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Newsletter
of the Friendly FolkDancers |
Fall 2002 |
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Inside this Issue |
Prospective Tours
Dancing Toward the Land of the Leprechauns
by Mark Judkins Helpsmeet
FFD is looking
towards future international tours, exploring options in both Japan and
Ireland. I agreed to do some checking
on a tour to the Emerald Isle at the annual meeting, and the luck of the Irish
immediately leapt into my lap!
First, we
danced together the evening of the annual meeting and invited Friends from the
Chicago area to join us. Who should show up, but Christian Murphy (in the
company of Susan Doxtator). Of course,
lots of folks with Irish names have very little actual or current connection to
Ireland. Yet, Christian had only to
open his mouth and we had adequate evidence that he was the real thing. Susan and Christian have, in fact, attended
Quaker meeting in Ireland, so we had our first real lead and connection just a
couple of hours after the group of us discussed the possibility of such a tour.
The next
morning, Sophie invited those of us staying at her house to take part in a
special outdoor worship on Spider Island in the Chicago Botanical Gardens. It was a powerful and deep worship. It was also our introduction to the host of
the worship, Patricia Monaghan. Notice
anything about that name? Actually,
Patricia does not speak with a brogue, but she knows more about Ireland and,
specifically, Quakers in Ireland than we could have found out through a month’s
research or perhaps any amount of research!
She typically visits Ireland a couple of times each year. Again, the “coincidence” just fell into our
laps! At some point, it stops being
coincidence and becomes part of the mystery of God working in our lives.
I’ve since
met with Patricia and learned a rich slice of the history of Quakers in Ireland
and Ireland itself. There are great
opportunities for the FFD in Ireland, and Patricia could virtually map out our
likely steps for us. For one thing, she
is quite clear that we should start in the East and move clockwise around the
Isle (following the mythical trajectory), with a possible visit to the center
of the island, which is a special mystical spot.
Patricia
told me that Quakers have a special place in the hearts of the Irish and are
likely the only “protestant” denomination held in high repute by almost all of
Catholic Ireland. Among other things,
Quakers were evidently the first to come to the aid of the Irish with soup
kitchens during the famines, and they did it without strings attached. In general, she was clear that there was
richness for us to experience there, and a welcome that we would be sure to
receive.
I’m moving
forward with the exploration of a future tour to the land of the leprechauns,
and would welcome input and interest as I continue the research. As with most tours, I would remind folks
that many factors go into selecting tour participants, including previous
experience touring with FFD, gender balance on tours, international
representation and other
factors. Get
involved now, and help us dance toward our future tours. ¯
by Mark Judkins Helpsmeet
In spring
of 2002, the FFD Southern Ohio tour stopped by Olney Friends School in
Barnesville for an afternoon program.
We found a community well-steeped in folk dancing culture—fertile ground
for passing on the ministry of FFD.
At the
August annual meeting, we approved support and funds to help release Mark
Helpsmeet to lead a month-long course at Olney, should the offer of such a
course be accepted by the school. It
was. In fact, Ken Jacobsen, head of the
school at Olney, wrote, “We are eager to go forward with you and FFD on a
three-week interterm course here in December. . . We are excited to deepen the
program, for staff to learn some of these dances as well, and to build ties
with FFD.”
The plan is
for Mark to teach the course December 2-21, 2002. Students (most or many of them) would then take part in the
March, 2003 FFD tour to the New England area over their spring break. Olney is willing to provide a van for the
tour, in addition to room, board and travel for Mark. All in all, it is apparently a “marriage made in heaven.”
Though he
had heard of Olney years before, Mark became more closely interested in the
school at the FGC gathering at Kalamazoo, where he met Sarah and Naman Hampton,
both alumni of Olney Friends School.
Both had a passion for folk dance which Mark learned was from their
experience at Olney. Mark and Sandra
Helpsmeet visited Barnesville in the spring of 2001 with multiple agendas in
mind, among them the desire to know more about Ohio (Conservative) Yearly
Meeting and its monthly meeting in Barnesville, named Stillwater Friends
Meeting. Still waters run deep, as they
say, and the connections were made which solidified plans for the 2002 spring
tour.
The
specific course content proposed includes:
- An approximately
one-month course on folk dances and related culture from around the
world. The course would conclude
with (or at least include) student participation in a regular 9-10 day
tour with FFD.
- Participants in the
course would gain proficiency in a variety of easy, medium and hard folk dances
from around the world.
- Participants in the
course would learn some of the cultural background of the peoples and the
dances, including comparison of styles of dances by culture and related
historical information.
