Swingin' Tern Report

Starting this month, Gloria Friedman will be attending Folk Project Board meetings to provide more dancer input. Unfortunately, I have a work commitment tomorrow night and will not be able to attend. I am also trying to find a dancer to volunteer to participate on the Festival Committee.

The dances on October 16 and November 6 went well. The November 6 dance was the Harvest Hoot. We changed the format this year - the band was Brooklyn Swing Ensemble (Mark Schaffer and his Folk Project Troops were not available) and instead of hour-plus blocks of traditional contras, swing dances, and contras to swing music, we interspersed the three genres throughout the evening. Everyone seemed to be happier with this arrangement.

College Outreach

During the summer, my daughter, Cody, assembled a list of email addresses for over 100 clubs and organizations at area colleges. She has now come up with a message to send them, below:

Hi guys!

First off, this is not spam. We are a different kind of activity where you can have fun with your friends. We are Swingin' Tern, a contra dance in East Hanover, NJ. For $5 per student, you can attend the dance on Saturday nights from 8-11. (Don't worry - there is a lesson for newbies at 7:30.) It isn't very hard so you'll walk away smiling. Plus, there is always a fantastic live band and a caller to teach you the steps. If you're looking for a fun time (as well as a decent cardio workout) you should come try it out. You can come alone or with friends. We meet on the first and third Saturday of every month at 14 Hanover Road, East Hanover, NJ. For more information about us or the activity itself visit:

On our website: http://www.folkproject.org/fp_swtern.shtml

On Facebook: Swingin' Tern Contra Dances

On National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128273050&sc=emaf

Or for additional info, send an email to SwinginTern@FolkProject.org

We hope to see you there!!

Swingin' Tern Committee

Any comments would be welcome. Cody wanted to make the message informal to resonate with the younger set. Joel Remde has a mass mailing list program, and we will start sending out announcements in the next week. As much as we'd like a large turn-out, we don't want too many newbies all at once, so we will start with only part of the list.

Connie