Our winter meeting will be held on Saturday, January 19, 2013 in the Santa Barbara Room at the Mission Inn, 3649 Mission Avenue, Riverside CA 92501. Click here for a map and directions.
Our board will meet at 10:30 AM, lunch will be served at 12 PM and our program on English Country Dancing will begin at 1:30.
The Mission Inn Hotel and Spa is one of Southern California’s most popular historic destination sites and affords us one of one of our most interesting event venues. It is well worth learning more from its website before coming to our meeting. You can also tour the Mission Inn on your own. Call (951) 788-9556 for information on times and rates.
As another in our programs on early American colonial culture and customs that were observed at Jamestown, members of EnglishCountyDancing.org of Riverside will lead us in examples of the form of dancing that was enjoyed in England, Virginia and New York. It enjoyed resurgence in the middle of the 20th century and is performed by many groups across the nation and UK. Among sources of its history and other information are our presenters and The Williamsburg Heritage Dancers.
Luncheon: Cost: $45.00
Menu:
Entree Choice of either Chicken Dijon or Fillet of Salmon – Both served with California Green Salad and Crème Brule for dessert.
Vegetarian plate available upon request
For more information, please contact our Governor.
Please make your reservations by Saturday, January 12 with Harry Holgate, Treasurer, First California Company, 115 West 4th Street, #208, Long Beach, CA 90802-2312.
E-mail: hholgate@QNET.com
From the website of the Williamsburg Heritage Dancers, we learn that “English Country Dance was one of the most popular forms of recreation in colonial America, as it was accessible to everyone from the governor and gentry (like George Washington) to slaves. In the winter, many houses with larger rooms danced almost every evening, because the heat of dancers warms a house better than any fireplace. Virginians in particular were described by outsiders as being ‘immoderately fond of dancing.’ A scornful Presbyterian tutor on a Virginia plantation noted that the passage of a hurricane just before a scheduled ball failed to halt the event; ‘Blow high, blow low,’ he wrote, ‘Virginians are of genuine blood: they will dance or die!’