- Participants would
learn to teach dances to others.
This will be a primary objective of the course.
- Participants will
learn up to 12 dances specifically chosen as performance material.
- Participants will take
part in planning an FFD tour, including both practical and spiritual
elements. Ministry and,
specifically, traveling in the ministry will be subjects for discussion
and practice.
The final
hurdle will be to generate sufficient interest from the student body to enroll
in the course. Given the tremendous
interest already existing in the school, as witnessed in the spring, this
should be smooth sailing.
Mark welcomes offers of help from those who might be available to supplement his expertise in dance, culture, costumes or other aspects of the FFD ministry. You may contact him at helpsmeet@usa.net. ¯
Dancing at the FGC Gathering
Nightly folk dancing was again available at the FGC Gathering
held this past July in Virginia. The
room was beautiful and the turnout was very good as well. The first night was an international potluck
of dances, followed by evenings of swing dancing, sacred circle and meditative
dances, Romanian dances, vintage ballroom dances, and, finally, an
international assortment highlighting Israeli dances.
Lots of people showed up to dance, and the number of folks who
shared in the teaching enriched the experience. There seems to be considerable enthusiasm from leaders for next
year as well, and Mark has again agreed to organize the schedule. New teachers and helpers are always
welcome—just indicate your interest on the tour interest form on page
seven. ¯
Tour Reports
Dancing for Young, Old, and In-Between in Southern
Ohio
by
Barbara Coan Houghton
The 2002 Southern Ohio tour that
began on Thursday, March 21, included Ruth Hyde, Rochester, NY; Nancy E. James,
Seven Fields, PA (who hosted Ruth Wednesday night); Christine Ambwere (the
first participant from Kenya following the FFD Kenya tour in 1996), Demi
Miller, St. Paul, MN; Mark Helpsmeet and Sandra Helpsmeet, Eau Claire, WI;
Barbara Houghton and David Houghton, McFarland, WI, and Ligeia Smith, Windsor
Locks, CT. The group was well supported
throughout the tour by the plans made by coordinator-in-absentia Rosemary
Coffey.
Gathering in Cincinnati
All nine dancing members assembled Thursday evening in
Cincinnati Community Meeting House with time only for pizza, brief
socialization with each other and with hosts from Cincinnati Community Friends,
and a brief Meeting for Worship for Business followed by dispersal to our
several hosts’ homes.
On Friday, the first full tour day, we assembled at Cincinnati
Friends Meeting house for dance practice, last-minute costume preparations, and
work on alterations to last year’s newly acquired sound system. A highlight of this day was participation in
Community Friends’ “game night” nicely augmented by ice cream. Returning to the same host homes was a
comforting conclusion to the day.
We spent most of Saturday dancing. During the day we reinforced our command of the dances, and in
the evening after potluck dinner, we presented the tour’s first program for a
very enthusiastic audience. A third
night in the same host homes brought us a good night’s sleep.
A Variety of Audiences in Athens
On Sunday we traveled to Athens Friends Meeting, arriving in
time for Meeting for Worship and a potluck lunch. In the afternoon we danced in our largest venue of the tour, the
new Athens Recreational Center. There
were about 80 people in the
audience including Quakers
and many area dancers
since the program was advertised as a fund raiser for the Factory Street Dance
Studio. On this occasion we had the
opportunity to have dinner with our respective hosts, a good chance to get
better acquainted with individuals in Athens Meeting. After Meeting for Worship for Business held after dinner, we
discussed how best to use the time between demonstration dances when it is
prolonged by complex costume changes, and whether it is even necessary to
program every minute of those intervals.
No conclusion was reached on this.
On Monday we danced for three audiences. Two elementary school programs were divided
into preschool-third grade and fourth grade-sixth grade. Both groups were eager and involved in the programs. The evening group gathered in a Rural Action
office in the tiny town of Trimble. The
small audience made up for its lack of numbers by its warm participation.
Spanning Life’s Spectrum in Barnesville
An open morning on Tuesday allowed us to start our day with
Meeting for Worship for Business before leaving for Olney School in
Barnesville. The afternoon program
presented for about 50 students and staff was lively. Members of the student dance group taught us a dance. We were then treated to dinner in the dining
room with the students. This gave us a
glimpse of boarding school life as well as a chance to visit with a few
students. It was a unique opportunity
and a change from the usual potlucks that Meetings provide. For one night, some of us went to hosts’
homes while several chose to spend the night in the school guest house. All of us stayed in the guest house on
Wednesday night.
