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In full swing: Square dance group hosts festival at Blair County Convention Center

Square dance group hosts festival at Blair County Convention Center

By Matt Churella 5 min read

A big contingent of square dancers descended Thursday on the Blair County Convention Center to start their fall festival weekend.

The Pennsylvania Square & Round Dance Federation's "Fabulous Fall Festival" is expected to attract about 300 dancers to Altoona for the event, which runs through Saturday, according to chairpersons Steve and Karen Koehle.

The federation sponsors the event every two years, meaning there's a new location and organizer responsible for making the event a success each time it's held, Steve Koehle explained.

Several square dance clubs are represented at the festival each time it's held, and the event brings together dancers of all ages and experience levels, Koehle said.

On Thursday, the event attracted people from all over the commonwealth as well as Maryland, Ohio, New York, Virginia, New Jersey and Alabama.

"This is as nice of a facility as we've ever had," Koehle said, adding they partnered with Tom Schilling, the convention center's executive chef, to serve some excellent meals, including a Blair County sundae bar featuring ice cream products from Ritchey's Dairy and The Meadows of Hollidaysburg.

"Tom Schilling and the staff have been excellent to work with," Steve Koehle said, adding he and Karen have been preparing for the event for about two years.

They sold out the Country Inn & Suites by Radisson next to the convention center and were able to sell several blocks of rooms at the Altoona Grand Hotel and a hotel in Duncansville, Koehle said.

All day today and Saturday, the event features square dancing and round dancing, which is essentially choreographed ballroom dancing, Karen Koehle said.

Steve Koehle said they want people to know they're encouraged to visit the convention center and see what square dancing is all about. People can obtain a visitor's tag and observe the dances for free, he said.

Lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and dinner will be served from 4 to 6 p.m. both days. In addition to dining options, there are basket raffle tickets available for sale, with a drawing taking place at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Larry and Lynne Crone of Bedford County said they started square dancing in 1977.

At that time, they had recently moved from upstate New York to the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and they wanted to do something together as a couple. Square dancing was their chosen activity, Larry Crone said.

"It was a tie between Irish dancing and square dancing," Lynne Crone said. "We have three kids and they said, 'We're going to learn how to square dance, too.'"

After attending the fall festival in 2002, the couple moved to Bedford County in 2003, Larry Crone said, adding they were both retired and were looking for a cheaper place to stay. But they still visit -- and dance with -- their friends in the D.C. area, he said.

"We still go back there and dance with them," he said.

Bill Harrison, a caller for the event from Cheltenham, Maryland, said square dancing's popularity is worldwide, and the dance programs available at the fall festival offer different levels of dancing that people can share.

As a caller, Harrison is responsible for teaching new people the steps, or "the calls."

"They don't know the order of the steps; they just know the steps. Say, for example, 'swing through' (and) 'spin the top.' They'll know those calls, but they don't know how we're going to use them," Harrison said.

Harrison said he started dancing in either 1966 or 1967 when he was about 7 or 8 years old.

In about 1970, he attended an amateur night at a teen club he danced with and learned how to pattern call. In February 1985, calling became his full-time career.

Harrison said he was the fall festival's first featured caller, meaning he was hired for the event and wasn't a volunteer like many other state callers were at that time.

While teen clubs aren't like they used to be in his area, there are a lot of youth dancing groups still active today, Harrison said.

"There will be some of those folk here this weekend because they know friends that are up this way," Harrison said, adding there are other square dancing events near Washington, D.C., and Baltimore that attract people of all ages. "They've all grown up together and come to these festivals."

Susan Stewart of Afton, Virginia, drove about four hours to attend the opening ceremony Thursday. While she enjoys dancing, Stewart said she enjoys attending these events simply to see all of her friends.

"We see each other multiple times a year," Stewart said.

While describing how learning the calls for square dancing is "almost like learning a language," Stewart was greeted by her friend, Jeff Roberts of Huntsville, Alabama. Roberts was a caller for Thursday's mainstream/plus rounds dance who had just returned home from guiding dancers through routines in Japan for a week.

"I see them all over the place," Roberts said, referring to Stewart and her friend, Robert Pace.

Many years ago, they all met in North Carolina for a square dancing event. Together, they danced all over Europe with a group of about 85 people, they said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.

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