Calendar

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 Nettles

The Nettles play improvisational music based on traditional tunes. Playing hard, they’re a Celtic jam band that makes audiences move and groove. Playing soft, they’re a lyrical folk-jazz group.

The Nettles blend traditional Irish and American music with modern spices. Laura Brophy’s fiddle forms strong melodies punctuated by soaring improvisation and intertwined with Kevin Nettle’s muscular guitar. The Nettles are propelled by the purring but powerful rhythm engine of Michael Proctor on bass and Tracy Daugherty on drums.

The Nettles play for festivals, dances, bars, and weddings on the West Coast. Their music retains the vital energy of its roots, but The Nettles’ unique interpretations add to The Tradition with every performance. The Nettles joke that “We never play the same tune once.”

Shell Stowell

Shell Stowell started contra dancing in 2015, and has been dancing up and down the West coast ever since. Driven by her passion for the dance, music, and community, Shell now plays the fiddle and helps to organize contra dances in Corvallis, and has been calling since 2019. As a dancer, Shell is known for her enthusiasm on and off the dance floor. As a caller, she incorporates her love of teaching, organizing, and music to strive for clear, energetic instruction and variety in her programming. Shell also emphasizes safe, inclusive dance etiquette that promotes positive communication between dancers.

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 .

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:

1. Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
2. Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
3. Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
4. 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.

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 Underdogs

The Underdogs is a brand new band bringing together experienced dance musicians from Corvallis, Portland and Vancouver. With Bo Leyden on Irish flute and octave mandolin, Gordy Euhler on piano, Shari Ame on fiddle and Jesse Schafer on cello, the Underdogs fill the dance hall with a playful and adventuresome variety of tunes, deep grooves and rich harmonies.

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.
dance I visit.

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 .

Lúnasa

Formed in 1997 and celebrating its 27th anniversary in 2024, Lúnasa has long been one of contemporary Irish music’s leading voices. Named after an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, the group that Folk Roots magazine once called an “Irish music dream team” was formed from members of some of Ireland’s greatest bands. Lúnasa has sold over a quarter of a million records, performed more than 2,000 shows across 36 countries, and collaborated with many notable artists outside the tradition.

From the start, the band’s complex arrangements and unique sound reshaped the boundaries of traditional music and energized audiences the world over. Critical acclaim followed, The Irish Echo describing the band as the “the hottest Irish acoustic band on the planet”; MOJO magazine named the band “the new gods of Irish music,” adding that “nobody since the Bothies has wielded such a thrilling rhythmic underlay.” Billboard raved that “anybody who listens can’t help but find them contagious.”

Lúnasa’s current lineup includes Trevor Hutchinson, who achieved fame as the bassist with the The Waterboys; uilleann piper Cillian Vallely, who toured with Riverdance and recorded with Bruce Springsteen; Kevin Crawford, widely considered one of Ireland’s greatest flute players; award-winning fiddler Colin Farrell, who has performed with Project West, Grada and Michael McGoldrick; and guitarist Ed Boyd, known on the UK folk circuit for his work with bands such as Flook, Kate Rusby, and Cara Dillon.

The Corvallis Folklore Society is thrilled to co-present this concert with PRAx to bring Lúnasa to Corvallis!

This concert is a benefit for the Corvallis Celtic Festival (July 24-27, 2025). Visit corvalliscelticfestival.org for more information.

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:

1. Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
2. Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
3. Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
4. 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.

Local Folk! is back

Local Folk!, the Corvallis Folklore Society’s open mic program, is ready to
begin again on Thursday, April 3rd, 2025.

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. We anticipate this to be a monthly event, every first Thursday of the month.

Doors will open at 6:45pm and folks can sign up to perform at that time.
Performances will be from 7pm-9pm. We will 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. We do not have a piano available at this time but if someone is able to help by providing a keyboard, that would be great. Contact Shari. And contact her 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.

Cucunandy

Corvallis based Cucunandy brings a wide variety of traditional and contemporary Scottish, Irish, Manx, Quebecois, and Old Time tunes to the contra dance floor. With Katie Maxey on fiddle, Beth Brown on cello and penny whistle, Laureen Urey on Bodhran and other percussion instruments, Cucanandy is now joined by Van Fister on guitar. Van brings his expertise as a contra dancer to the band making for a wonderful program of dance sets.

Gordy Euler

Half of Shanghaied on the Willamette and co-director of the Portland Megaband, he has been calling dances all over the west coast for 15 years and he’s good.

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:

1. Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
2. Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
3. Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
4. 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.

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 .

NOTE: New location for April 19 dance:

Ashbrook Independent School Gym
4045 SW Research Way, Corvallis

Enter the building through the main entrance, then walk straight through the long lobby to the gym doors in the far corner.

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 Overtones

The Overtones is a Corvallis-based band whose sound was born in the rivers and woods of the lush Willamette Valley. Its musical versatility ranges from Irish to Quebecois, Old Time to funky modern tunes, and features Shari Ame kicking a serious backbeat on fiddle, Evelyn Idzerda wading deeply into rhythm and rhyme on piano, Bo Leydon rocking octave mando and wooden flute, Marjorie Sandor coaxing luscious new chords from DADGAD guitar and harmonium, and Tracy Daugherty keeping it steady on bodhran and cajon. Together, the Overtones whip up a danceable storm!

William Watson

William Watson, a resident of Eugene, OR, danced his first contra in 1989 and began calling in Texas in 1992. Having called numerous contra events in cities coast-to-coast, William’s extensive experience and soothing voice project a calm confidence. His vigilant and thoughtful dance programming ensures a variety of figures, transitions, and sequences to entertain and support new dancers while offering the occasional challenge for the more advanced. His calling proficiency and sensitivities ensure everyone has a good time.

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:

1. Provide an email address for contact tracing if needed (gathered at dancing).
2. Be mindful of others’ variable comfort levels, especially with respect to personal space and level of touch.
3. Feel comfortable wearing a mask if that is their personal choice.
4. 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.

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. We anticipate this to be a monthly event, every first Thursday of the month.

Doors will open at 6:45pm and folks can sign up to perform at that time.
Performances will be from 7pm-9pm. We will 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. We do not have a piano available at this time but if someone is able to help by providing a keyboard, that would be great. Contact Shari. And contact her 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!