Dear North Berkshire Dance Community

The organizing committee of North Berkshire Community Dance met last Sunday and decided to return to a holding pattern regarding when we will try to restart dancing. We do not anticipate returning to scheduled indoor 2nd Saturday dances before the end of this year. We will continue to evaluate the pandemic situation, and be very much guided by the experiences of larger and more active organizations in the regional and national contra dance community as they lead the way.

Factors in this decision:

1. As organizations around the country have begun dancing again, we are seeing a lot of starting and stopping, disagreement and even acrimony about what are appropriate Covid precautions and policies, and in some unfortunate cases, records of dances becoming Covid “super-spreading” events. No doubt that people are ecstatic to be dancing again under responsible Covid policies and we would love to follow their lead, but to our thinking, we have not reached a point where we feel confident that we can organize contra dancing that is joyful and safe.
2. We decided that it is not useful to keep trying, on a month to month basis, to out-think this pandemic. Every time we think we have figured out what the pandemic is doing, it pulls a new rabbit out of its hat. We want to wait until we feel confident that when we announce the resumption of monthly 2nd Saturday dances, we will not need to be in constant Covid monitoring mode and always prepared to cancel.
3. We are a small organizing committee and we need every one of us to be enthusiastically on-board and ready to pull together when we announce our first dance. Even as we started making tentative plans to organize our first dances earlier in the summer, it was never clear that we had the internal consensus that we must have to be successful. Thankfully, we have now recognized this, and are content with this decision to let other dance organizations lead the way for us.

We will continue meeting as an organizing committee on a regular basis to monitor and discuss the situation in the broader dance community. We will be getting out to try dancing in nearby communities, ourselves, both to see how they’re doing, and to nurture our own love of and connection with social dancing. We encourage you to do the same, to the extent that you are personally comfortable. Maybe we will see some of you there!

With gratitude to all of you in our dance community!

North Berkshire Community Dance
  Pat Dunlavey – president
  Eric Buddington – treasurer
  Doone Mackay – secretary
  Kate Abbot
  Nick Adams
  John Seto

Dear Dance Community,

We (the organizing committee) met this past week to review your responses to our survey about resuming dancing and to consider next steps. Your responses were largely positive, and enough of you indicated that you would like to return to in-person dancing (subject to Covid protocols/cautions) that we decided to go ahead with working out the details of resuming dancing. The biggest “detail” at this time is finding a venue, since the Williamstown Preschool will not not be available to us until some time in the fall due to construction.

As some of you may know, contradancing is starting to appear on the calendar in Greenfield, Worcester, and Lenox (click links for details). Organizing committees like ours are meeting across the region to make decisions about starting dancing again. That said, Covid continues to bedevil. It is likely we will adopt a policy, similar to that used by the Greenfield Guiding Star Grange, of canceling our dances any time Berkshire County falls in the CDC Community Level “High” category.

Here are the survey results:

Indoor dance: Pre-registration with proof of vaccination required. Masks required for both dancers and performers.

• We would come! 26
• I’m not sure 4
• We would not come 6

Outdoor dance: On lawn with caller and open band. Masks required for dancers.

• We would come! 28
• I’m not sure 5
• We would not come 3

Outdoor concert: Seating available, masks optional. Informal (unprompted) dancing on lawn in family groups.

• We would come! 22
• I’m not sure 9
• We would not come 5

We are currently investigating possible venues for both indoor and outdoor dancing and will meet again on May 18th to review. We will keep you posted!

If you would like to help us make the decisions and do the work of restarting dancing, do please contact Pat (413-458-9273).

– Your North Berkshire Community Dance organizing committee:

Please take our survey to let us know: https://doonemackay.wufoo.com/forms/north-berkshire-community-dance/

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

• Kate Abbott
• Mac Bellner
• Eric Buddington
• Pat Dunlavey
• Doone MacKay
• John Seto

We are sorry, but not (now) surprised that we have to cancel our planned fall 2020 community contra dance series. We hope to meet you on the dance floor again in the future. Please be safe and stay well until then.

And enjoy this picture of our January 2020 dance, from the days when we were able to take hands and look in one another’s eyes, all casually.

UPDATE 3/11:  This dance is CANCELLED

WILLIAMSTOWN — North Berkshire Community Dance will hold its monthly contra dance on Saturday, March 14 — Karen Axelrod on piano and Dave Langford on fiddle will play traditional tunes with a swinging improvisational joy, and Liz Nelson will call, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Williamstown Community Preschool, with a lesson for beginners at 7:15.

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Liz Nelson is a new voice on the contra scene, calling dances primarily in Massachusetts thus far. Already, she is known for her clear instruction, thoughtful programming and friendly stage presence. She will call this dance with Larks and Robins role terms, friendly and welcoming  for new and experienced dancers alike.

Musicians Dave Langford and Karen Axelrod have been playing contras together for more than 30 years with energy and improvisational flair.

Karen plays Scottish and American folk events across the country and performs in the band Foxfire among others, and in Barley Moon with Dave Langford and Daron Douglas. Dave also performs in the Latterday Lizards with Kate Barnes and Bill Tomczak, blending New England folk music with  influences from Irish music, French Canadian, ragtime, rock, Appalachian and Jazz.

Contra dancing has friendliness built in — everyone dances with everyone else. You can bring a partner or come alone and join in. Beginners are warmly welcome, and experienced dancers will find the group lively, especially later in the evening.

NBCD will also hold a snack potluck halfway through the dance, and everyone is welcome. (The school is a no-nuts zone, but anything else is welcome.)

*** We strongly encourage attendees to wash their hands frequently,  to aid in slowing the seasonal spread of flu, and (eventually)  covid-19.  We have two bathrooms with sinks and soap in the entry hall. If you could stop in there as you arrive, that would be greatly appreciated! ***  Please observe normal precautions against socializing when ill, by staying home if you feel coughy or sneezy. We’ll miss you this one time, but hope to have many opportunities to dance with you in the future.

Thank you,

North Berkshire Community Dance

Please come dance with us at North Berkshire Dance’s monthly contra dance on Saturday, February 8, at the Williamstown Community Preschool.  Caller Andy Davis will open with beginners’ instruction at 7:30,  leading right into our inclusive, happy dance from 7:45 to 10:30 p.m.  Fiddler Annika Amstutz and pianist Becky Hollingsworth will lead an all-comers band.   This month, the evening will start early with an optional potluck dinner at 6:30 PM. Bring a dish to share (no nuts, please).

We are lucky to have the guidance of people who know the music in their bones and love passing it on. Andy Davis calls traditional New England dances, plays accordion and piano, and composes his own tunes. Andy’s specialty is calling for community events which are welcoming to dancers of all ages and abilities.

***

NBCD will also hold a snack potluck halfway through the dance, and everyone is welcome. (The school is a no-nuts zone.) Monthly dances continue on second Saturdays. Admission is $12, or $5 for students and children, and $25 for families. For more info, visit us at northberkshiredance.org, or call 413-663-4479.