SQUARE & ROUND NOTES Richmond Square and Round Dance Association, INC., Newsletter January 2011 VOLUME XXIX NO. 6 PRESIDENT S NOTES Hello fellow square and round dancers! We are glad to be serving as your new RSARDA presidents, and we look forward to a great year of dancing. Before moving forward, we want to recognize and thank the outgoing board-john Brooks, President, Cindy Wilson, Vice- President and Bev Cook, Recording Secretary. Pat Shellenberg, who served as Treasurer on the previous board, continues to serve as Treasurer of the current Board. During 2011, RSARDA will focus its attention in three core areas. Dance attendance-a committee has been formed to consider ways to improve attendance at RSARDA and club-sponsored Saturday night dances. Considerations include number of dances held, scheduling dances consistently or in consideration of other events, selection of callers and methods of promoting. We want to fill the dance floor! Communications-We want to ensure that clubs and RSARDA are in touch with each other. You will be seeing more e-mails about square/round dancing news in the Richmond area. The RSARDA newsletter provides information about club happenings as well as updates on RSARDA meetings. Your club representative is a valuable source for information. They will keep your club up-to-date on recent RSARDA happenings. And of course, the RSARDA meetings are open to all. Come and check it out. We need your input! Festival-Planning and work continues on the 2011 Forget-Me-Not Ball. This is your festival and the Festival Committee needs your support to make it happen. If you plan to attend (and we hope you do) please let us know by purchasing your tickets now. Junie Wilson and Connie Swineford (798-5020) can help you with tickets. Also, the Committee is still looking for people to help with decorating at the Festival, chairing the Yard Sale and handling the Auction. If you can help out with any of these opportunities, please call Cindy Wilson (874-3052). Remember, RSARDA is your organization. Please feel free to call with your questions and suggestions. Let s make this a great year for dancing in Richmond! This Years RSARDA Board Congratulations on the recent installation of the new RSARDA board for 2011. President: Steve & Elaine Ragland Vice President: Paula & Fran Larrivee Treasurer: Pat Shellenberg Recording Secretary: Bob & Linda McCann Please give them your support. Editor UPCOMING EVENTS Unless otherwise noted all dances are 8 PM at Elizabeth Holladay Elementary School 1/22 RSARDA Ken Jordan/Gordy Adamski 2/5 RSARDA Booster Chamberlain/ Cox 2/19 RSARDA New Dancers Dance Chamberlain 2/26 Tuckahoe Squares David Staples/Adamski 3/1 RSARDA meeting Holladay Library 7:30pm 3/5 Capitol Squares Advanced Dance Bill Harrison Three Chopt Elementary 10am-12:30pm 2-4:40pm 3/12 RSARDA Jeremy Butler/Pris Collins 3/26 Circle Eight Jimmy Roberson/George Springer 4/2 RSARDA TBA/Connie Cox 4/16 Colonial Squares David Staples/Adamski 5/3 RSARDA meeting Holladay Library 7:30pm 5/7 Circle Eight Jeremy Butler/Jim Adcock (Early rounds 7pm)
Colonial Squares CLUB NEWS January 15, 2011 COLD WINTER GREETINGS from our club to yours! Don t let these snowy and icy days of Winter freeze your dancing feet to the ground! Instead DANCE, DANCE, and DANCE SOME MORE with all of your dancing friends!! It s a GREAT way to keep warm AND keep your dancing feet happy! On Monday evening, July 19 th, 2010, in lieu of dancing at the Colonial Heights High School, our club members dressed in colorful square dance attire and performed a demo for the residents at The Brighter Living Facility in Hopewell! Our reward was WONDERFUL smiles, tapping feet, and hands clapping to the beat of the music! We really enjoy performing for the enjoyment & entertainment of the shut-in community. After all, they seem to enjoy the lively beat of square dancing, too! The hot August days of Summer sure make one feel like dancing BAREFOOT, and that s exactly what Regina Chamberlain was doing at our club on Monday night, August 2 nd!! You NEVER know what goes on behind closed doors at the Colonial Squares!! The weekend of August 20 th & 21 st found Junie Wilson, Connie Swineford, and Paul & Betty Dubovsky of our club, several couples from the Tuckahoe Squares, and Sonny Thompson & Margaret Hightower of the North Carolina club, The Yellow Rockers, at the North Carolina State Convention! What a FUN time was had by all dancing to those FAST North Carolina callers, including Jimmy Roberson!! Going to other state conventions is a GREAT way to widen your circle of dancing friends, right, Sonny? By the way, on January 9 th, 2011, Sonny & Margaret FINALLY GOT MARRIED!! Saturday evening, July 31 st brought a Booster Dance to the Holladay School and our club sure didn t miss out on THAT! What a way to have fun on a HOT Summer s evening dancing and being with your square & round dancing friends! The last two Monday evenings in August our club had no where to dance, so we danced in near-by Scott Park! Talk about some HOT square dancing!! You could say though, that we were preparing ourselves for the club s annual Labor Day picnic on the following Monday afternoon, September 6 th, also at Scott Park! Hamburgers and hotdogs furnished by the club & grilled by the club President Paul Dubovsky and Vice-President Bob Henderson, plus LOTS of other picnic foods brought by the club members and other dancers from some neighboring clubs sure made for a FEAST! Lots of dancing followed called by our club caller, Gene Chamberlain. With plenty of guests who were nondancers, we also had several new dancer tips! We sure enjoyed having you other club dancers join us, too!
