Details
We will celebrate the summer with a special dance weekend of playful contra and enjoyable English country dance. We are delighted to have accomplished caller Gaye Fifer with the New England dance trio, Stomp Rocket, (Dave Langford, Bethany Waickman, and Glen Loper). Ease into dance weekends with our lazy days of summer schedule. There’s plenty of time to get acquainted with old and new friends after a long hiatus, enjoy dances, play games, and spruce up your skills in our workshops.
Registration is limited to 100 dancers. You may register online now using our event registration page.
COVID Precautions
To keep everyone safe, we’ve adopted these safety procedures:
- Everyone must show proof of full vaccination and booster shot(s) (as defined by the CDC), even if this proof was shown previously at a Rochester dance event.
- Everyone must wear an N95, KN95, or KF94 mask, OR wear a disposable surgical-style mask with a tightly-fitting cloth mask on top of it (fitting snugly around all sides of the face). Cloth masks alone will not be considered sufficient protection, nor will surgical masks alone.
We share your frustration with these additional measures, but we would rather err on the side of caution than risk our dancers’ health. We feel that masking will still be prudent on July 22 for large dance gatherings, so we will not relax these masking rules even if conditions improve in the meantime. Please review our full COVID policy.
Schedule
To encourage CONVIVIALITY noun: the quality of being friendly and making people feel happy and welcome (Cambridge Dictionary)
We will have a ballroom for dancing and a separate room downstairs for conviviality, eating and games. No food in the dance hall. Food will not be provided, except as noted – feel free to bring your own or patronize one of the several area restaurants.
Friday, July 22, 2022
- 4:00 pm: The hall opens for check-in.
- 5:00 – 7:00 pm: Dinner, Conviviality and Games
- 7:00 – 10:00 pm: Contra Dance
Saturday, July 23, 2022
- 9:30 – 10:30 am: Bring your breakfast, if you like, and enjoy Conviviality and Games
- 10:30 am – noon: Beyond-the-Basics Waltz Workshop: Gaye believes that waltzing is not about fancy moves, but rather about connecting with your partner and with the music. Her teaching focuses on the nuances of aware, timely leading and following. She will teach moves that allow leads and follows to develop/refine these skills.
- Noon – 2:30 pm: Lunch, Conviviality and Games. Sign up for a chair massage.
- 2:30 – 4:00 pm: How to be Everyone’s Favorite Partner (Dance Angels): Join us for a look at the skills that make us better dancers, partners and community members on the dance floor. We will practice with real dances, both contra and English! Come with an open mind and a willingness to participate!
- 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Dinner, Conviviality and Games
- 7:00 – 10:00 pm: Dance Party featuring English and contra dances. This is a great opportunity to spread your Dance Angel Wings.
Sunday, July 24, 2022
- 10:00 am – 1:00 pm: Join us downstairs for donated bagels from Balsam Bagels and enjoy Conviviality and Games, or practice your new waltz skills upstairs to recorded music. The highlight of the games session will be ECD and Contra Bingo, called by experienced bingo creator Lisa Brown. Small prizes for bingo winners.
- 1:00 – 4:00 pm: Enjoy an afternoon of English country dance
Prices
- All Weekend: $60.00
- Friday Night Contra: $20.00
- All Day Saturday, including evening Dance Party: $40.00
- Saturday Night Dance Party: $25.00
- Sunday Afternoon English Country Dance: $20.00
Further details
Registration: Online advance registration is now available. The registrar can be reached via e-mail at if questions should arise. Number of dancers at the weekend is capped at 100 to minimize crowding on the dance floor.
Contributions:
Weekend admission fees cover about 90% of our expenses. If you would like to make an additional contribution to help defray expenses and to provide assistance to those who need financial help to attend click on the Donate button.
Hospitality: We can accommodate a limited number of out of town visitors in the homes of local dancers. If you’re interested, please email . Some suggestions for hotels and camping can be found here or can be mailed upon request.
Caller
Gaye Fifer
Gaye Fifer (Pittsburgh, PA) hasn’t stopped dancing since she found contras in 1979. Introduced to the community in St. Louis, she has found dancing wherever she goes. Gaye learned to call contras in Charlottesville, VA and has been traveling to call and dance for the past 25 years. After 15 years of dancing, she finally realized that someone had to be doing work to make the dances happen. She began serving on her local dance committee, organizing her local dance weekend, serving on the CDSS Board and leading workshops for other organizers. Gaye is also a passionate teacher and dancer of waltz, having led workshops with her partner, Wayne, at numerous dance weekends around the country. She participated in a course at Pinewoods several years ago to learn how to call English Country dances and now includes that in her repertoire of offerings. She now lives in Pittsburgh, PA. where she retired from a 30 year elementary school teaching career.
Band
Stomp Rocket
Dave Langford [Latter Day Lizards, Big Bandemonium & Supertrad] on Fiddle, Glen Loper [Riptide] on Mandolin and Tenor Banjo, Bethany Waickman [Anadama] on DADGAD Guitar and Piano
Stomp Rocket is a New England based trio. They’ve played for contras throughout New England, and at dance weekends in Alaska, Tennessee, and Maryland. In 2019 Stomp Rocket was at Fleur de Lis Fling in Kentucky, The Florida Snowball, and the Corvallis Contra Weekend among other places.
Stomp Rocket also provides very fine music for English Country dancing. Dave brings decades of English Dance music experience to the band, including hundreds of English Country dance events and many English themed weeks at Pinewoods, performing extensively with musicians such as Kate Barnes, Jacqueline Schwab and Karen Axelrod, in the Boston area and beyond. Bethany and Glen are newer to English Dance music but bring their considerable musical skills as well as enthusiasm for the genre to play at every opportunity. David Millstone, who has led English Dance programs with Stomp Rocket said the following: “The musicians of Stomp Rocket bring both technical prowess and musical sensitivity to the English Country Dance program. They offer a fresh perspective on the repertoire, always with clear melody, rich harmony and solid rhythm for dances gentle or lively.”
