Julie LW sent on February 14 2020

Dancing in Lansing, Sat Feb 15

Hello – There is a contra dance in town is Saturday, Feb 15. This Dance is hosted by the Looking Glass and will feature the music of Askin’ for Trouble and the calling of Julie Levy-Weston. The dance will be at Central United Methodist Church, 215 N Capitol Ave (CUMC). New Dancer intro at 6:30pm, Dance 7 -10. Usual prices- Gen Public $12, Members of Trad. Dance groups $10 and Students and first time dancers $6.

Note- that it is also time to renew (or start) your membership in Looking Glass. Membership gets discounts to dances and demonstrates to the board that you support the work we do to keep contra dances happening in Lansing. Looking Glass Membership is $15 per year - Jan - Dec. ** HEY- it appears that parking in the lot to the north of church is once again OK. For now, it would be good if you stick to the spaces assigned to CUMC (not St. Paul’s or the other church or the catering Co.) The parking ramp/garage is a good option too.

the next dance in town will be the Ten Pound Fiddle Dance on Sat Mar 7. It is very close to Bob Stein’s 85th birthday, so he’s making it a dance party day. All this will be happening at CUMC.

There will be an afternoon of English Country dancing beginning a 2pm. Calling will be Gay Fifer- she is in demand for dance events all over the country- and the music will be provided by Big Fun (that’s Brad Battey, Myron Grant and Marty Somberg) The English dance ends at 5pm and and 5:30 we’ll share a potluck. Bring a dish to share (with serving utensil) and place setting for yourself (though we will have paper and plastic if needed) We can use the oven for heating up food, but no cooking, please. We’ll also be able to put cold food in the fridge. The evening will bring the regular 1st Sat contra dance. Gaye will be calling and Big Fun will provide the hot dancing tunes. They like to explore lots of types of danceable music. New Dancer intro at 6:30pm, Dance 7 -10.
Usual prices- Gen Public $12, Members of Trad. Dance groups $10 and Students and first time dancers $6.

The meeting about how to keep dancing active and viable here in Lansing went well- about 15 people in attendance. There will be two “sub-committee” meeting this Sunday Feb 16.
Operations- will meet at 2pm at John and Christy’s (529 Wayland) in East Lansing The Booking group will also meet on Sunday -2pm, at Bob and Laura Stein’s (431 Gainsbourough) We’re still looking for folks interested in doing PR. We have set up a binder, that will be at each dance, that has an outline of all the tasks that need to be done for each dance, so we all can quickly find out where we can help.
Send an email here if you have questions- i will make sure I check!

More local dancing There is also English Country Dancing at MSU once a month through the college year. this semester’s dates are Feb 13, Mar 12 and April 9 The dance goes from 7:00pm to 9:30pm Michigan State University RCAH Theater, room C20 (lower level) – Snyder-Phillips Hall 362 Bogue Street, East Lansing (free parking available near Snyder-Phillips after 6pm) Admission $6, students $4, free to MSU students More information at http://mathcs.albion.edu/~ram/lecd/

Spring Dance weekends * Registration is open for Trillium Twirl, Michigan Dance Heritage Spring Weekend. the event is held at camp on a small lake in Dowling, MI. Dates this year are April 24 - 26. the music will be provided by Turnip the Beet with calling by Bob Isaacs more info at https://michigandanceheritage.org/trilliumtwirl/ * **Pigtown Fling- Mar 27-29 in Cincinnati. More info http://www.cincinnaticontradance.org/pigtown.htm **Mad Robin Romp- Bloomington, IN - April 10-12 - http://bloomingtoncontra.org/mad-robin-romp/ **Spring Thaw in Toronto, April 24-26. https://www.tcdance.org/thaw.php **It’s a bit of a drive- to St. Louis, MO, but they are hosting a 4 day event over Memorial Day weekend- Meet Me in St. Louis. More info athttp://www.childgrove.org/stl-dance-weekends/meetmeinstlouis **Also over Memorial Day, Wheatland hosts Traditional Arts Weekend. Lots of dance and all kinds of other arts activities. More info at https://www.wheatlandmusic.org/traditional-arts-weekend/

Happy Dancing! Julie LW