Obit- Contra dancing at Lovett Hall-Dearborn, Mich

Subject: Obit: Contra dancing at Lovett Hall
From: GUEST, Karen M.
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 01:54 PM

First, the folk programming on what used to be my favorite radio station suddenly got cancelled.
And now, an announcement about the abrupt cancellation of the longest-running dance series in Michigan. (Aside to 'DET listeners: what department did Henry Ford Museum hire Caryn Mathes for?)

Some of us got the message (below) and hit the keyboards. We've established a Yahoo group (save-lovett-hall-dance) and the e-mails and letters are flying fast. (Unlike a radio show, we can't just pick up and move to another huge beautiful hall with a teak floor and beautiful decor and marvelous acoustics. See for yourself: http://www.hfmgv.org/calendar/contra/contra.asp, http://www.hfmgv.org/catering/default.asp,
http://www.hfmgv.org/catering/lovett_ballroom.asp)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Fellow Dancers & Musicians,

The Olde Michigan Ruffwater Stringband and I wanted to share the news
of the wrap-up of our longstanding Lovett Hall American Contradancing
series with you. The December 5th, 2004 special "Holiday Dance" and
the February 6th, 2005 "Experienced Dance" will be the last two dances
in our long running monthly winter & spring series that began October
4th, 1981. Lovett Hall will no longer be available for regularly
scheduled weekend dances.

Please join us at one or both of these remaining dances to help us bid
farewell to a great hall.

The February 6th, 2005 dance will be our official closing celebration.
Thank you for coming and sharing the afternoon with other experienced
dancers from Michigan and across the country. This would have been
our traditional "Advanced Dance" but we wanted to include dance
friends who dance comfortably well who may not completely enjoy
strictly advanced dances. An advanced dance or two will be included.
We'll have lemonade and cookies to augment the dancing. We'll bring
memorabalia from across the years for you to chuckle and reminisce
over. We would enjoy your joining us for a group photo of this last
dance.

We could not have linked together 23-1/2 years of dancing at Lovett
Hall without you. We're so thankful for the fun, satisfaction and joy
that each of you have brought to us by dancing with us there. We look
forward to seeing you at other dance venues across the State and
around the Midwest.

Thank you for distributing this to dancing friends.

My apologies for the short notice. This change has all happened in
the last 4 days.

All the best,

Glen Morningstar

Subject: RE: Obit: Contra dancing at Lovett Hall
From: open mike
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 04:26 PM

why is the dance over? are they tearing down the hall?
I hope yo find a way to continue....after over 2 decdes
there should be a way!! if you have a band and caller
all you need to do is find another location..good luck!

Subject: RE: Obit: Contra dancing at Lovett Hall
From: GUEST, Karen M.
Date: 09 Dec 04 - 12:28 AM

All we need is another hall built in 1937 with polished teak floors mounted on carriage springs and and acoustics so good that Glen scarcely needs a mic and crystal chandeliers and pressed designs in the ceiling...

Details here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~karencontracaller/lovett.htm

Subject: RE: Obit: Contra dancing at Lovett Hall-Dearborn,
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 09 Dec 04 - 10:00 PM

So... the "bottom-line mentality" strikes again! I.e., they want to kick out the dancers so they can make more money offering banquet facilities, even though the dances only run "6 hours (one afternoon!) a month, and only 7-8 months per year".

Well, heavens! How can we possibly argue with letting people doing something that Henry Ford approved of (and built the hall specifically for!) get in the way of something as important as making sure that the Hall can provide Banquet & Convention facility services seven days a week, 52 weeks a year! So what if they're a 503(c) "Nonprofit educational" organization and they're replacing educational activities (such as the "American Contra Dancing" series) with profit-making activities! After all, there's such a thing as priorities, ya know!

Sheesh! Like you said, Karen – first 'DET, now this! It's depressing. No, I shouldn't say that... anger and action are called for here, not depression. Thanks for the link – very useful info! And good on Steve Gold for doing something about it!

I was really looking forward to dancing there again when I came back to the Detroit area for the holidays (in January). [sigh]

Cheers – YY/Vikki Appleton Fielden (off to sign up & write some letters!)