On Wednesday we moved to the other end of life’s spectrum with
our morning program for Walton Home residents. Walton Retirement Home is a Quaker retirement community under the
care of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Both
residents and staff came and enjoyed the exhibition portion of the program. During the participation portion, audience
members were encouraged to join in a variety of ways. As tour members moved around the room, audience members’ arms and
feet waved and tapped, wheelchairs rolled, and smiles bloomed.
Roaming Rocks and Ravines
We took advantage of the fact that our evening program was
scheduled for the same location.
Without the need to pack up costumes, properties, sound system and
personal gear, we had open time. We
used it to visit Raven Rocks, a community established by some Olney Friends
School staff and alumni. The group
hopes to preserve a nearby natural area that has been an important part of
Olney life through the years. There we
hiked into the ravine as we listened to stories about its role in the life of
the school. We also visited an
earth-sheltered and solar-equipped home and another large multifamily dwelling
under construction.
Before dinner we worshipped with Stillwater Friends in their
large brick meeting house, a reminder of the area’s Quaker history.
After a potluck dinner across the street from Walton Home,
audience and Friendly FolkDancers gathered back in Walton Home for the last
program of the southern Ohio tour.
Thursday morning, following a concluding worship and business
meeting, we dispersed, a bit sad to part but cheered by our feeling that it had
been another successful tour. ¯
February 2002 Chicago Minitour
reported
by David Houghton and Sophie de la Mar
Eleven FFD members from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
Illinois (five women and four men) participated in the February 16 program at the
winter gathering of Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (FLGC) held at
Illinois Beach State Park at Zion, IL.
There were Bonnie Beverstock, Sophie de la Mar, Brayton Gray, Mark and
Sandra Helpsmeet, David Houghton, Demi Miller, Grace Valentine, and Meredith
Zondag. All but David Houghton and
Grace Valentine participated the next day in the February 17 program at
Northside Friends Meeting in Chicago.
The FLGC program was the Saturday night entertainment for their
gathering and attracted about 50 participants with the help of some active
recruitment by FFD members at and after dinner. Eight dances were done in the demonstration; the Quaker Quest
game was omitted, and the dancing-for-all period lasted for one hour with very
active participation from those attending.
There was a special attempt to make the demonstration dances gender
neutral; i.e., some men and women switched dancing roles and even
costuming.
The next day, Sunday, the Friendly FolkDancers joined Northside
Friends Meeting for singing, Meeting for Worship, potluck, and a performance/
participation dance. One Northsider,
Tom Dix, joined in the performance of two dances after a quick lesson from Mark
Helpsmeet. About 15 Northsiders stayed
to enjoy the dancing, including Nicholas Depies, who was celebrating his first
birthday, along with his aunt and grandmother, who were visiting from the east
coast for his birthday. ¯
Extracts from Minutes of 2002 FFD Annual
Meeting
The 2002 Annual Meeting of
the Friendly FolkDancers was held at Northside Friends Meeting House, Chicago,
IL, on Saturday, August 3. Present were
Bonnie Beverstock, Ellen Brooks, Rosemary Coffey (clerk), Sophie de la Mar, Zig
Dermer, Mark Judkins Helpsmeet, Sandra Helpsmeet, Barbara Houghton, David
Houghton, Carrie Melin, Demi Miller, Rebecca Straus, and Grace Valentine
(recording clerk).
In
considering the Minutes from Annual Meeting 2001, we checked on the
tasks agreed to by attenders at that meeting.
Most had been accomplished, and others were in process. Friends planned
to see them to completion in the coming year.
Treasurer's
Report:
Bonnie Beverstock, Treasurer, reported a balance in the General Fund of
$2,683.28, compared to last year’s balance of $2,609.69. The total balance for the Designated Funds
(videos, international exchanges, international scholarships, international
tour seed money, tape library, sound system, T-shirt scholarships) came to
$3,880.76, compared to last year’s balance of $4,874.76. The total amount in hand this year was,
therefore, $6,565.04, compared to last year’s total of $7,484.45. Although cash flow related to the year’s
tours is included in the total, it was decided for future reports to add a line
for each tour under Income and Expenditures, so that we may have the
information as part of the record.
The discussion of possible future events elicited
the following suggestions, along with volunteers to pursue them further:
1. trip to Oxford
Prison (WI) around the holiday season 2002 (Grace)
2.
one-month
teaching session at Olney School, including a student tour of nearby schools
(Mark)
3.
tour
of South Texas in January 2003 (Ellen)
4.
tours
of Japan (Carrie) or Ireland (Elizabeth Cave?)
