Enjoy a fun night of folk dancing with DJ Holly Plotner. Holly will be assisted by RosieLee Salinas. Holly welcomes Women Singing** for a short live set starting at 8:30.

**Women Singing was formed in March 2014 and sings a variety of harmony-based music from around the world. Members are Joane Rylander, Anne Alexander, Dee McCandless, Kathleen McDonagh, Yoshimi Masuo, and Holly Plotner. Dena and Franklin Houston will be accompanying.

Teaching: Franklin Houston will start the evening with the next class of our spring 2015 newcomers’ semester. The semester presents dance fundamentals and etiquette, introduced through some of our favorite folk dances and is a great way for newcomers to learn what is so fun about dancing in general and folk dancing in particular.

For more information and other neat stuff, check out this week’s newsletter.

Saturday, January 31st
7:30-10:45 pm
$5 at the door 17 and over (16 and under free).
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Hancock Recreation Center (HRC)

Enjoy a fun night of folk dancing with DJ Sharon Casteel. Sharon will be assisted by John Ramage.

A Special Announcement about Teaching:

We are proud to announce something new and very special — a 2015 newcomers’ semester! This Saturday, Misi Tsurikov will conduct the second class of a structured multi-month program that will build newcomers’ dance skills and repertoire. Each session will cover: – Folk dance fundamentals (formations, handholds, steps, rhythms). – Dance etiquette. – A selection of our favorite newcomer-accessible dances, new and old. The program starts at 7:30 p.m., as usual. Don’t miss it! Featured teaching: Later in the evening Misi will start teaching Rangla Punjab, the Bhangra dance we learned at Texas Camp 2014! Over the next few weeks, Misi will lead you through the ‘geography of the dance’. Then we’ll bring in another expert to work on styling, which in Bhangra is equally important!

For more information and other neat stuff, check out this week’s newsletter.

Saturday, January 24th
7:30-10:45 pm
$5 at the door 17 and over (16 and under free).
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Hancock Recreation Center (HRC)

Enjoy a fun night of folk dancing with DJ John Scales. John will be assisted by Dee McCandless.

A Special Announcement about Teaching:

We are proud to announce something new and very special — a 2015 newcomers’ semester! Beginning this Saturday, Madeline Brock will lead a structured multi-month program that will build newcomers’ dance skills and repertoire.

Each session will cover:

• Folk dance fundamentals (formations, handholds, steps, rhythms).
• Dance etiquette.
• A selection of our favorite newcomer-accessible dances, new and old.

The program starts at 7:30 p.m., as usual. Don’t miss it!

For more information and other neat stuff, check out this week’s newsletter.

Saturday, January 17th
7:30-10:45 pm
$5 at the door 17 and over (16 and under free).
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Hancock Recreation Center (HRC)

Enjoy a fun night of folk dancing with DJ Mike Revesz. Mike will be assisted by Michel Breger.

A Special Announcement about Teaching:

We are proud to announce something new and very special — a 2015 newcomers’ semester! Beginning this Saturday, Madeline Brock will lead a structured multi-month program that will build newcomers’ dance skills and repertoire.

Each session will cover:

• Folk dance fundamentals (formations, handholds, steps, rhythms).
• Dance etiquette.
• A selection of our favorite newcomer-accessible dances, new and old.

The program starts at 7:30 p.m., as usual. Don’t miss it!

For more information and other neat stuff, check out this week’s newsletter.

Saturday, January 10th
7:30-10:45 pm
$5 at the door 17 and over (16 and under free).
Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Hancock Recreation Center (HRC)

The AIFD board is happy to report a positive outcome concerning our Hancock rental. Although the issue is not yet completely solved, AIFD faces an excellent chance for full resolution in 2015. For the time being, AIFD continues to call Hancock “home” through January 2015. You can help with the resolution in 2 simple ways. First — please come to dancing! Your presence is not just a delight for all of us — it’s now one of our strongest bargaining points. Second — please sign in, legibly and fully every time. The City tracks our sign-ins now, and needs all the info in those sheets.

On November 6, the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) notified AIFD of its intent to sharply raise the rental rate for Hancock Recreation Center (HRC). The AIFD board immediately met in person with PARD representatives to discuss the changes and their implications to AIFD. Look for additional communication from the board this week at dancing. Please come. We need AIFD member input and feedback to explore solutions.

The Austin International Folk Dancers meet almost every Saturday Night (7-11PM) at the Hancock Recreation Center, 811 E 41st St, in Austin Texas.

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Everyone is welcome at AIFD, we are kid-friendly and our dancers come from all walks of life. We ask for a $5 donation to cover room rental from those 17 and up (where else can you have three hours of fun for that low a price these days?).

No partner is needed, and dancers of every skill level are welcome.

Our repertoire includes line dances, couples dances, and mixers. Folk dancing is a great social event and wonderful exercise.

We are often having intermediate teaching sessions and other special events! Please check our Teaching/Programming page or the Calendar for more information on upcoming events. Or feel free to Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for up to date information on what is happening at AIFD as well as information on fun dance events all over Austin and beyond!

Typical Saturday night schedule:

7:00-7:30 pm	Equipment Setup – please come help out.
7:30-8:00 pm	Teaching and walk throughs.
8:00-9:30 pm	Request dancing.
9:30-9:45 pm	Contra / announcements.
9:45-10:30 pm	Request dancing.
10:30-10:45 pm	Clean up.

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Are you CPR/AED certified?Safety First! All dancers should know where the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is located at Hancock. Even if you are not certified to operate the device, you are encouraged to become familiar with its location next to the attendants desk. In the event of an emergency you could save a life simply by retrieving it for the emergency responder. If you are certified to operate the AED please let the Board know. The Board will not keep an official list, but would like to know who to turn to in the event of an emergency. Thanks!

Are you using a Yahoo email address? Over the past few months the AIFD newsletter has occasionally been bounced by Yahoo. The problem is not consistent. Some weeks nothing is bounced. Other weeks the newsletter is bounced for up to 20% of the Yahoo recipients. And when newsletters are bounced, it is not always the same Yahoo email addresses that are affected. If you are using a Yahoo email address and have occasionally not received the newsletter, you can always find a link to it on aifd.cc. Conversely, if you have a different email address you would like the newsletter sent to, please send an email from that address to newsletter_editor@aifd.cc. In the body of the message or the CC line please include the email address we should replace. The newsletter is sent on Thursday mornings. Thanks!! Bill Ogilvie, AIFD newsletter editor. October, 2014.