The weekend of October 22 nd through the 24 th was the annual BEACH BASH WEEKEND held in Nags Head, N.C.! And, Paul & Betty Dubovsky wouldn t dream of missing it not with callers Matt Worley & Elbert Harrison, and cuer Miss Judy Jaworski! Lots of dancers, especially from Region 5 (we are in Region 1) attended, as well as dancers from the neighboring states! What a FUN dance weekend it was, as well as ROMANTIC a FULL MOON hung over the ocean & our hotel, which was RIGHT ON THE BEACH! Too, no one can deny how YUMMY the hotdogs were each evening at the dance, provided by Elbert! Paul & Betty even won the FREE registration for the 2011 BEACH BASH WEEKEND!! If you ve never attended this particular weekend dance, try it, you ll enjoy it! Mingle and dance with the dancers in the other regions of Virginia!! Our club sponsored the dance at Holladay School on Saturday, November 13 th, with Jimmy Roberson and Jim Adcock. What a dance it was with these two GREATS! We thank all of you who attended YOU made it the FUN & SUCCESS it turned out to be! On Monday evening December 13 th our club had our Christmas covered-dish supper with special guest, the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother, Johanna Beers! We also celebrated the club s Birthday celebrants. Dressed in our Christmassy square dance attire, we showed Johanna what square dancing was all about! After presenting her with a donation for $600.00 from the club members, she literally felt like dancing, and a new dancers tip was danced by all!! The NEW YEAR S EVE DANCE sponsored by the Tuckahoe Squares was well attended & enjoyed by our club members. The food was GREAT & plentiful, the decorations festive and dancing with our friends to bring in the New Year was the BEST! Gene Chamberlain & the little Misses Pamela & Catherine Moore were FANTASTIC!! Our club meets on Monday evenings from 7:00 to 9:30 P.M. at the Colonial Heights High School each week. Our caller is the renowned Gene Chamberlain, our cuer is Connie Cox, and our line dance instructor is Diane Hollins. Join us for fun evenings of dancing each & every Monday! Everyone is welcome, including Banner Stealers!! Don t let COLD FEET keep you at home in front of the fireplace keep yourself AND your feet warm - go out and dance with your dancing friends! See you ALL in a square soon!! Historian Betty Dubovsky Circle Eight Circle Eight welcomes 2011and hopes that the New Year is great for you! Club We were pleased that our Fall Dance was so successful. We were able with our collection of canned goods and generous cash gifts (totaling $50). These donations to the Richmond Food Bank allowed them to feed over 250 people at least one meal. Of course, we give thanks to Greg Jones and Jim Adcock for their calling and cueing. With good food, good friends, and great music, a great time was had by all.
