Calendar
Submit calendar info to:
calendar@corvallisfolklore.org
Contra dance is back to the regular schedule in Corvallis! The dance will start at 7:00 PM with a newcomer’s lesson and community meetup, helpful for all dancers. Following the lesson will be dancing from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. No partner necessary. Dance calling and role terms will be Larks & Robins. The cost is $12 – $20 sliding scale.
Because of the Covid-19 situation:
All attendees must sign a waiver for the First Congregational UCC (our dance hall) before their first dance of the 2024-25 season. Please read the waiver here before you arrive in order to speed up the check-in process at the door.
Thank you for helping to keep our dance community safely dancing! For more information on attendance requirements and other precautions, please see our current COVID-19 policy here, to be further updated soon.
Loose Flagstone
Loose Flagstone celebrates its fifth year as a Corvallis Celtic quartet drawing from Irish, Scottish, and American musical influences both traditional and contemporary. Their contra repertoire explores a rich mix of Celtic jigs and reels, rousing old-time tunes and New England dance music. Loose Flagstone features Jennifer Parke on fiddle, Leslie Glassmire on silver flute, Tracy Daugherty on bodhran, and Marjorie Sandor on DADGAD guitar.
Kelly Tabor
Kelly Tabor is a caller and organizer from Portland, Oregon. She enjoys dances that play with elasticity of momentum and works to incorporate them at an accessible level.
Newcomers lesson starts at 7:00pm (experienced dancers encouraged)
Dance starts at 7:30pm.
Each dance is taught. No partner necessary
(it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner).
We are still seeking new volunteers to help with dances in the fall! If you are interested in volunteering this fall, please see role descriptions and tell us how you would like to help by taking our volunteer survey at:
https://bit.ly/CorvallisContraVolunteering2022
For questions regarding contra dance volunteering, please contact Shell Stowell at corvalliscontra@gmail.com
Come to play or listen at the
Corvallis Pan Celtic Session
Every Sunday from 2-4pm.
All instruments welcome
It’s a great way to learn to play your
instrument, get some good pointers,
and learn new music
Or just enjoy
Kalos
Kalos is made up of three innovative interpreters and composers of Celtic roots music: Eric McDonald, Ryan McKasson and Jeremiah McLane. They are masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges, delivering an alluring musical complexity full of spontaneity and joyful exuberance. They set the standard for traditional repertoire with an underlying drive and pulse charged with rhythmic electricity and integrity, forging a new musical path that draws on Celtic, Breton, American and other musical traditions on accordion, guitar, fiddle, and vocals. The title of their new album, Headland, which refers to a point where land meets sea, is a fitting analogy for the exploratory space Kalos inhabits — one that calls forth driving, heartfelt music journeying through unknown territory to seek and find its essence – the enduring, resilient experience of the human heart.
Rated: G
Corvallis Hoolyeh dances are back in person
2nd and 4th Thursdays from 7 pm to 9 pm.
Hoolyeh Folk Dance
COVID-19 Policy
Updated 2023-06-13
These policies are created by an informal Hoolyeh Live Dance Committee and are approved by the Corvallis Folklore Society. They are intended to keep our community and dancers as safe, healthy, and happy as possible.
Folk dancing involves physical exertion and close contact with many people and is therefore associated with greater risk of viral transmission than other common activities. To protect our community as much as possible, Hoolyeh folk dances will have the following precautions in place until further notice, which meet and may exceed mandated COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Please note: People at higher risk of severe illness from the COVID-19 virus, or who are in regular contact with someone at higher risk, including young children and other unvaccinated people, should not attend folk dancing at this time.
All attendees are required to:
- Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
- Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
- Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
- Stay home if you experience any illness symptoms.
Additional precautions will include:
- An attendance capacity of 20-25 dancers
- Unscented hand sanitizer available at the dance
- Ventilation (open doors and windows)
- Attendees should wash hands regularly
- Letting Dana know if you have experienced any COVID-19 symptoms after the dance or in the following week
Current fees are $5 per person if not CFS member, $4 for CFS member, 18 and under $2.
The Best Cellar
Masks welcomed for everyone’s continued safety
7:30 Nicasio
Nicasio Ralph, Bethie Bee and Laureen Uray play neo-traditional folk stylings old, new and borrowed. Their musical conversations create a far-ranging rootsy celebration of storysong balladry and swingin’ improv
jam – with guitar and banjo, cello and woodwinds, bodhran and vocal harmony.
