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Allegany Collaborative Education

5/30/2014

I had a great time tonight!
If you go up the Allegany River outside of Coos Bay about 13 miles, there's a community center. This remote community center is a fabulous place! There's a huge gymnasium, a commercial kitchen, cafeteria tables, other rooms... I'm trying to think up activities just to have a reason so I can rent it out...

But tonight, the organized group of home school parents known as Allegany Collaboration Education used the facility to hold their end-of-the-school-year play - Robin Hood. There are 13 homeschoolers, various ages, in this collective; they did a wonderful job singing and acting tonight! The play culminated with Robin Hood receiving Maid Marion's hand in marriage and everyone attending the marriage feast. That's where I came in.

With the help of Jennifer Sordyl and Don Berg (Contra Swings), I lead the 30-40 group of children and adults in some dancing! We started with Peter Amidon's Kings & Queens, segued into the Sicilian circle dance Haste to the Wedding, and opened the circle with Lisa Greenleaf's Stars and Moons Circle. We did a couple of one-night-stand, no-fail contras -- Tunnel Contra and Family Contra. On the last one, I was even able to back out and stop calling (until a new couple joined at the top of the set... ah well). For a fun change of pace, we danced Sasha, a scatter mixer. For the first time in my calling career, there was actually a girl named Sasha among the dancers! We ended the night with a big circle waltz mixer.

The group was mostly kids, but there was a nice ratio of adults to kids.Hats off to all the adults who joined in for the last dance! I know the dancers are having a good time when the band plays tunes with such inspiration that it makes me want to dance. I wanted to dance tonight.

The play - great! When kids work so hard learning their lines and learning their songs, and adults work so hard on props, costumes, scenery, etc., the results are great.
The venue - cool! Gotta rent it for something!
The dancing - it's magic.
The band - a treasure to have them in our community. I love working with these guys!

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Chatting while kerplunking

5/27/2014

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What a difference a few weeks can make.
It was just a regular class tonight. We reviewed some dances -- Nabrala Je, Miserlou, La Plongeuse de l'Ouest, Ya Da Kalinushku Lomala... we learned a couple of new ones -- Arap, schottische... and then reviewed some more.

Someone asked if we could do Jarnana, an Albanian line dance that we had learned earlier in the spring. We reviewed it, and I put on the music. By this time in the session (week 8), I like when other people lead the lines. So Toresa lead the dance, and I joined the end of the line where Cathy was dancing.

After I took Cathy's hand, she turned and commented to me, saying that she had enjoyed the Irish session that she dropped in on last week in the pub. Now, Cathy is relatively new to folk dancing, and when I say relatively new - I mean that she hasn't been dancing for longer than a year. For her to turn and start a conversation was, to me, a demonstration of how comfortable she is feeling with her dancing. For her to be able to keep her feet doing Jarnana while talking about the Irish session was SO impressive.

I like chatty dancers. I love watching dancers in my class when they are being social --- while they're dancing (better to be chatty while they're dancing than while I'm teaching). It's one of the reasons people love dancing - to spend leisure time with other people from their village, to connect with other people.

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North Bend Public Library turns 100

5/18/2014

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Sometimes the dancers outnumber the audience. Then it's like having a rehearsal in public.

I like when dancers in my class are willing to come out on a night when we don't regularly dance, and participate in a special event.

Tonight, we helped the local library celebrate their 100th birthday as a city department. Coincidentally, this week also commemorated being in their current beautiful building for 25 years. Two special birthdays! As part of a week-long series of special events, the library extended an invitation for dancing. And so we did.

It never ceases to impress me when dancers are not only willing to come out on a non-dance night and participate, but also willing to assume a level of responsibility for the event by agreeing to introduce a dance. I love hearing the dancers share about their own dance experiences! Some have been dancing for 30 years. I was shocked to hear Estella say she only started dancing in class last September. Is it really possible she has only danced for 9 months?? I watched Lynn dancing Tino Mori. When did she gain such confidence in her steps? When we invited the audience to join us for some beginning level dances, one gentleman chose not to get up and join us. But when we did the couple mixer Sasha, that didn't stop Kay from going over to him and engaging him in doing the movements - even if he wanted to stay seated.

