The Holiday Season brought many wonderful dancing opportunities across our region. The WNYF & Copy Cats 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve Afternoon Dance was a fun time to welcome the new year with our square dance friends and family. We had six squares of dancers from 9 of our WNYF clubs dancing to Jim Gotta’s calling and cueing.

We hope everyone is enjoying 2024 so far.

We currently have 14 clubs in the Federation: Batavia Silver Stars, Boo Bull Squares and Rounds, Cayuga Cut-Ups, Cloverleaf Squares, Copy Cats, Dalton Gang, Fun Bunch, Pairs N Squares, Penn Yan Friendship Squares, Shirts N Skirts (Fulton), Shamrock Squares, Silver Squares, Southern Tier Wheelers and Waterwheel Squares. It’s been fantastic to have our clubs back dancing. We hope you take the opportunity to dance with our member clubs.

Our dance floors are getting fuller as we enjoy all the celebrations such as the Winter Wonderland Dances, Hawaiian Dances, Mari Gras Dances, Valentine’s Day Dances, St Patrick’s Day Dances, etc.

Please save the date for the Federation’s Dance-O-Rama 2024 on Saturday, May 4, 2024. It is our 64th DOR. Currently DOR is the largest square and round dance in Western NY. DOR 2024 will be at the Perinton Rec Center, 1350 Turk Hill Rd, Fairport NY. Ribbons purchased before 4/27/24 are $10 each. Ribbons purchased on or after 4/27/24 are $12.

DOR 2024 will feature Jonathan “Jonboy” Weiner from Bronx NY along with Mike Callahan calling and Alice Bubel cueing. The Federation had hired Jonathan for two previous DORs that were cancelled due to Covid. This is the first opportunity for him to come to Rochester to call for us. The event runs from 1:00–5:00 pm on Saturday May 4th. Dancing levels at DOR include Mainstream, Plus, A2 and Round Dancing.

We are happy to announce this year’s DOR program will include recognition of our 2024 graduates. We know from our recent club/class dances that the classes are doing very well learning the mainstream program. We are looking forward to their graduation. The Daphne-Norma Leadership Award will be presented which is the highest award given in our square & round dancing community. The recipients are recognized for their demonstrated leadership furthering the cause of square and round dancing for an extended period of time. The DOR 2024 Committee are again asking each of our WNYF clubs to donate a basket or plant for the annual DOR basket raffle along. Each club is asked to also include 2 free dance tickets to one of their regular dances in with their donation. The basket raffle is one of the highlights of DOR.

We are looking forward to seeing you on the dance floor.

Take Care,

Debbie & Jeff Blood