlurry News * page 3 * September 2007 membership materials, online dance folksy roots and our limited finances, we’d calendar, dance telephone hotline, and our like to accomplish as much as possible President’s Message cont. through our membership – which means inspiring folks like you to lend a hand.. You membership database. We’re looking for can support us by completing the ways to stay in closer touch with our enclosed 2008 membership form and/or members and supporters – perhaps even volunteering to work on a Board offer some special member events. Committee. Send an email to: [email protected] Membership is more than just receiving a discount card to events – you’re also * Our board committees carry the bulk of the investing in keeping your local dance work – they are PR ... Membership ... Fund- community vibrant and fun. Raising... Program committees – plus the DanceFlurry Festival has its own * We’re devoting more resources to helping committee, which is made up of individual local events organizers reach new audiences crews that focus on particular tasks for that – particularly younger dancers. This means event. All these groups are tackling helping with event publicity, advertising, specific tasks and looking for folks with photos and videos of events, web links, and special skills. Your expertise could really be getting information out to more news outlets, helpful to keeping this region alive with all with a goal of bringing new dancers to our exciting music and dance. events. So please, continue to support us with your * We’re also working with dance organizers membership, your suggestions, your time, and musicians to create new events. For and your expertise. We’re incredibly example, Maura McNamara has created the fortunate to enjoy such a wealth of wonderful Flurry Youth Institute, where classical dance and music events in our backyard. But string-instrument students in the schools get it’s only possible through the generosity and an opportunity to rub shoulders with involvement of people like you. Building our traditional string players like Jay Ungar, community is what it’s all about. George Wilson, John Kirk and Trish Miller, Peter Davis, and others. Maura is also See you dancing! planning a local “mega-band” where budding musicians will have the opportunity to Bill Matthiesen actually perform at area dances alongside President, DanceFlurry Organization more experienced players. There are plans for a new contra dance in Glens Falls and DanceFlurry Organization Board perhaps another one at SUNY Albany. We’ve also expanded our support for the year-round President : Bill Matthiesen special events of Albany Chill and Albany Secretary: Jane Rothfield Swing. VP for Fund-Raising: Don Bell Treasurer: Jen Brown * Obviously, expanding our outreach, setting up new events, maintaining existing dances, Heather Coleman- Steve Moore and keeping the Flurry Festival successful – Ibrahim Rosemary Nichols these all require a lot of work. This means Josh Fialkoff Jeanne Noordsy either paid staff or volunteers. Given our Barry Floyd Laura Perrault Terry Kinal Bill Schwarz Maura McNamara DanceFlurry News * page 4 * September 2007 Interview with Paul Rosenberg important in Jewish education. He by Don Bell remembers being scared because he had to learn steps. “Just about everybody was getting it except me. I stood out. It was very embarrassing.” In the summer of his junior year of high school, Paul attended a Jewish day camp. At the end of the summer, there was a dancing and singing performance for parents. Paul masked his ineptitude by cowering in the back row of the performance group. “I wanted to have nothing to do with dancing.” Paul describes himself as a ‘nerd’ who never went to a prom: “Us nerds didn’t have girlfriends and didn’t go dancing.” Paul attended only two dances during his The Evolution of a Dancer entire college career. One was with a date selected by computer. They went to a free In early August 2007, I interviewed Paul form dance with extremely loud rock music. about how he became a dancer and caller. He didn’t know how to move to rock music. Given Paul’s shyness, his early dislike of He had a terrible time. “I felt like dancing dancing, and his initial awkwardness as a was definitely not my thing.” dancer, one would never have guessed that he would blossom into a good dancer, a Paul’s next exposure to dancing was after popular dance caller and one of the founders college graduation. As his friends started of the Dance Flurry Festival. Paul’s struggle getting married, he found himself invited to with dancing is probably the reason he is so their weddings. At the receptions there was good at teaching beginners and young dancing, drinking, and loud rock music with people.