English Country Dance April 2

Posted on 2023-03-27 by Dan Allison

Caller: Alisa Dodson
Music: Quite Carried Away
Sound: Sue Jones
Date: Sunday, April 2 (1st Sunday Roseville)
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm, with newcomer’s workshop at 1:30 pm
Location: Polish American Community Hall, 327 Main St, Roseville, CA 95678
Cost: $10 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check)

Alisa Dodson has been English country dancing since 1980 and calling since 1990. She was involved in BACDS dance in the Bay Area for many years before moving away, and she now lives in the old gold mining town of Murphys.

The music will be provided by Quite Carried Away, our house band: QCA is Martin Lodahl (viola da gamba), Susan Jones (English concertina), Jane Kostka (whistle), David Wright (violin and mandolin), Arlene Jamar (piano), and Dick Holdstock (octave mandolin and tenor banjo).

As usual, beginners are welcome. If you are bringing, or know of any, first-timers, please urge them to come at 1:30 for the introductory workshop that precedes the dance. No partners are needed, so come by yourself or with friends or with family. Events are accessible to people with disabilities.

For more information, and lost and found, contact Laura Leonelli, 916-549-7093, or email info@sactocds.org. Our schedule of future dances is always available at https://sactocds.wordpress.com/calendar/. You may join our email list on groups.io at https://groups.io/g/SactoCDS/. Please enter your name when joining.

COVID Safety Information

The SCDS Covid safety policy requires full vaccination, including boosters. Masks must be worn at all times while inside the building. We recommend N95, KN95, or KF94 masks and do not allow masks with exhaust valves (because they don’t protect others), cloth masks, or surgical masks. Please bring your own water and snacks, and plan to step outside to eat or drink. Windows and doors will be open to ensure good ventilation, so please dress accordingly. Most importantly, if you’re not feeling well, stay home and join us next time.

If you haven’t been to a dance yet, please email a photo of your vaccination card to Laura Leonelli at lauraleo524@gmail.com before the dance. Please also print a copy of our waiver form, sign it, and bring your paper copy to the dance. You only need to do this once; we will record that you have provided this information, so that it will be valid for future dances.

Contra Dance March 25

Posted on 2023-03-19 by Dan Allison

Caller: Mark Goodwin
Music: The Cain Raisers: Erik Hoffman (fiddle), Stefan Curl (banjo), and Craig Johnson (piano)
Sound: Clark Smith
Date: Saturday, March 25, 2023 (fourth Saturday)
Time: 7:00–10:00 pm, with newcomer’s orientation at 6:30 pm
Location: Coloma Community Center, 4623 T St, Sacramento, CA
Cost: $12 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check); If cost is the only thing preventing you being being there, please talk to the greeters at the door.

Mark Goodwin began calling contra dance in Chico in 2001 and has called for local regional dances, including Nevada City and Newcastle. His aim is to call programs that bring everyone along for the ride, with dances that are memorable, have intuitive transitions, and weave familiar and interesting elements into a variety of dancer interactions.

The Cain Raisers are Erik Hoffman (fiddle), Stefan Curl (banjo), and Craig Johnson (piano). Erik Hoffman played fiddle with The Rosin Doctors and The Erik Thor & Hands Four. He loves the spirit and joy that is passed along with traditional music and dance, and loves to share his enthusiasm. Craig Johnson has played piano and accordion for dancers since 1982. He plays with Bangers and Mash at SF’s Dickens Fair, the Dogwatch Nautical Band, and is a regular musician for San Francisco’s longsword team, Ring of Cold Steel.

A newcomer’s orientation is offered at 6:40 pm, perfect for people who have not contra danced before, or who could use some refresher. Experienced dancers are invited to partner with newcomers during the orientation and early dances to help integrate them into the community. No partners are needed, so come by yourself or with friends or with family. Events are accessible to people with disabilities.

Contact: For more information, and lost and found, contact Laura Leonelli, 916-549-7093, or email sactocds@gmail.com. Our schedule of future dances is always available at https://sactocds.wordpress.com/calendar/. You may join our email list on groups.io at https://groups.io/g/SactoCDS/. Please enter your name when joining.

Note: The location of the SCDS dance calendar has changed. If you subscribed to the calendar before January 1, please unsubscribe from that one and re-subscribe to the new one. On the Calendar page at https://sactocds.wordpress.com/calendar/, you can subscribe to the calendar so the events show up in your personal Google calendar. Click the plus sign in the lower right hand corner. For iCal users, the link is https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/sactocds%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics.