- Ralph Penunuri – Lead Vocals, Guitar and Banjo
- Beth Brown – Vocal Harmony and Cello, Wood Flute and Irish Whistles
- Laureen Uray – Bodhran and Vocal Harmony
8:30 Cucunandy
Cucanandy plays traditional and contemporary Celtic and Celtic influenced music from Scotland, Ireland and beyond. With spirit and heart they use fiddle, cello, Irish flute and whistle, guitar, bodhran (Irish drum), and vocals to create a varied and harmonious mix of songs and tunes. The band includes Katie Maxey, Beth Brown, Van Fister and Laureen Urey.
Best Cellar is held on the last Friday of each month of the school year.
Admission is pay-what-you-will, with a minimum of 2 dollars. Kids are free and welcome.
Coffee, tea, and gluten free cookies are fifty cents each.
Masks are encouraged but not required.
We will be in the cellar for this show. Enter from the back of the church parking lot.
For more information contact Mark Weiss at mjweiss@cmug.com
Come to play or listen at the
Corvallis Pan Celtic Session
Every Sunday from 2-4pm.
All instruments welcome
It’s a great way to learn to play your
instrument, get some good pointers,
and learn new music
Or just enjoy
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
Local Folk! is back
Local Folk! is a free, monthly, open mic (without the mic!) program of
local artists offering a wide variety of music, including original creations. There is no requirement to play and anyone is invited to just come and enjoy the music.
We have a new location at TROUBADOR MUSIC CENTER, 521 SW 2nd St, Corvallis.
Shari Ame is the new manager of the event. She can be contacted at shariame@gmail.com. Ryan Buys is the operator of the shop who is allowing
the use of his place for this CFS offering. This is a monthly event, every first Thursday of the month.
Doors open at 6:45pm and folks can sign up to perform at that time.
Performances are from 7pm-9pm. We conduct shared performances for
approximately two hours without a break, though people are free to move around.
This is an entirely acoustic event, without amplification. Each performer or performance group will have a maximum time allotment of 15 minutes to perform up to three songs, as in the past. There is a piano available. Contact Shari for more information or if you would like to help.
This is a free event, open to the public.
We do ask for a $5 donation to help defray the costs of the facility.
Come share your music with us!
Contra dance is back to the regular schedule in Corvallis! The dance will start at 7:00 PM with a newcomer’s lesson and community meetup, helpful for all dancers. Following the lesson will be dancing from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. No partner necessary. Dance calling and role terms will be Larks & Robins. The cost is $12 – $20 sliding scale.
Because of the Covid-19 situation:
All attendees must sign a waiver for the First Congregational UCC (our dance hall) before their first dance of the 2024-25 season. Please read the waiver here before you arrive in order to speed up the check-in process at the door.
Thank you for helping to keep our dance community safely dancing! For more information on attendance requirements and other precautions, please see our current COVID-19 policy here, to be further updated soon.
The Carrflowers playing
Kayla Blanchflower calling
Newcomers lesson starts at 7:00pm (experienced dancers encouraged)
Dance starts at 7:30pm.
Each dance is taught. No partner necessary
(it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner).
We are still seeking new volunteers to help with dances in the fall! If you are interested in volunteering this fall, please see role descriptions and tell us how you would like to help by taking our volunteer survey at:
https://bit.ly/CorvallisContraVolunteering2022
For questions regarding contra dance volunteering, please contact Shell Stowell at corvalliscontra@gmail.com
Come to play or listen at the
Corvallis Pan Celtic Session
Every Sunday from 2-4pm.
All instruments welcome
It’s a great way to learn to play your
instrument, get some good pointers,
and learn new music
Or just enjoy
Corvallis Hoolyeh dances are back in person
2nd and 4th Thursdays from 7 pm to 9 pm.
Hoolyeh Folk Dance
COVID-19 Policy
Updated 2023-06-13
These policies are created by an informal Hoolyeh Live Dance Committee and are approved by the Corvallis Folklore Society. They are intended to keep our community and dancers as safe, healthy, and happy as possible.
Folk dancing involves physical exertion and close contact with many people and is therefore associated with greater risk of viral transmission than other common activities. To protect our community as much as possible, Hoolyeh folk dances will have the following precautions in place until further notice, which meet and may exceed mandated COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Please note: People at higher risk of severe illness from the COVID-19 virus, or who are in regular contact with someone at higher risk, including young children and other unvaccinated people, should not attend folk dancing at this time.
