My first blog ever.
And since I’m dealing with dancing, I will start by talking about the Treasure Valley Country Western Dance Association (TVCWDA). Created in 2007. Linda Rogers, Gary Riggs and myself decided to put this dance together and use the Square Dance Center of Boise as our venue. Gary Riggs financed the first three dances and we got busy. Linda and I bought speakers, mixer, mic, computer, iPod, insurances, etc. and between $10,000 and $15,000.00 later, we showed up for our first TVCWDA dance. We charged nothing at the door and set out a donation box in hopes that we could cover the cost of the hall by doing this. We never intended, nor did we ever make a profit from this dance. But what we had in mind worked. And that was to provide a family friendly dance that with the poor economy, everyone could attend. Our first dance brought in about 80 dancers from around the area and we grew from there. We encouraged families to come...one and all. Our attendance kept growing even though those in the dance community had such a distain for children, they withdrew their support. Some were so much against our dance, they tried to have us removed from the hall calendar completely. That didn’t work and we moved on.
We taught pattern dances, 2-step, mixers, line dances and more to all ages that walked through our doors. And we continued to grow. In the process we set a few records and initiated many firsts. We were the first of the dance groups to have a band for our dance and we did it twice. We were the first to bring in locals to demonstrate their talent such as Fire poi and jump rope teams. We were the first to demonstrate 9 different dances at the same time to the same song. We were the first to use our dances to garner donations for causes in the area, such as Discovery Elementary special needs, Ride for joy, Relay for Life, and a local friend Scott Foust’s granddaughter who has cancer. We set attendance records for the dance groups that use the Hall. On more than one occasion we had over 180 and our all time high hit 230! We have watched 4-generation families dancing at the same time together on our floor and we have had 2 and 3 wheel chair bound attendees join in and dance with us. We have had deaf and other infirmities overcome to get out on our dance floor.
We have always opened our doors to the community, no matter what level of dancer showed up. We did our best to make sure they had the opportunity to dance and not sit. We have had those that liked to join us to just listen to great country music and not dance. That was also nice to know that Linda’s play list was that pleasant for many. After nearly 8 years Linda and I are moving on to other ventures. We have enjoyed our run as the largest country dance in Treasure Valley, but all things come to an end someday and for the TVCWDA, it’s time. Thanks to all of you who have attended, danced with us and some of you who have grown up with us. We had many wonderful evenings. We will have one more of these dances on May 14, 2016. We hope you will all join us for our final goodbye to this family friendly dance that made a history like no other in the short lifespan it had. Join us May 14th and then keep in touch to see what new events we come up with us. Hopefully you will join us on the dance floor once again. YEE HAW
Keep checking our R2L2 Country Dance home page for upcoming events.
Randy
June 2017
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