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Volume 42 No 4LOS ANGELES BRANCH WELCOMES NEWER DANCERS<strong>June</strong> <strong>2011</strong>FEBRUARY (right)Newer dancers attending the February Beginner Dancein North Hollywood included, front row from left: YukariHirayama, Christina Butler, Lesli Lytle, Martina Hanson,Leah Wouters; back row: Kathryn Renton, Arthur Baum,Neil Carstairs.Photo by Rosemary AbendPhotos by Bob HarmonMARCHThe March Beginner Dance at the Torrance CulturalArts Center also brought out several newer dancers. Agroup photo was taken that evening as well, but technicaldifficulties made it unavailable for publication
LOS ANGELES BRANCHSCHEDULE OF DANCES<strong>2011</strong><strong>June</strong>25 AGM. First Christian Church, 4390 Colfax Ave., No. Hollywood. Potluck dinner 5p.m.; Annual Meeting: 6:00 p.m.; Dance 7p.m. Music: recorded. Members $10, nonmembers$12. Dance is free to members whoattend the meeting.July23 SUMMER DANCE. Culver City Senior Center,4095 Overland Ave. 7:00 p.m. Music:recorded. Members $10, non-members $12.August27 SUMMER DANCE. Torrance Cultural ArtsCenter, 7:00 p.m. Music: recorded. Members$10, non-members $12.OTHER EVENTSOC = Orange County Branch;SD = San Diego;SGV = San Gabriel Valley Branch<strong>2011</strong><strong>June</strong>18 SGV. SUMMER SOLSTICE DANCE. 7:30p.m. Lindberg Park, Culver City.July16 SGV. ANNUAL PICNIC AND DANCE(Saturday). Palisades Park, Pacific Palisades. 11:30 a.m. & 2:00 p.m.August6 SGV. ANNUAL SCOTTISH LUAU.Caltech’s Dabney Lounge, Pasadena7:30 p.m.September24 INTERBRANCH DANCE. (Sponsored by allfour Southern California branches.) TustinSenior Center.September-OctoberSept. 30-Oct.2 HARWOOD LODGE WEEKEND.Sierra Club Lodge is reserved for an <strong>RSCDS</strong>weekend. There is still a little space, butit is limited, so if you would like to come,please email Doris Fisher immediately at:doris.fisher@gmail.com or call her at310.324.2759.October22 HALLOWEEN DANCE First ChristianChurch, 4390 Colfax Ave., No. Hollywood.7:00 p.m. Music: recorded. Members: $10,non-members $12.November19 ST. ANDREW’S BALL. Ports O’ Call Restaurant,Berth 76, San Pedro.December31 HOGMANAY. El Segundo Woman’s Club, 541Standard St. Music: recorded.January 201221 BURNS SUPPER. Ports’ O Call Restaurant,Berth 76, San Pedro.GHILLIE CALLUM2Jeff Altman and Robyn George dance down themiddle and back in the informal demonstrationat the Queen Mary Festival.JUNE <strong>2011</strong>
The <strong>Los</strong> <strong>Angeles</strong>BranchDemonstrationTeam at the <strong>2011</strong>Queen MaryFestivalOne of the most favoritedance spots is the mainsalon at the Queen Maryfor their festival. Not onlyis there a large paintingof an old ship, which setsthe mood, but the floor ishighly polished so somephotos reflect the lovelycostumes.Below: dancers are reflectedin the highly polished floor.Photo by Audrey PrestNEW MEMBERSThe Branch is pleased towelcome one new member,Arthur Baum. We hope youwill enjoy dancing with us.Melinda & FrankPhoto by Karen KermanGhillie Callum 5 <strong>June</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
Photo by Audrey PrestFurther performances of the L.A. Branch Demonstration Team on theQueen Mary in the salon.Photo by Karen KermanDeadline for theSeptemberGhillie Callum isJuly 18th!GHILLIE CALLUM 6<strong>June</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
Photo by AudreyPrestAbove: dancers from the <strong>Los</strong> <strong>Angeles</strong>, San Gabriel Valleyand Orange County classes also presented an informaldemonstration on the Queen Mary.All three local branches sponsored the Queen MaryFestival Dance, which brought out dancers for adelightful informal dance on the Saturday evening.Photos by Audrey PrestGHILLIE CALUM 7JUNE <strong>2011</strong>
NORTH VALLEYSpring is definitely here and North Valley class membersare dancing at every opportunity: classes, monthlycelebrations and visits to Orange Çounty and SanGabriel branches’ activities as well!Jeff Altman is recovering from his leg injury, graduallyputting dancing, hiking, and golf back into his schedulewhile trying not to do any more damage. He’s notonly been busy at work, he also participated in theplanning of the SGV Spring Ball, has been puttingtogether his annual Memorial Day weekend golf outing,plus organized a Passover Seder for 18 guests athis home.Travel has been on the agenda for two class members.Audrey Prest ventured to Iowa for a week to care for hergrandson, Connor, who underwent surgery. He’s doingfine and is back in school now.Alice Allen accompanied Mary Brandon for a trip upnorth to visit Mary’s brother Murray. Dancing, exploring,working on new dances, and visiting combined fora most successful excursion.VALLEY COLLEGEClaudia PedersenAs usual our SCDers have been busy finding fun and adventuresince the last time I wrote. The Valley College classhas some great new additions. Arthur Baum and LesliLytle have only a few classes to their credit and havealready been to a dance! They make being a beginnerlook so easy! And the annoying thing is that over a decadelater I still remember that for me it sooooo wasn’t!We’re also happy to have Yukari Hirayama as a regularmember since September, and Dave Drekter, whocomes when he can and is doing very well consideringthat ... The group just gets better and better!Aase Hansen is in whirling dervish mode as always. Shenow has two (2!) grandchildren keeping her busy, in additionto her dancing and Danish Sisterhood. Little cutieFreya now has baby brother Magnus, born Dec. 27th.Despite her busy schedule, Aase is thoroughly enjoyingher duties as farmor, which is Danish for grandma.