All attendees are required to:
- Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
- Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
- Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
- Stay home if you experience any illness symptoms.
Additional precautions will include:
- An attendance capacity of 20-25 dancers
- Unscented hand sanitizer available at the dance
- Ventilation (open doors and windows)
- Attendees should wash hands regularly
- Letting Dana know if you have experienced any COVID-19 symptoms after the dance or in the following week
Current fees are $5 per person if not CFS member, $4 for CFS member, 18 and under $2.
Come to play or listen at the
Corvallis Pan Celtic Session
Every Sunday from 2-4pm.
All instruments welcome
It’s a great way to learn to play your
instrument, get some good pointers,
and learn new music
Or just enjoy
Online Song Circle
Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate. Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.
The song circle is conducted on Zoom (you can download the app to your laptop, tablet or smart phone at https://zoom.us/ ). You can play or sing along with your microphone muted. If you plan to sing, please set your audio settings to
- Original Sound: on (if this is available on your Zoom version)
- Automatically adjust microphone volume: unchecked
- Suppress background noise: low
You can access the audio settings when you are in a Zoom meeting by pressing the ^ next to the microphone icon and clicking audio settings.
You can get the Zoom link by emailing Kurt at song-circle-2@CorvallisFolklore.org .
Contra dance is back to the regular schedule in Corvallis! The dance will start at 7:00 PM with a newcomer’s lesson and community meetup, helpful for all dancers. Following the lesson will be dancing from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM. No partner necessary. Dance calling and role terms will be Larks & Robins. The cost is $12 – $20 sliding scale.
Because of the Covid-19 situation:
All attendees must sign a waiver for the First Congregational UCC (our dance hall) before their first dance of the 2024-25 season. Please read the waiver here before you arrive in order to speed up the check-in process at the door.
Thank you for helping to keep our dance community safely dancing! For more information on attendance requirements and other precautions, please see our current COVID-19 policy here, to be further updated soon.
The Euphemists
The Euphemists are not your ordinary contra dance band. Yes, they have fiddle, piano, and whistle (Alan Snyder, Dave Goldman, and Greg Martin). But they also have HORNS! (Greg Martin and Stephanie Shea on various saxophones, and Kaye Blesener on trombone.) In addition to familiar Celtic, Québécois, and old-time tunes, the band plays lively jazz standards that feature the horn section. Throw in some ragtime era tunes, a little klezmer, and even a Sousa march, and it all adds up to a highly entertaining dance
Maya Roe
Maya has been calling since 2022. In her 2023 blog she wrote:
I drove with two of my best friends down to Corvallis, Oregon to dance at the Corvallis Contra Weekend. This was my first contra weekend since the pandemic and I was so excited. Two of my favorite bands, Elixir and Countercurrent, were playing the dance, and I was excited to meet and dance with some of the best dancers on the West Coast.
Although I hardly knew any other dancers at the weekend, I quickly got to know a few of the local callers and younger dancers.
At Corvallis, I had the chance to connect with lots of contra dancers and callers from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From all of my conversations with them, I came away with a few lessons about the PNW contra community.
- There are more dance weekends, dances, bands, and dancers on the West Coast than I thought!
- It is so helpful to dance with dancers who are much better than me. I need to seek out opportunities to go to challenging dances whenever I can.
- It is quite easy to tell whether experienced callers are interested in mentoring/ supporting beginning callers or not. Many are!
- If you want to practice anti-racist and gender-free calling, you need to take that into account as you choose mentors.
- Being on an island makes learning to call more tough because there are not many gigs on an island.
- People at contra weekends are unbelievably generous. They will help you find somewhere to stay if you need it.
Dance starts at 7:30pm.
Each dance is taught. No partner necessary
(it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner).
We are still seeking new volunteers to help with dances in the fall! If you are interested in volunteering this fall, please see role descriptions and tell us how you would like to help by taking our volunteer survey at:
https://bit.ly/CorvallisContraVolunteering2022
For questions regarding contra dance volunteering, please contact Shell Stowell at corvalliscontra@gmail.com
Come to play or listen at the
Corvallis Pan Celtic Session
Every Sunday from 2-4pm.
All instruments welcome
It’s a great way to learn to play your
instrument, get some good pointers,
and learn new music
Or just enjoy