COVID Safety Information

English Country Dance March 19

Posted on 2023-03-14 by Dan Allison

Caller: Bruce Herbold
Music: Quite Carried Away
Sound: Sue Jones
Date: Sunday, March 19 (3rd Sunday Sacramento)
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm, with newcomer’s workshop at 1:30 pm
Location: Young Ladies Institute (YLI), 1400 27th St, Sacramento, CA 95816
Cost: $10 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check)

Bruce Herbold started dancing Scottish country dance in 1977 in Berkeley and got seriously into English country dance in the 90s. He teaches two SCD classes each week and calls ECD all around the Bay Area. His overarching goals as a caller and a teacher are to make the dancing sociable and fun. He believes that every good dance tells a story.

COVID Safety Information

COVID Safety Update

Posted on 2023-03-05 by Dan Allison

The board of SCDS has made a small update to our COVID safety policy. A number of dancers have requested the ability to drink inside, particularly since the dances are thirst-making, and some have asked for eating inside. These policies address that request,

Green (low): Only when our counties are in the green zone, allow dancers to remove masks briefly to eat or drink inside, as long as they are six feet away from others.
Yellow (medium) and red (high): Eating and drinking are outside-only activities at these levels We will continue to run dances when our counties are in the yellow or red zone, while strictly enforcing the rules about masking at all times while indoors.

Our counties are Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, and El Dorado. The CDC COVID Community Level data is released weekly, usually on Thursday. Note: the data on this post will not be updated, if you want to know ahead of time what the levels are, you will need to check them yourself.

Sacramento County: medium (yellow) as of 2023-03-02
Yolo County: medium (yellow) as of 2023-03-02
Placer County: medium (yellow) as of 2023-03-02
El Dorado County: medium (yellow) as of 2023-03-02

If the COVID Community Levels change, this will be announced at the dances.

There have also been requests to change our vaccination policy, but it remains unchanged. Dancers must have the normal course of vaccines, and at least one booster. This policy was established on the request of dancers, many of whom said they would not dance if the requirement were removed. We will survey our dance community again this spring, and the vaccination requirement may change based on that survey or other health information.

We encourage testing before the dance, but do not require it. We do not allow dancers to test out of the vaccination requirement, primarily because we don’t have the volunteer capacity to examine test results from multiple people at the door.

Dancers have also questioned the masking requirement, as it does make dancing less comfortable. However, our masking requirement is unchanged. We require N-95 or equivalent masks while inside the dance hall. People are welcome to step outside for fresh air. We continue to ventilate our dance halls as much as is possible. The experience of many dance communities, both ones that require masking and those that make it optional, indicates that masking is the most important safety precaution we can take to reduce COVID transmission at our dances.

If you have danced with us, you will recognize that many in our dance community are over 50 years old, which is one of the risk factors for more serious COVID infection. We also have several people in our community who are immunocompromised and would not dance if we removed the masking requirement at this time.

English Country Dance March 5

Posted on 2023-03-01 by Dan Allison

Caller: Yvonne Couvillion
Music: Quite Carried Away, with special guest fiddler Lonna Whipple
Sound: David Uggla
Date: Sunday, March 5 (1st Sunday Roseville)
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm, with newcomer’s workshop at 1:30 pm
Location: Polish American Community Hall, 327 Main St, Roseville, CA 95678
Cost: $10 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check)

See dance program videos below.

Yvonne Couvillion began calling 30 years ago. She met her husband, Andre, at a contra dance in Bastrop, Texas 26 years ago. They now live in Sacramento where they attend, teach and host a variety of dance events, including English country dance.

COVID Safety Information

Dance Program (animal theme)

Cockle Shells

Minnows, or Bother the Fish

The Playful Puffin (new)

The Hen Run

Kappy’s Dual Porpoise

Horseplay

Movement Afoot -tango waltz

Butterfly Meadow

Winds on the Tor -sacred circle scarf dance

The Black Cat

Eastbourne Rover

▶ Black Nag – YouTube

Mad Robin -view from bottom of set

The Wood Duck -Y&A

save-the-date for Echo Summit Dance Camp

Posted on 2023-02-25 by Dan Allison

September 15-17, 2023

Echo Summit Dance Camp at Camp Sacramento will be held September 15-17, 2023, Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. Good news! The Camp Sacramento facility has been repaired and will be fully functional this year.

