Kimmswick 2009

Wasn't that just a barrel of fun?

Many contributors to this blog called dances at the Kimmswick Festival this weekend. Many fun dances. Lots of terrific bands to dance and call to. Dozens and dozens of good dancers to dance with. We even had a few Mother Nature difficulties to get through so we will always be able to pinpoint the occasion: "Remember the Kimmswick where we had a tornado watch, and a fabulous thunderstorm and it took out the electricity to the dance hall so we had to dance in the dining hall?" "Remember the Kimmswick where we all froze in our beds because the temperature dropped to about 40 degrees and all we brought was a sheet?"

One of the great things about this weekend, too, was the number and quality of under-30 (okay, under 35) people we had, dancing and playing music and calling. The future of our sport is assured. The Cosmic Otters, with Jonathan and Edward and Meg (with baby on board), and the New Mules (Genevieve Harrison, Smith Koester and Andy Gribble) were two of the highlights of the weekend. The geezer bands weren't too shabby, either.

I am happy to report that I took another step towards becoming a real caller this weekend. Not that I called all that much - we had many callers (yay!) to fit in, and I had music to play - but I collected a dance! I'm not sure I like this method of getting dances, since you kind of have to stop dancing while you go write down stuff - either the name of the dance or the directions. If I don't write down the name, I won't remember what to ask for. But I did learn something that should have been obvious, but wasn't to me. It's actually polite to ask for the dance - you're kind of voting for that dance, telling the caller that you liked it enough to want to call it yourself! (Okay, I hear you all saying "duh".) Perhaps I'll find an easier way to remember the dance or its name. Perhaps I'll find an antique Dance Card and copy it, and wear it dangling on my wrist with a small pencil attached, like the old days.

Bob had the job of scheduling the callers. He got expert advice from the previous holder of this post, Deborah Hyland, and did a creditable job - there were no fist fights among the callers, and we kept on dancing all weekend.

The English workshop went well, even though there were fewer people in the hall this year, about 35 (that's partly because there are always fewer people at our 2-day weekends than at our 3-day weekends). At about the midway point, I counted the number of St Louis people at five. Bob disputed this point, but I'm not sure he actually counted, and he may have included people from other dance groups that he knows so well that he thinks they must be homies. My old buddy Pam Carson Stoll played in the band with me, as did my old buddy Jill Allen, who has also recently started an English Country Dance in Lawrence. We were joined by Pam's husband Fred Stoll on mandolin and Jill's husband Greg Allen on fiddle and by Dale Wilson on bass. The music was lively and pretty, and people seemed to be having fun. The callers were Bob, Kay and Billy, and they did a fun set of dances.

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