We danced Saturday at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

We had a group of 15 dancers, ranging in age from 10 to mind-your-own-business, and in experience from a few months to we’ve-stopped-counting.

We arrived in Ashland on or before Friday; some of us took the opportunity to get there early and see a few plays.  The Festival provided housing for Friday and Saturday night.  We met Saturday morning for walk-throughs on the stage, and then were free to enjoy Ashland until evening.  Sound check was at 5:15, cast call at 6:15 and the performance from 7:15-7:55, letting us finish in time to make an 8:30 play.

The weather was warm, getting up close to 100 in the middle of the afternoon. but threatening thundershowers cooled things off nicely at performance time.  Fortunately the showers themselves held off until just after we danced.  We had a couple of minor glitches, but that is normal and expected, and overall the performance went very well.  Everyone was very enthusiastic and complementary.

After we danced about half the group used our comp tickets to see Equivocation, the only play available for comps that evening.  It was the only choice available, but it was an excellent choice.  It is a play I would love to see again, if done as well as it was done in Ashland.  It is a brilliant play.

Some of us then partied into the wee hours, and dragged ourselves home Sunday.  Others had the good sense to get to bed a bit earlier, and then dragged themselves home Sunday.

It was a wonderful weekend, and a number of us are plotting return trips in future years, even if we don’t get to dance.

As the half-dozen people who made it to the September Party already know, we didn’t have enough people attending to actually dance.  While the time spent talking and sharing the munchies we had brought was pleasant, we would rather not spend the money on renting the hall if we aren’t going to dance.   We have had similar situations at several parties during the last year — enough to dance, but just barely.  We have begun to wonder if we could get better attendance if it wasn’t a monthly event, but about every 2-3 months, giving us more time to prepare the dances in class, and giving all of us with busy schedules a chance to reserve those times to come dance.

The suggestion is to cancel the November party, as it falls on or near Veteran’s day and people often go away for the long weekend.  That would mean that we would just have the two most popular fall parties, October and December, dates when we will have live music.

For spring the suggestion is a mock ball, with recorded music and the upcoming ball program, in either March or April, the ball in May and the Ceilidh in June, skipping January and February which are usually poorly attended.

We need to have some discussion of this.  We don’t want to deprive people of opportunities to dance, but we need to have enough people at the parties to make rent.  We will have to be making the decision fairly soon, so we can release the hall if we aren’t using it, and make sure we get the word out to everybody about whatever changes are made in the schedule.

Please use the comments to express your opinion on this.  The branch committee wants your point of view, and we won’t get it if you don’t tell us.

Peggy

The group that will be dancing at the Pleasanton adjudication has met to practice once, and will be meeting again this Saturday 9 August, then taking a week off and meet the last time on 23 August. It is a group with great diversity in age, so we are classed as a family class. We will be dancing on Saturday 30 August at 14:30 on the Jordanhill stage. That’s the high stage directly in front of where the branch tent is usually set up. Come by and watch the group dance, and spend some time staffing the tent. It’s a nice shady place to sit down and rest after walking all over the fairgrounds.

The Pleasanton Games are coming up at the end of August, the weekend of the 30-31. We will be participating with a set in the adjudication, and a tent in the Celtic Heritage area. If you are going to be at the games, come by to watch us dance, and staff the tent for a while. I will post again when I have a specific time we will be dancing.

The Jean Patrick Memorial Dance is the Saturday evening of the Games. Jean Patrick was the dancer/dance teacher most responsible for the founding of the Sacramento Branch. She was killed in a light plane accident before I started dancing. In fact I’m not sure any of us currently dancing in Sacramento knew her, but the event on Saturday night is a way to honor her, and her role in the founding of our branch. The program and information on location and registration are available here. Cost is $12.00 for youth, and $18.00 for adults if you get your registration in before 20 Aug. You can register and pay using PayPal at the above link. Several of us are getting a motel suite in Pleasanton for Friday and Saturday nights. Depending on how many people decide to join us, we may not be able to offer more than floor space to for your sleeping bag, but if you need crash space, let me know.

There were 74 dancers at the children’s ball today, and a higher percentage than in previous years were quite young. Lynne was pulled away from her teacherly duties to play her flute in the band, and I joined the children’s class teachers and some young adult children’s class alumni to help point confused young dancers in the right direction, and fill out sets when needed.

The last dance of the afternoon was, as usual, Petronella, a favorite of the young dancers, who consider 24 out of 32 bars being pas de basque a good thing. And as usual, they encored it — another 8 times through, not just once and to the bottom. Following the dancing we all filled up with a proper afternoon tea — fresh fruit, tea sandwiches, scones, sausage roles, cookies (biscuits if we really want to be English) and of course, tea.

The music was wonderful, and the kids were excited, and exciting to watch. A fun, if tiring, afternoon.

We will be dancing at the Highland Games in Modesto again this year.  As always, it is the first Saturday in June; this year this will be 7 June.  If you haven’t ever been to the Modesto Games, they are held in at Tuolomne River Regional Park, a beautiful park along the river with lots of big trees and shade.  This is the last year Sonya will be dancing with us, as she is moving north soon.  If you would like to come dance with us, or just drop by to say hello you can find more information, including a map and driving directions at the St. Andrews Society of Modesto website.

I thought I’d try starting with a picture. It’s last year, but John’s the one with the current pics on his computer. If he’s downloaded them from his camera that is.