Our talent this year is Supertrad (Dave Langford, Sam Bartlett and Eric Schedler) and Dam Beavers (Ben Schreiber, Scotty Leach, and Ness Smith-Savedoff), with calling by Mary Wesley and Steve Zakon-Anderson, and sound by Victor Garza.

Registration will be available in early April at https://registration.sactocds.org.

Supertrad: Boston-based fiddler and guitarist Dave Langford is the fiddling fire behind The Latter Day Lizards and Stomp Rocket, combining multiple styles of fiddle playing with fierce energy and drive. Mandolinist Sam Bartlett (Bloomington, Indiana) grew up in the contra dance world of rural Vermont, was an early member of Wild Asparagus and the Clayfoot Strutters, and now gigs with the Stringrays and Notorious. Eric Schedler (Bloomington) studied harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory but now rocks on the piano and accordion as a member of Chicago’s favorite contra dance band, the Cosmic Otters. While steeped in the subtle intricacies of the old Irish and New England tune traditions, Supertrad plays with a groove and persistence that is timeless.

Dam Beavers: The Dam Beavers are Ben Schreiber on fiddle, Scotty Leach on piano, and Ness Smith-Savedoff on drums. With roots in a wide variety of styles and genres, their music comprises an eclectic mix of old and new, familiar and unfamiliar. Your feet will be swept away by a cascade of rhythm from these beavers’ dam fine reservoir of music.

You may print the save-the-date flier for your own use or to distribute at other dances or social events. pdf

Contra Dance February 25

Posted on 2023-02-20 by Dan Allison

Caller: Mike Fynan
Music: Persons in Black
Sound: Ken Britton
Date: Saturday, February 25, 2023 (fourth Saturday)
Time: 7:00–10:00 pm, with newcomer’s orientation at 6:30 pm
Location: Coloma Community Center, 4623 T St, Sacramento, CA
Cost: $12 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check); If cost is the only thing preventing you being being there, please talk to the greeters at the door.

Hailing from Santa Rosa, Mike Fynan is a flashy and innovative caller.

Local favorite Persons in Black is Sue Jones on concertina and recorders, David Wright on fiddle and mandolin, and Clark Smith on guitar.

COVID Safety Information

English Country Dance February 19

Posted on 2023-02-13 by Dan Allison

Caller: Alan Winston
Music: Quite Carried Away, with special guest Marilyn Cooper
Date: Sunday, February 19 (3rd Sunday Sacramento)
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm, with newcomer’s workshop at 1:30 pm
Location: Young Ladies Institute (YLI), 1400 27th St, Sacramento, CA 95816
Cost: $10 for adults; $8 for college students with ID; $5 for dancers under 18; $25 maximum for families (cash or check)

Caller, choreographer, and community leader, Alan Winston started with Regency dance in 1978 and has been dancing contra since 1985. He’s been calling Regency, English, Early American, and Victorian dance since 1985, and started calling contras in 2006. He’s called for balls, camps, and special events from Southern California to the Bay Area to Oregon, Washington, and Victoria BC.

COVID Safety Information

Nevada City contra no more

Posted on 2023-02-10 by Dan Allison

We are posting with permission the email that the Foothill Country Dancers sent to members recently. This is sad news for everyone from the Sacramento area who has danced in Nevada City and Newcastle, and past events such as Fall Has Sprung.

It is critically important that our local and regional dancers come back and dance in Sacramento, so that we don’t meet the fate of the Foothill group.

Members of the Foothill Country Dancers Community,

We are sad to report that the long-awaited return of the Nevada City contradance is not to be. The board has voted to dissolve the organization and we have begun the process of distributing our modest assets to other nonprofits.

We won’t burden you with all the reasoning that went into this decision. Much of it was laid out in the email we sent in November. The very short version is that we cannot under the current circumstances both recruit a new generation of leaders and managers and rebuild our dancer base.

FCD is not the only contradance organization laid low by the pandemic and other factors beyond our control. Many other dances around the country are struggling. In our region, the organizations that sponsored dances in Chico and in Reno have also closed down. However, our sister organization in Sacramento, the Sacramento Country Dance Society, has doggedly persisted. They brought back contra dancing and English country dancing early in 2022 and have been offering regular dances—masks required—since then. We hope you will attend their dances when you feel ready.

Special gratitude and recognition are owed to the people who, after our dances were halted early in 2020, offered to help out in various ways when the hoped-for time came to start back up. They are: Pamela Halloran, Carlyle Miller, Becky Smith, Jeff Illgner, Carol Turner, Erika DeVito, Sue Billingsley, Jan Foster, Keith Montgomery, Karen Leyse, Peter Ramsay, Carol Harvey, Susan Sanford, Arlene Jamar, Dewey Bandy, Donna Wolken, Shoko Call, and Ralph Williams.

