This article is a short history of Folk Dance Association. It describes how it began, the early publications, the current web site and future plans.
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My involvement with folk dancing began the evening of Aug 4, 1963. I used to be a very active amateur recorder player. Early that year, I saw an ad about a chamber music week to take place at Pinewoods Camp. It soounded interesting so I decided to give it a try. When I got there, I found a rich and varied assortment of music classes and concerts. Each day's program ended with an hour or two of English Country dancing. Although I was too timid to join in, I was absolutely captivated by what I saw. The following year (1964), I returned to chamber music week, but this time I gathered my courage and joined in. I found English country dancing to be a wonderful experience!
After returning once again in 1965, I began to search for a folk dance class to join at home. I decided to try an Israeli folk dance class taught by Fred Berk at the 92nd St YMHA. After a year or two of this, I went to North Carolina in June 1967 to attend Camp Blue Star for a marvelous week of Israeli dance. During the next five years, I branched out and became very involved with International and Balkan folk dance. For a few years, I actually attended folk dance classes and parties five to seven nights a week. I also attended many folk dance camps, most notably those at Camp Blue Star and Buffalo Gap Camp. I especially remember the summer of 1972 when I went to California to attend the 25th anniversary camp at Stockton Camp.
Finally, in February 1973, Steve Zalph and I co-directed a folk dance festival. It began Friday night at St Vartan's Hall with the kind cooperation of Michael and Mary Ann Herman and continued all day Saturday and Sunday at NYU's Loeb Student Center. The festival featured Dick Crum for Balkan dance, Ralph Page for Contra dance, Jerry Helt for Western Square Dance and Glenn Bannerman for Appalachian/Big Circle dance. All I remember is seeing a huge crowd at every workshop and party and picking up Dick Crum at Laguardia Airport on Saturday morning. The rest was a big, beautiful blur!
As a result of these early days, I became convinced the term folk dance actually referred to many types of dance, including folk, square, contra, English, Scottish, swing, ballroom, cajun, zydeco, Israeli, ethnic, clog, lindy, recreational, step and vintage dance.
This led to the establishment of Folk Dance Association. From 1970 to 1979, I published Folk Dance Directory, the first widely circulated, nationwide folk dance directory. From 1971 to 1975, I co-published with Steve Zalph Folk Dance Magazine which featured folk dance articles, interviews and a calendar of national events. From 1975 to 1979, I published Mixed Pickles, the first widely circulated nationwide tabloid folk dance newspaper.
My first project, begun in 1970, was Folk Dance Directory. This was the first widely circulated national folk dance directory covering the entire United States and Canada. The first annual edition was published in 1971 and the eighth (and final) edition in 1978.
My goal was to enable folk dancers everywhere to know what folk dance classes, sessions, special events, products and services were taking place throughout the United States and Canada. To bring this about, I had about 20,000 copies of each edition printed and sent to folk dance clubs and special events nationally for free distribution.
The first edition covered New York City. After publication, I proposed the creation of a "federation" of regional directories to serve as a national folk dance directory. I expanded my directory to cover all of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and made it Region 3 of the proposed ten regions. When it soon became clear that the other nine directories were not going to appear, I again expanded coverage to include all of the United States and Canada.
With the 1978 edition, the directory had grown to 32 pages and over 1,000 listings. Unfortunately, I was finally forced to cease publication because it became far too expensive to prepare, print and mail 20,000 copies to every folk dance club in the country. Even though we collected $10.00 for each listing, each edition resulted in a loss and caused me to go into debt. Moreover, only folk dancers received copies; there was no easy and inexpensive way to get copies to non-dancers who might give folk dance a try if only they knew about it.
My next project, begun in 1971, was Folk Dance Magazine, created and edited jointly by Raymond La Barbera and Steve Zalph. This was a widely circulated magazine covering the entire United States and Canada. The first issue was published April 1972 and the tenth (and final) edition in the winter of 1975. Between 10,000 and 20,000 copies of each issue were printed, of which about 98% were sent to folk dance groups throughout the U.S. and Canada for free distribution to their members.
Originally conceived as essentially a New York area calendar of folk dance events to supplement Folk Dance Directory, the publication was originally named New York Folk Dance News. However, the first issue turned out to be a ten page magazine with several articles and a calendar of folk dance events in several states. This was followed by a second issue with 18 pages, more articles and a calendar of events in locations ranging from New York to California and Maine to Mexico. The fourth issue boasted 32 pages and succeeding issues had 40 pages. Since it was apparent from the very first issue that New York Folk Dance News was an inappropriate name for the magazine, the name was officially changed to Folk Dance Magazine in the fall of 1973.