All of our beginning dancers from last year have now joined the club and are attending regularly. Our new dancer class continues on Thursday nights with beginner emphasis in the first hour from 7 to 8 and then continued dancing to 9 p.m. at Thompson Middle School. Special thanks go to Clint and Ruth Sterling who head up our new dancer program. We hope to see you at our spring dance, March 26, with Jimmy Roberson and George Springer.. Best Wishes from Circle Eight! Come and dance with us! June Grant, Secretary Tuckahoe Squares Happy New Year! The Tuckahoe s brought in the New Year with its first New Year Eve s Dance. The weather was cold; the dancing was hot, the Hors D oeuvres were wonderful. Gene Chamberlain called a great dance. Many thanks to all who participated, especially Scout for her work in preparing the goodies. We continue to appreciate the support from our members and guests at these special dances. Many of the Circle Eight members were fortunate to be able to attend the annual gathering at Cacapon, West Virginia. It is such a nice, relaxing weekend of dancing, eating and socializing. Jim and Nan Durham do a wonderful job of planning and seeing to a successful weekend for Circle Eight. Our annual Halloween dance was such fun with many of those attending in colorful costume. The creativity of some of the dancers is top notch. The two squares participating in the Walker tip were very entertaining, some actually danced better with the walkers than expected. Skip Cleland and Jim Adcock provided the calling and cueing for the evening and were great as usual. We celebrated the holiday season with our Christmas dinner and dance on Thursday, December 9, at Thompson Middle School. With good weather, we were happy to see so many club members in attendance. Circle Eight was charged with the responsibility of nominating the RSARDA Officers for 2011. We are especially pleased that we were able to recruit such a good slate of officers and that they were willing to work to make RSARDA a unifying force for all the clubs.
We will be having a special Winter Roundup Dance on January 28 as well as a Be My Sweetheart Dance with squares and rounds on February 11. Don t miss out Saturday Night Mardi Gras Dance at Holladay Elementary on February 26th at 8pm. Many thanks to the chefs who prepared and served dinner to those at the RSARDA Pre-Registration Dance for the Forget-Me-Not Ball on October 16 th. Please join us on a Friday night 8-10:30 for a fun time of fellowship and dancing at the West End Community Center. Upcoming dance specials are: 1/21 Gene Chamberlain 1/28 Joe Dungan Winter Roundup 2/4 Gene Chamberlain 2/11 Jeremy Butler/George Springer Rounds 2/18 Gene Chamberlain 2/26 David Staples/Gordy Adamski Mardi Gras 3/4 Gene Chamberlain 3/11 Ken Jordan St, Patrick s Day Dance 3/18 Gene Chamberlain New Dancer Graduation 3/25 Linwood Thomas 4/1 Chris Stacy 4/8 Drew Scearce island Dance We are happy to report that in August, Tom Brown had a successful liver transplant and is now recuperating at home. Carol and Tom thank all of the folks that remembered them in prayer and thoughts during this difficult period. Capitol Squares Come join us at Holladay School on Thursday s. We dance/teach Advanced at Holladay School on Thursdays 7-9pm. Please come and join in the fun.
Rhythm Rounders Monday at Holladay Elementary 7:00-9:00PM. Pris & JC Collins Phase 3-5 Info: Pris & JC 757-596-1142 IN MEMORY Tuesday at Christ Lutheran Church, 7908 Woodman Rd, Richmond, VA. 7:30-9:30 George & Jeannine Springer Phase 3-4, teaching beginning Bolero in 2011 Info: George & Jeannine Springer 804-730-6581. Wednesday at Dumbarton Elementary school 7:30-9:30PM. Connie & Roger Cox are teaching beginning rounds through phase 3. Info: Connie 434-298-1206 Internet Links RSARDA http://www.richmondsquaredance.com/ VASARDA http://www.vasquaredance.com/ 2011 National Convention in Detroit, MI http://www.60thnsdc.com/ EDITOR S NOTES Please submit any photos or club information to Rob Green email address bgreen44@verizon.net Send me your email address for an electronic copy of this Newsletter. Michael Francis Rowe, a familiar figure on the Virginia dance scene since he began dancing in 1971, passed away on December 1, 2010 at the age of 60 years. He taught clogging and danced Mainstream through Challenge square dance levels. He was a Past President of Spares and Pairs in Richmond. Michael and his wife, Linda, were members of the Square Edges Square Dance club in Newport News, but they frequently danced at RSARDA dances and clubs as well as other activities throughout the region. Michael attended all of the Virginia State Square Dance Conventions, RSARDA festivals as well as many National Square Dance Conventions and other dance events in Virginia as well as neighboring states. He contributed in a variety of ways to the success of dancing and other activities such as helping in the construction of the performance and dance venue at Steve Casper s Onley Place. Michael served in the U.S. Coast Guard, had taught wood working, he was active in scouting and St. Benedict Catholic Church in Richmond. His good humor and cheerful help will be missed by the dancing community and others who knew him.