It is also important to thank and recognize those who, in various ways, have helped contra dancing happen in the northern Sierra foothills since our founding in the early 1990s. These folks are: our founders and early board members (Susan Murphy, Carol Riggs, Steve Nicola, Laurie DeJardins, Barry Mingst, Bill Vicars, Margaret Pearson, Jamie Lynn, Mark Harling, Phyllis Wong, Isel Lamoreux, Jim Lawson, Christina Slowick); our dedicated house musicians (Barry Angell, Rudy Darling, Ken Nilsson, Mark Botic, Lonna Whipple, David Wright, Dave Kistler, Cheryl McKinney); the originators of the series of annual 12-hour dances held from 1998 to 2013 (Lonna Whipple and Jamie Lynne); our regular local callers (Joyce Miller, Bob O’Brien, Eric Curl, Susan Murphy, Mike Renow); later and current board members (Dan Skeahan, Bonnie Terry, Judy Netherwood, Bill Ewald, Bonnie Terry, Thea Blair, Cathy Collings, Joyce Miller, Lisa Frankel, Eric Engles, Bob O’Brien, Christy Barden, Rick Peltier, Rebecca Poage, Gregory Wilson, Chris Alford, Christina Slowick, Lonna Whipple, David King, Michael Brackney, Sara Larsen, Bridget Priest, Betsy Abrams, Sue Jones); and key volunteers (Tim Billingsley, Anne Marie Jaggi, Dewey Bandy, Ralph Williams, Amanda Schmidt, David Bird, Jimmie Spearow, Pamela Hall, Sharon Joy Jahoda, Claudia Schiller, Doug Gordon, Daron Scarborough, Jeff Illgner, Arlene Jamar, Sarito Whatley). Apologies to anyone whose name is not listed!

All these people and many more contributed much time and energy to Foothill Country Dancers because they and we strongly believe in the essential goodness of an activity that is non-commercial, self-organized, and community-based and which brings people of different kinds together to dance, connect, and create unique moments of joy. For nearly 30 years we all worked to make the world, or at least our small corner of it, a better place.

An existing local organization has expressed some interest in holding contradances in the future. If this comes to pass, we will use this list to notify you. If you want your name and email address removed from the list now, reply to this email with a “please remove” request.

We are grateful for your participation in the dance community. Remember what dances in Nevada City, Grass Valley, Auburn, and Newcastle meant to you and carry that spirit forward.
Board of Directors, Foothill Country Dancers

All dancers survey

Posted on 2023-02-05 by Dan Allison

A survey of all dancers in the Sacramento Country Dance Society community was performed by the board of directors. The results follow. The number of responses for each choice is at the far left side. Comments were solicited but are not included because some respondents asked that they not be.

N=45 responses, as of 12/2/22. Survey sent on 11/27/22

1. Which of the following events are you currently attending?

19 – A) SCDS contra dances

7 – B) Other contra dances

13 – C) SCDS English country dances

3 – D) Other English country dances

6 – E) Another type of dance

15 – F) None of the above

2. How many SCDS dances did you attend in 2022?

17 – A) None

5 – B) 1

11 – C) 2-5

11 – D) 6-10

3 – E) More than 10

3. If you are not attending our dances, why not? Please rank your answers from most to least important.

9 – A) Covid risk is still too high

10 – B) Dislike masks

3 – C) Not vaccinated and don’t want to test before dancing

3 – D) Switched to other hobbies

10 – E) Just out of the habit

4. What changes would make you more likely to attend our dances?

5 – A) Lower Covid infection or hospitalization rates in the area

8 – B) Removal of mask requirement

6 – C) Removal of vaccine requirement

1 – D) Not allowing unvaccinated dancers to attend, even if they test immediately before the dance

5 – E) Outdoor dances (one specified without mask or vaccine requirements, another without masks)

3 – F) Better bands or callers (2 specified callers, other “more special than better”)

5 – G) None

5. What changes would make you less likely to attend our dances?

21 – A) Higher Covid infection or hospitalization rates in the area

15 – B) Removal of mask requirement

17 – C) Removal of vaccine requirement

5 – D) Allowing unvaccinated dancers to attend if they test immediately before the dance

8 – E) None, I’m OK with dancing under any of those conditions

Proud sponsors of the popular Echo Summit Dance Camp!

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September 15-17, 2023

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