The magazine had quite a large number a regular features. The Calendar presented a extensive list of upcoming special events in the United States, Canada and abroad. Dance Footnotes allowed teachers like Andor Czompo, Dick Crum and Csaba Pálfi to present background about specific dances they had introduced. The Interview featured interviews with such prominent teachers as Jerry Helt and Anatol Joukowski. In People and Groups, articles by Dennis Boxell, Larry Weiner and Pearl Atkinson explored the relationships among folk dancers and the groups they attend. Dance Backgrounds allowed authorities such as Yves Moreau and Andor Czompo to explored the folk dance and other traditions of the regions and ethnic groups they knew first hand. In Contras and Squares, experts such as Nibs Matthews, Ralph Page, Tony Parkes and Jim Morrison presented articles on contra, country and square dancing. Camp Comments featured articles about the background, philosophy and programs of important folk dance camps while Festival Fare did the same for festivals. Everything But . . . was David Henry's fascinating column of topical folkdance miscellany and whimsy. The Forum gave our readers the opportunity to speak their mind about any folk dance related. Folk Frolics was a column of humor, wit and satire with the premise that no person or institution in folk dancing is above some good-natured kidding. Folk Dance Scene presented articles on organizations dedicated to furthering fork dance activities in various parts of the country.
My third project, begun in 1975, was Mixed Pickles. This was the first widely circulated tabloid newspaper covering folk dance in the United States and Canada. The first issue was published in February 1976 and the 31st (and final) issue in February 1979. About 20,000 copies of each 8-page issue were printed and distributed mostly free of charge to individuals and folk dance groups throughout the United States and Canada. For its entire run, I was able to continue the types of articles, features and traditions established in Folk Dance Magazine.
During the 1980's and most of the 1990's, I became involved with projects not involving folk dancing. I grew discouraged at not being able to realize my goals. I especially disliked going into debt because every publication was well received but still lost money. I guess I learned the hard way that financial stability and security are two of the many necessities for a happy and prosperous life.
Although I ceased my role as a folk dance leader, I continued on as a dancer doing mostly Contra dancing. I became a regular at CD*NY Saturday sessions and at American Dance Weeks at Pinewoods Camp. At these sessions, I also came into contact with and began to do Swing dance, Cajun/Zydeco dance, Clog Dance and Vintage dance.
In 1998, with more and more people going Internet crazy, it became clear this new technology now made my goals of the 1970's possible to achieve.
The Internet, something very few people even knew about in the early 1990's, has completely revolutionized many aspects of life, and none more so than publishing. For example, in the 70's, the high preparation, printing and postage costs compelled me to employ a cumbersome system of almost 150 symbols and abbreviations to squeeze 15 to 20 lines of information down into just two lines so that 250 pages of listings could fit into 32 pages. Unfortunately, while this enabled me to print and distribute 20,000 copies of each edition free of charge, it also made using the directory difficult. In addition, since information constantly went out of date, most of the directory was obsolete when a new edition was released a year later. Finally, copies rarely got to people who might give folk dance a try if only they knew it existed.
The Internet has changed all this. Listings involving ten or 15 lines of text cost no more than those involving 2 lines. A group's information need never go out of date because changes reported to us appear on-line within a few days. Finally, with so many millions of people having access to the Internet, the number of non-folkdancers who visit this site and, perhaps be intrigued enough to try folk dancing is staggering.
My main project right now is the Folk Dance Association web site located at www.folkdancing.org. Begun January 1, 1999, it's now grown quite large with over 200 web pages containing detailed listings of 3,000 dance groups and 1,000 special events throughout the U.S. and Canada. It also has 200 folk dance articles and essays. I constantly add new items daily and welcome over 70,000 visitors each year.
All listings were free of charge during the first four years (Jan 1, 1999 to Dec 31, 2002). However, shortly after initial publication, I saw I'd eventually have to start charging listing fees. Consequently, the fee for all 2003 class, session, camp, cruise, festival, teacher, tour, vendor, week, weekend or workshop listing is just $15.00 (U. S. funds) for the entire year.
My future plans are pretty straightforward. I plan to expand The Directory until it includes every folk, square, contra, English, Scottish, swing, ballroom, Cajun, zydeco, Israeli, ethnic, clog, lindy, recreational, step and vintage dance class and session in the United States and Canada. Likewise, I hope to eventually have The Calendar list every folk dance camp, cruise, festival, teacher, vendor, week, weekend and workshop in the US and Canada. Finally, I hope to expand the number and types of articles, essays and web sites listed in the Library.
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