2021 Dances Cancelled

Dear North Berkshire Dance Community

It was our plan to announce that North Berkshire Community Dances would be resuming on the second Saturday in September. We had begun booking bands and callers. We had a survey prepared to send to all of you to gauge your level of interest and comfort in resuming live dancing with proof of vaccination.

So it is with huge disappointment that we have decided once again to put our plans on the shelf. The rise of the Delta variant and super-spreading events even among vaccinated has forced us to cancel plans for this fall. We hope that our pandemic fortunes change for the new year and we can resume dancing in early 2022. By that time, hopefully, children under 12 should be able to be vaccinated, and overall vaccination levels will get us close to the “herd immunity” level needed to bring community infection rates to a safe level for dancing.

We are also heartbroken at the passing of one of our founding Board members, Maarten Pelligrini. Music and dance were the joys of his too-short life, and he shared that joy with us unstintingly. When we resume dancing, we intend to commemorate Maarten in some way. We will always hold him in our hearts.

Meanwhile, part of our mission is to support dance bands and callers, and we will be paying the bands and callers that we have booked for this fall, whose performances we are having to cancel, 50% of their fee. Your donations to North Berkshire Community Dance will help ensure that we can continue this policy and return to dancing in the spring with a little money in our treasury. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Donate via PayPal, or send a check made out to North Berkshire Community Dance to:

      Eric Buddington
      23 Warren Street
      North Adams, MA 01247

Please stay tuned to our Facebook page and website for updates on our plans and announcements of events happening in our larger virtual community of dancers, and watch for future emails from us.

Your North Berkshire Community Dance organizers