Indiegogo

Squaredance-4

Every Sunday Square Dance

Firing up Portland's Dance Scene!

History and Vision

Once upon a time, there was a vibrant, rollicking, life-affirming community square dance in northeast Portland, Oregon. From 2001 until 2008 people of all ages filled the gym of the Kennedy School--a charming restaurant, hotel, and community hub here in the City of Roses--on the first Thursday evening of every month. There was a live old-time stringband, a masterful caller and throngs of dancers. People fell in love, made new friends, and danced their Northwest rain-induced seasonal blues away.
This incredible gathering came to an end when wall-to-wall carpeting was installed over the beautiful dance floor. Portland lost yet another affordable dance space, a rare community resource. Since then there has been an enormous void in our music and dance scene. 

But, like all good stories, this one has a happy ending. The dedicated callers and musicians of Portland are starting a NEW square dance at the Village Ballroom, every Sunday from 7-9 p.m. We hope to capture some of the legendary energy of the Kennedy School dance. Even better, the Village Ballroom is under new management as a nonprofit whose mission is to raise money to support good causes in Portland, and we are delighted to support them. In other words, we will be capitalizing on how awesome the Portland old-time scene already is, while also providing a hospitable place for new energy, connections, and communities to grow. Please read on...

Why is Traditional Square Dance so Important?

This type of social gathering pumps life into a community, promoting good health, high spirits and a wider, more fulfilling social network. Doctors dance with hobos, seniors dance with college students, children dance with everyone. It is a safe, structured way to join hands with old friends and new - and has been for hundreds of years. Traditional dance needs to be kept alive in the same way a language does, and our twenty-first century, west-coast edition of the tunes and dances that have been handed down for generations keeps this FUN heritage healthy for the future. The dancers make the music way more meaningful and the rocking live music and calling makes the dances come alive. All sorts of doors open: some people find the music so irresistible that they just have to play it, others find the idea of calling meshes well with an innate fun-loving spirit. Best of all, everyone has a chance to connect to a completely participatory, non-commercial, and welcoming community event. Each individual feels a part of something bigger, and this expansive sense of belonging carries over into the rest of the world, making it just a little bit better all around.

Don�t just take our word for it... here�s what one enthusiastic dancer told us after our kickoff dance: �Holy #*&@!  I just wanted to write and let you know how amazing last night was from my perspective. The venue was perfect, the music was fantastic, and the dancing was helluv fun.  The whole evening was just the shot in the arm that the old-time side of me needed.� AMEN!

Throwing a dance party every week is a big commitment, though. Your donation makes this effort sustainable by helping us pay our performers even when there�s not a great take at the door. This isn't simply an operating cost, it's a decision to make it a reasonably paying gig - one that supports our callers and musicians by valuing their talents and time.

Please, we need your financial support for this event to thrive.

This fund will enable us to offer a minimum guaranteed payment to our performers. It will also help us buy sound equipment that we can store at the Village Ballroom. We estimate that raising $5000 in this campaign will enable us to put on a weekly dance for the foreseeable future. We need your help!

We're presently focused on getting on solid footing with a regular dance, but we also have sights on branching out. We in the midst of partnering with a group in the same building to offer monthly family dance. While many LGBTQ folks feel comfortable at our dances, we are offering"Gender Free" nights where even more folks feel at home in our dance community.

We have a sneaking suspicion that if you�re reading this, the best thank-you we can give you is to have our weekly dance series be wildly successful. We also have a selection of more tangible thank-yous because we appreciate any amount that you can donate.

Other Ways You Can Help

We need help getting the word out about this campaign. Please invite your friends, family members, and coworkers next time you come to a dance and let them know about our fund raising effort. Forward on a link to this campaign.

Bring a flyer home and put it up at your favorite spot in town.

We are looking for a few decent microphones, cables, and stands to keep at the balroom. Please let us know if you have one to donate or are willing to sell us yours that is collecting dust.

Please pay with paypal if you are able, it allows us to have access to the the funds as it is donated.


Thank you!

And a special thanks to Etienne Scott and Charles Espey for contributing the Video and Photo for this campaign!

Team on This Campaign: