This is a copy of John's presentation for the IFDA 60th anniversary celebration

Welcome to the 60th anniversary of the incorporation of IFDA. This group was founded some years before 1964 by Mr Steve Edison, who had been introduced to folk dancing at Antioch College and wanted to start a group when he returned. Some of the students at the high school had done some Israeli dances at Jewish summer camps, and many of the girls had training in modern dance. Assumption Greek Orthodox church, then in U City, had exposed several students of Greek descent to dancing there, so there was fertile soil. (I did not arrive in St. Louis until 1967, and danced at Wash U, not coming to IFDA until 1971, so I will leave the description of those early years to Rick and Lisa Rosen.)

This was not the first International Folk Dance group in St. Louis that was open to all. An earlier group, about which I was ignorant, had been doing choreographed couple dances and mixers at least since the 1950s. I learned of them when that group folded about 40 years ago and they called us to see if we wanted their equipment.

IFDA really took off when it moved to Heman Park Community center, using Steve’s record collection. At first Steve did all the teaching - he went to the huge Stockton Camps every year and, as a result, we often had the new up and coming teachers before anyone else. Steve flew in many of these teachers at his own expense. International Folk Dancing (which had been started in its early days in New York, Chicago and the coasts back in the 1930s) really started to take off in the ‘60s, and U City was in the forefront in the MidWest, and one of the most progressive groups in the country. (This comes as a shock to folks now in the 30s, 40s, and 50s because they have never heard of it, even though it was considered an “in” thing to do in U City then.) Nina Melechen told me the High School social scene was split between the “straights” (who went to “Wigwam” (the local parentally supervised “sock hop” on Friday nights), and the “freaks” who went folk dancing on Saturday night. We got regularly castigated in the Letters to the Editor in the Post-Dispatch and Globe Democrat for passing out socialist literature in the parking lot. The infamous IFDA birthday song, sung to the tune of the Song of the Volga Boatmen, was born then. There was a performing troupe, and the group developed an off-shoot at Washington University (headed by Ed Abelson, Ernie Brodie and Bob Leibman (now a retired folklorist). Another thing that set us apart from many groups, was our use of alternative recordings, a tradition kept up until today. We had several recordings for Syrto (“syrto 213 and its flip, and “Super Syrto”)and Tsamiko, U Šest, and Lesnoto, and, of course “Sweet Girl” (done to the Beatles, Safety Dance, and Finnish folk rock). I can assure you from my travels around, that that was very unusual in other groups.

As time went on, we were the victim of our own success. Folk Dancers often did not move away after high school and hung around, so that the average age increased. High schoolers stopped coming (who wants to socialize with a bunch of aging 20-somethings?). The U City parks department realized they were losing potential revenue from rental of the Community Center and, at first, started charging $125 a night to rent the place (a lot then), and, after a few weeks, told us that it would be $125 to rent half the space, and we found ourselves competing with early rap and soul coming through the room divider.

Wanting to keep our U City roots, we moved to Holy Communion (Jackson and Delmar) until they carpeted the space, and then to University United Methodist Church by the Lion Gates. That congregation disbanded, so we are now at Focal Point - the best floor ever, and with easier to use audio equipment.

There are lots of great stories from those years, some of which you will hear, but there is one important factor I should mention. Although there have always been disagreements over repertoire and how things could be run (we are not a wishy-washy group), those disagreements did not “do us in”. IFDA was not set up to be a top down corporation, but, rather, a democratically organized community where anyone could go to meetings, be on committees, become programmers, etc. Not all non-profits are run this way. I have in my files a long letter sent by a lawyer to the board of the Childgrove Country Dancers (which, you should know, was founded after a contra dance workshop that IFDA ran). That organization was run by a self-appointed board, and the lawyer mentioned IFDA as an example of how other similar groups should be run. We have always profited by the good will, as well as the dancing skills, of our members, and I am delighted to see so many of you who established that group culture, and have come a long way to be here.

John Uhlemann

May 29, 2024