5.
tour
of New England (Mark, maybe)
6.
mini-tour
at Scattergood School (David/Mark)
7.
dancing
at the 2003 FGC Gathering in Johnstown, PA (Mark)
Review of last year’s recommendations elicited the
following information:
1. A number of larger-size women’s skirts have been added to the
costumes.
2.
Sandra
and Demi will continue working on filling in background information for the
Quaker Quest game questions.
3. Mark will follow up with Sharon Bell re finding an authentic
Native American dance.
4. Bonnie submitted a couple of versions of a new FFD logo and was encouraged
to refine one of them for the next time we need to order FFD T-shirts.
5.
FFD
now has an additional folding zipper clothes bag.
In the course of the committee reports, Sandra
indicated that the men's tunics are being redesigned. Mark affirmed that all active participants in FFD would soon be
on a ListServe. Nancy E. James would be
editing and producing the next Newsletter.
And it is planned to have a password on the FFD web page, so that
certain information (e.g., the forthcoming revision of the Tour
Coordinator’s Handbook) will be accessible only to members.
Reports from recent tours included the following:
1. Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgendered
Concerns (FLGBQTC) Midwest Gathering in Chicago: Nine FFD dancers were on this
mini-tour, with Sophie and David coordinating. The program was very well
received, and some of the dancers also performed at Northside Meeting the next
day. No expenses were incurred, while $92 was received from T-shirts sold, plus
$8 in donations.
Friends were reminded that a treasurer is nonetheless needed
for mini-tours in order to collect dancer fees and other contributions, keep
track of donations, and remit monies to FFD. If the requested amount in fees
($5 per dancer per day) is covered by donations from the host organization
and/or the audience, dancers need not make individual contributions.
2. Southern Ohio Tour in March: Attempts had been made to
include two young women from Kenya, but only one was able to get a visa in
time. A new experience for the dancers
was staying overnight in only three places, while performing eight times in
all.
We decided that the question of underwriting the
participation of people from other countries, as we did for the Kenyan dancer,
should be dealt with case by case, based on discussion among members of the
steering committee and the tour coordinator.
3. FGC 2002 Workshop:
Mark and Sandra facilitated this daily workshop, with over thirty people
attending. Much of the
dancing was based on
a dance syllabus that Mark put together, including information on the history
and techniques for
each of the dances, translations of texts, and a CD
featuring twenty-nine dances.
4. FGC 2002 evening dance programs: These were very popular,
despite being held most of the time in a very hot gym.
5.
FWCC Lower Great Lakes Regional Gathering, Burbank, OH: Rosemary and
Zig reported that they led folk dances for about an hour with the twenty or so
adult and youth participants in this conference.
Update on FWCC Affiliation: Rosemary and David will
turn in the requested documentation again, now that there is a new Clerk of the
Section and a new Executive Secretary, who may feel more positively about such
a connection. They plan to have it in by the time of the next Executive
Committee meeting in November 2002.
Budget for 2002-2003 fiscal
year:
|
Budget Category |
2001-2002 Budget |
2002-2003 Budget |
|
Newsletter |
300 |
300 |
|
Costumes |
200 |
200 |
|
Steering
Committee |
250 |
250 |
|
Olney
visit/student tour |
0 |
500 |
|
Video |
50 |
50 |
|
International
Exchange |
300 |
300 |
|
International
Scholarship |
0 |
340 |
|
International
Tour Seed Money |
0 |
0 |
|
Tapes
(Music) |
0 |
0 |
|
Sound
System |
0 |
0 |
|
T-shirt/Scholarship
Fund |
100 |
100 |
|
TOTAL |
1200 |
2040 |
Steering Committee and Officer Appointments:
Clerk, David Houghton,
2 years: ddhought@facstaff.wisc.edu
Assistant Clerk, Sophie
de la Mar, 1 year: sophia_lilith@hotmail.com.
Treasurer, Bonnie
Beverstock, 1 year: wstites@coredcs.com
Secretary, Grace
Valentine, 1 year: gracev@chorus.net
Members at large, Demi Miller, peersupport@earthlink.net,
and Barbara Houghton, bfch@mac.com, 2 years
Newsletter Editor, Nancy
E. James, indefinitely: nancyej@stargate.net
Next Annual FFD Meeting: Next year's meeting will
be held on August 2, 2003, in Eau Claire, WI, hosted by Mark and Sandra
Helpsmeet.
Respectfully
submitted, Grace Valentine
(Extracted
by Rosemary Coffey)
News of Dancing Friends
by Mark Judkins Helpsmeet