President’s Corner—December 1, 2024

The past few months have been wonderful seeing the clubs starting up their Fall dances. It’s good to see so many dancers back on the dance floor. Many great pictures of our clubs’ Halloween Parties are being shared via our WNYF Facebook page. It is so much fun to see how happy and creative our dancers are in their costumes.

Three years ago, the Federation was approached to host a New Year’s Eve Dance. We are happy to say the Federation has been co-sponsoring a New Year’s Eve Afternoon Dance with the Copy Cats since 2021 and will do so again on December 31, 2024, from 3–5 pm at the Penfield Baptist Church. Jim Gotta will be calling and cueing. We hope you can join us; dancing with your friends is a wonderful way to welcome 2025!

Our DOR committee is busy preparing for our 65th Annual Dance-O-Rama on Saturday, May 3, 2025.

It is Rochester’s annual dance festival. There will be mainstream, plus, advanced, and rounds. The event will be at the Perinton Community Center on Turk Hill Rd. from 1–5 pm. Our guest caller is Jason Raleigh, a national square dance caller from Grove City, Ohio. We will also enjoy dancing to local caller Ron Brown and local cuer Mark Thone. During the DOR program, our graduates’ parade will honor our graduates who just started lessons in Sept. and Oct. The Daphne Norma Leadership Award, presented annually at DOR, is the highest honor given to our dancers. It honors a couple or individual who has demonstrated leadership furthering the cause of square and round dancing for an extended period of time. Each year the recipient(s) are chosen from the nominations from our dancing members. A committee of previously awarded Daphne Norma Leadership Award recipients vote on the person(s) to receive the honor at DOR. Their decision is based on all the nominations received both currently and in prior years. The award nominations are due by the end of February. Please look around and take the time to recognize couples or individuals who deserve this honor and recognition for their leadership, dedication, and service to our square and round dancing community. Nomination forms are available through the “Awards” button on the Federation website: squaredancingrochester.org.

The Federation is busy arranging another Free Dance to be held on Friday night June 20, 2025.

Our Free Friday night dance in June 2024 was a tremendous success and we wanted to do it again.

This year we are adding a new feature, it will also be the kick-off of the Federation’s annual amateur calling/cueing event for our members. Individuals interested in trying their talent in square dance calling or cueing a round are welcome. Please reach out to one our wonderful callers or cuers to prepare for this event. We anticipate there is much hidden talent in our dancing members.

Additionally, the Federation is in the process of creating a grant to assist potential callers and cuers from our club membership. This is a monetary grant to help them with calling/cueing school expenses. More details to follow.

We are looking forward to all the upcoming holiday festivities and hope to see you on the dance floor.

Take Care and Stay Well,

Debbie & Jeff Blood