(It’s also what farmer sounds like when you say it witha mouth full of cookies.)Alison McAlpine just got back from a short trip to NewOrleans where she stayed with a high school friend whoruns a B&B there. The friend, who also collects folkart, took Alison on a trip down the Bayou to visit oneof her artist friends, a Houma Indian who carves andpaints beautiful animals out of wood. Next she’s off toNew Zealand with Christine Grobler’s group of intrepidtraveling SCDers. I fly for a living and I’m home morethan this!Audrey Prest had some scary, but then wonderfulnews: Her grandson Connor had surgery March 29thfor a ping-pong-ball-size brain tumor, which, thankgoodness, turned out to be benign! He is doing wellnow, but had to stay out of school for four weeks. Audreyspent a week in Iowa helping out her family buttook a very early flight home to be able to attend theSGV Spring Ball.Ingrid Armour is enjoying monthly trips to San Mateoto visit her mother, Olympia, who suffered a brokenarm, heart attack and broken hip all within fivemonths last year! Ingrid reports that her mom is theoriginal Energizer Bunny and is recuperating verywell.Tove Olafsen got a promotion and brand new office atwork. Unfortunately, she found out during the rainthat it wasn’t waterproof! She did some creative workwith waste paper baskets and umbrellas, a HuckleberryFinn raft, and a snorkel ... and she reports thatthe scent of wet carpet still beats the smell of wet dog.Tove always finds the silver lining!Jon Reeves’ job at IMDb was eliminated in April; thecompany decided to consolidate his group in England.Right now he is considering his options — includingearly retirement, which would leave him more time towork on the Rose Parade float, dance, visit food trucksand watch movies. I personally never knew how hemanaged to fit any work into his schedule anyway.Will he even notice the difference?Deb Ash is doing her usual interesting stuff ... justto give you a taste, in the last few weeks she’s madea custom silver motorcycle-style jacket for a femalefinalist on “American Idol,” she worked for two dayson a Huggies commercial with eight rambunctiouschildren running around the set in diapers and pullups,and another week she worked on a commercialin Downey (yes, she hits all the glamour spots). Shealso went with a journalist friend to the Ojai ValleyResort and Spa for a three-day wine and food tastingextravaganza, followed by a two-day mini vacationat the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena!That outing included a five-course tasting menu atthe new, highly acclaimed restaurant The Royce, plusGhillie Callum 9<strong>June</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
an afternoon tea! She’s going to have to do a lot of dancingto work off all that good food!Steve Kaplan continues to conquer the screenwritingworld with his Comedy Intensive workshops. In additionto presenting the seminars in <strong>Los</strong> <strong>Angeles</strong>, he’s also beento New York and will be heading to Dallas, Galway, Londonand Sweden, among other destinations. Kathrin King Segalis working on a new novel. Her first book, Wild Again,currently out of print, will soon be released as an ebook,available on Kindle, iPad and other electronic devices.I had a lovely vacation last month visiting my daughterJess, who’s in grad school in London. She’s trying out forthe woman’s roller derby team there ... her team namewould be Furious George! I finished my holiday with acouple of days golfing in Palm Springs. It was a nice longvacation, but then my reserve month started and I’ve feltlike I’ve been in the air ever since!My son Robert is doing a five-mile fund-raising bike ridefor AIDS research and is collecting sponsors on-line. Someof you probably got the e-mail or saw the information onmy facebook page. And at the end of the month I’m goingto Cape Cod to visit my friend Jean’s new grandbaby!We’re heading in to spring and I hope to see you all at thevarious monthly dances and events. I’ll try really hard notto trip you up ...Robyn MacGarva GeorgeMARY AND ALICE’S ADVENTUREIN SALT SPRINGby Alice AllenAs some of you may know, Mary Brandon is preparing athird book of dances. Recently she and I traveled to SaltSpring Island, British Columbia, to enable her to collaboratewith her brother Murray Shoolbraid on music for thenew book.Salt Spring is a small island between Vancouver and VancouverIsland. April was beautiful with daffodils EVERY-WHERE. Very pretty, but for me, COLD.GHILLIE CALLUM <strong>June</strong> <strong>2011</strong>10Mary Brandon and Murray Shoolbraid atwork on the dances for her new book.Thursday while Mary and Murray worked, I exploredSalt Spring in a light rain. After dinner, Iwent to the high school where the Salt Spring ScottishCountry Dance Club was reviewing dances fora workshop to be held on Vancouver Island on Saturday.I skipped the workshop (they left at 7:00AM!) in favor of the weekly open-air market in thepark.Sunday we were back at Murray’s house, this timefor Sunday brunch with the entire family (therewere 11 around the table) as well as another worksession for Mary and Murray. Mary recruited me towalk through dances in a set composed of Murray,me and four ghosts. Quite a challenge.Monday night Mary and I went to the regular sessionof the dance club. Between dances from theirprogram they put together a set of experienceddancers to walk through, then dance one of Mary’sdances for the book. They picked it up easily. Marygot to see the dance and get a few impressions fromthe dancers. At the end of the evening, some of thedancers stayed behind to walk through and danceanother dance.Salt Spring dancers are not only friendly and capabledancers, they are very supportive as well. Sundayafternoon Mary told me that I was to teach thedances on Monday. Yes, right there in the church
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