The dancers do Internet research about the dance they will introduce. Some will type up what they want to share so they say it - and pronounce it - just right. I always learn something new listening to what they have found. Many of them drove a long way from home to participate in tonight's event - Coquille and Myrtle Point are 30-45 minutes out of town. And Sunday is Paul's only day of the week off from work! What a dedicated group! What a love for dancing! For me, one of the best parts of tonight was seeing the beautiful smiles on people's faces as I looked around the circle.

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Call yourself a dancer - just do it!

5/16/2014

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I've been reading blogs and articles for beginning runners. It seems that the running tribe encourages people who engage in running to call themselves runners as soon as they start running. If you are running, you are a runner!
When I started teaching folk dance, I clung to every word that my teaching mentor shared with me. We had a conversation about terminology. I remember learning from her that a dance student is a student until they start to dance. She said, "People who come to my classes are students until they begin to dance. Then they are dancers. Some people are students for months, even years. Some are dancers after ten minutes."
I'm re-evaluating this now. Sure - there's a lot of difference between running (left, right, then repeat) and dancing. But I don't know when that subjective line is drawn between student and dancer. Is it when their kerplunk step in Jarnana no longer resembles almost tripping - to me, as their instructor? If I'm the one who gets to decide when someone can start calling themselves a dancer, I don't know if I want to do this job.
I love watching the dancers in my class. They are all attempting to do the same thing, but they have different expressions of the dance. Does their level of fluidity make them more or less of a dancer? Why comparisons?
I am a dancer. Not because I've been doing this for over 30 years. Not because I love it SO much and do it SO much that it has become part of my identity. Not because I want to do this until I can't physically do it any longer. All of these things are true.
I am a dancer just because I dance.
Oh, and I'm a runner, too, now!

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The Cell Phone Hoe Down

5/8/2014

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What exactly is a hoe down, anyway? And why must we decorate with bales of hay?

The PTA generously sponsored the dance tonight, hiring me as the caller and a 4-person band.

Holy smokes. I called a barn dance tonight at a local elementary school. Kindergarten through 4th grade. At any one time, we had up to 75 kids and adults dancing. It was a huge group! What a success to entice SO MANY folks out on a stormy night! The ratio of adults to kids was probably around 1:3.
It felt much more like 1 :75. They were a noisy, talkative bunch.

I keep asking myself what I could have done differently to better command the attention of the crowd. But truly - it wasn't the kids who were disruptive, it was adults who were not modeling good listening skills. The adults wanted to socialize. Some parents participated. One parent was dancing -- circling to the left, circling back to the right - while texting! Another woman was talking on her phone. Others were not dancing, but were out on the dance floor taking pictures of their kids with their cell phones.

Before we ever started the dance, I thanked the parents in advance for their participation. I encouraged more to join in throughout the evening. But many, far too many adults never did join in. I have to figure this out. I have to find the words, the motivation - a way to get the parents involved with their kids and make it a truly family participatory event. We're going to do it again, and it will be better next time.

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Yom Ha'Atzmaut Celebration

5/5/2014

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Once a year, a local group celebrates Israeli Independence Day with an event called, "Standing With Israel". The program varies - over the years we've had speakers telling of their travels to Israel, a lecture about diversity in Israel, a discussion about the miracle of Israel's re-birth, the blowing of the shofar, children singing... but every year since 2009, my folk dance class is invited to demonstrate Israeli folk dances and engage the audience with dances.

This year, all of the advanced dancers in my class participated! Scott, Jan, Louise, Charlotte, and Paul each took turns introducing a dance. (If Kay hadn't been out of town, she would have introduced one, too - fortunately she got back in time to join in!) As a group, we demonstrated:
Banu Le Ha'Ir Et Ha'Ir
Turkish Kiss
Adama Ve Shamayim
Hineh Ma Tov
Then we invited the audience to join in for these beginning level dances:
Zemer Atik
Mayim
Ma Na'Avu
I taught these three dances to as many as would join the circle; Sharon Rogers played accordion and sang for these dances. Men and women joined us! There were three middle/high school-aged girls who jumped in on the audience participation portion of the program, and really did well!
As it turns out -- one of the three girls, Veronica, is an exchange student from Slovakia. After the festivities, a handful of us did Horehronsky Csardas, while Veronica sang along -- it was the sweetest, most beautiful unexpected delight to a wonderful evening.

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Allegany Collaborative Education

Chatting while kerplunking

North Bend Public Library turns 100

Call yourself a dancer - just do it!

The Cell Phone Hoe Down

Yom Ha'Atzmaut Celebration

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