Dancing with the Kids

For almost 20 years, I slept for a weekend on the church basement floor in Berea, Kentucky. The reason I was there was the Spring Dance Festival held yearly at Berea College for over 60 years. A gathering of youth and dance leaders spend three days and evenings rehearsing dances like Flowers of Edinborough, Sellinger's Round, Alabama Gal or Basket of May. On the Saturday evening of the weekend, the dancers dance en masse on the street in front of Boone Tavern with Morris teams jingling their bells and waving their sticks and swords, garland girls prancing with leg bells and flowers arches, and then all parade, following behind the musicians, to the hall to share more dances with the audience.

 The evening ends with a community dance which includes the audience, most of whom are experienced dancers from the Berea community.

The weekend this year is going to be March 10-12 at Berea College. I won't be going this year, and haven't been for several years. I miss it! But I don't have any more dance troupes.  (retired now)On the festival weekend of 1996, I had

taken 45 "dancing fools" as we like to say we are.That Friday morning a tornado struck the town  and when we came out of the church where we were staying, destruction was all around.  That certainly was a memorable trip!

 I know some of my former dancers will be making the trip, even though they're now in their 20's, some even in their 30's. This is an event that shapes lives. Over the years, kids have come from Kansas, Michigan (us and another newly formed dance group), Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, and probably other places. So many of the dancing groups come from Kentucky. Kids who have gone to this weekend keep coming back as adults, and then they start a dance group themselves, so they can have their own kids be a part of this treasured experience.

This Spring Dance weekend is often a springboard for dance troupes to go home, practice and practice and practice in hopes of being chosen to be a group invited to dance with the Danes (in Denmark, of course). New friends are made, the Danish kids come to your community and more friendships are made.

Some of the dancers even marry each other, having had that romance start over Hole In The Wall, a much loved country dance. Students find themselves going to Berea College after these yearly weekend experiences, so they can have more dancing! Some become dance teachers, callers or musicians in a community once danceless. The circle of dance keeps widening, all because there are dance teachers and leaders willing to take 30 kids on a 400 mile trek to a college in the middle of Kentucky, for a weekend of the most toe-tapping live music, the most amazing dance steps, and the most infectious smiles you'll ever want to encounter.