Editor’s Page

Welcome to the Spring, 2024, issue of the Promenader, a quarterly publication of the Western NY Federation of Square and Round Dancers, Inc (WNYF).

In this issue

As we emerge from a winter of unusual Rochester weather, the Photos and Features section in this issue of the Promenader looks back at events and seasonal dances hosted by our area clubs.

The Copy Cats held a variety of special dances and sent us photos from each of them, including: their Ugly Sweater Dance on December 2; their Holiday Dinner Dance on December 16; the WNYF New Year’s Eve Dance; their own New Year’s dance on January 6; their Winter Wonderland Dance on January 20 (organized and decorated by their “Kittens” Mainstream Class); and their Mardi Gras Dance with the Hip Boot Boys on February 3.

The Copy Cats’ Mainstream class enjoyed a special treat on December 5, with Nay Jacobson joining Ron Brown at the microphone on singing calls.

When your club hosts interesting dances or special events, be sure to take photos and send them to us with a brief description of the event. Sharing these in the Promenader and on the Facebook page will help new dancers see how much fun it would be to come to your dances.

Leadership Award

The end of February is the deadline for nominations for the Daphne-Norma Leadership award (but you can still get a nomination in if you hurry). Click the AWARDS button on the WNYF Home Page for forms and contact information.

This is a chance for dancers to show their appreciation of the special effort that some are willing to devote to keeping square dancing the fun, healthy and rewarding activity it is.

This is also a good time to look in the mirror and ask if you yourself could do more to help with the “mechanics” of your club—and of the WNY Federation.

Jeff and Debbie Blood have put together an excellent summary presenting the WNY Federation—what it is, what it does and how dancers can help.

COVID

COVID-19 is still with us, especially in this flu season. The best way to avoid an outbreak in our clubs is to inform dancers immediately when an exposure occurs, so they can take their own precautions—such as testing themselves if they start to feel symptoms. To accomplish this in a consistent way, WNYF Presidents Jeff and Debbie Blood have documented a protocol for WNYF clubs to follow. It includes (a) host clubs capturing dancer names, home club names and phone numbers on check-in, (b) dancers promising to notify the host club if they test positive for COVID-19 in the following week, (c) host clubs notifying attendees or their home club officers that a positive test has been reported, and (d) those home clubs notifying their members that a dancer at the dance in question has tested COVID-19-positive.

You can download this guide any time as a PDF file from the Federation’s Forms and Documents page, where you will find it in section #7.

Club News

News from our clubs this quarter indicates a continued return to normal dancing, with the expansion of traditional dances and classes at most clubs.

Federation Website

New Promenader Club News and Photo/Feature articles are posted every three months. However, webmaster Sidney Marshall maintains the Calendar/Flyer database continually, posting flyers and changes to the schedule listings as soon as he can after he receives them. So, there’s no deadline for schedule information. For fastest service, he recommends sending flyers (in PDF form) and schedule change notices (in the body of an email) to him directly (sidneym@frontiernet.net), as well as to the Promenader (promenader@rochester.rr.com). In addition, for maximum distribution of urgent messages, clubs should send Sidney the text for any “Breaking News” to go on the WNYF home page (squaredancingrochester.org). And clubs should also consider posting their news on the “SquareDancingRochester” group Facebook page.

In Memoriam

Happily, in this issue we have no obituaries!

Editorial Comments

It is good to see the continued enthusiasm in our active clubs, and especially to see an up-and-coming potential new caller on the horizon. (See the Photos and Features page.)

As I write in February, we are starting to see tantalizing signs of spring in the form of planning for DOR 2024. It sounds like another great event shaping up for the afternoon of May 4. See the schedule listing for May 4 and click the flyer link.

Quarterly Chuckle

An Airbus 380 is on its way across the Atlantic at 30,000 feet, flying a consistent 560 mph. When suddenly a Eurofighter in a Tempo Mach 2 appears outside the window!

The pilot of the fighter jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus, and greets the pilot of the passenger plane by radio: “Airbus, boring flight, isn’t it? Now have a look here!”

He rolls his jet on its back, accelerates, breaks through the sound barrier, rises rapidly to a dizzying height, and then swoops down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He loops back next to the Airbus and asks: “Well, how was that?”

The Airbus pilot answers: “Very impressive but watch this!”

The jet pilot watches the Airbus, but nothing happens. It continues to fly straight at the same speed. After 15 minutes, the Airbus pilot radios, “Well, how was that?”

Confused, the jet pilot asks, “What did you do?”

The Airbus pilot laughs and says: “I got up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the aircraft to use the washroom, then got a cup of coffee and a chocolate fudge pastry.”

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When you’re young, speed and adrenaline seem great. But as you get older and wiser, you learn that comfort and peace are more important.

This is called S.O.S. …Slower, Older, Smarter.

It applies to a lot of situations that I find myself in these days.

I’m trying to apply it to my own life, but it’s been “slow” going.

Peter Emmel, Editor