Dances cancelled until end of June

[UPDATED April 29, 2020]

Hey, there, all you indoor cats and kittens! Governor Janet Mills has released a plan that provides guidance as to when in-person activities in the State can restart (see the plan here). Social dance is clearly in Phase 4, which has a loose timeline TBD, and may be able to restart activities in or after July.

Right now, all Thursday night dances and PICD event are canceled through the end of June 2020.

Now, we don’t know if that will be extended, but we do know that we’re not going to be dancing together immediately when the order is lifted, as it will take some time for us to plan and for everyone to feel comfortable in close quarters again. We’ll keep you in the loop!

We’re keeping the lights on over here so we can be ready to open our doors as soon as it’s safe to do so. And, we could use your help with those utilities! ;) We’re raising $2,500 to sustain during the closure - and we’d really appreciate it if you’d donate if you can.

We miss your faces and would love to see you on the internet until we can see you in person. To stay in touch, visit our Facebook Group. <3

Take care of yourselves and wash those hands often!

New Dates and Topics: Online Workshops for New and Active Callers

After the coronavirus pandemic caused us to start canceling contra dances and all our dancers to start socially distancing from each other, PICD scheduled some online classes to introduce dancers to calling and to upskill active callers. Promptly, 29 people registered 54 times for 4 different classes scheduled 8 times over 9 days. Apparently this is a good time for at-home learning!

So now we’ve added 2 new class topics (“Leading Great Community Dances” and “Programming and Reading Dancers”) and developed a whole new schedule for April 8-21.

Check out the classes on these topics:

• Calling 101: An introduction to contra dance calling for experienced contra dancers with zero calling experience

• Picking Good Dances: Advanced skills in recognizing bad contra choreography and honing in on collecting good dances for your repertoire

• Utilizing Variety: Learn how to design an experiential journey for contra dancers through choreographic and musical variety

• Challenging Dancers Just Enough: Learn exactly what makes a dance too complex or just right for your crowd

• NEW! Programming and Reading Dancers: Build a great program of dances in advance and recognize signals on the fly to help you choose the right dances in the moment

• NEW! Leading Great Community Dances: Succeed at calling gigs with very few or no participants who regularly attend contra dance events, such as community dances, weddings, and family dances

Online Workshops for New and Active Callers

While everyone is socially distancing from each other, this could be an opportunity for you to introduce yourself to calling contra dances. If you’re already calling dances, why not upskill by meeting up with Dugan Murphy and other callers in a videoconference to learn some skills!

Check out the classes on these topics:

• Calling 101: An introduction for contra dancers with no calling experience

• Challenging Dancers Just Enough: A class for active callers about complexity in contra choreography

• Utilizing Variety: A class for active callers about using variety in choreography and musical moods to take dancers on an experiential journey

• Picking Good Dances: A class for active callers about identifying good dances and avoiding bad ones

Support PICD Performers Whose Performances Were Canceled

With eight Thursday night dances canceled so far and The Portland Triple-Decker 2020 postponed (see other blog post from today), that’s a bunch of musicians, callers, and sound technicians who are not able to perform for us. Without admission income from those canceled dances, PICD is unable to compensate those performers, but YOU can support some of them directly in these ways.

Clara Stickney of Portland, Maine offers online lessons in fiddle, piano, music theory 101, and contra dance music. Folks can get in touch with her through her website, www.claraconstancemusic.com.

Clara was scheduled to help lead The Pic’d Up Orchestra on March 12 and play in the Portland Triple-Decker on May 2.  

Katie McNally of Portland, Maine offers CDs on her website, www.katiemcnally.com/shop. If you are interested in commissioning a tune for a special occasion/person or for dance choreography that someone has devised OR scheduling a Skype fiddle lesson, you can reach her at mcnallykl@gmail.com.

Katie was scheduled to play with Neil Pearlman on April 30.

Jaige Trudel and Adam Broome of Quebec offer CDs at www.maivish.com/music/albums and www.crowfootmusic.com/shop. They are also available for commissioning original tunes by emailing jaige.trudel@gmail.com.

Jaige and Adam were scheduled to play as Maivish on April 2.

Bennett Konesni of Belfast, Maine offers membership through Patreon to support his Worksongs project: www.patreon.com/worksongproject

Bennett was scheduled to play guitar with Ellen Gawler on March 19.

Glen Loper of Portland, Maine offers CDs of his band, Riptide, through that band’s website: www.riptidedanceband.com. He also offers lessons on mandolin and tenor banjo, taught by ear, with a focus on traditional fiddle music including Irish, Old Time, and New England Contra tunes. You can reach him at glenloper@gmail.com.

Glen was scheduled to play March 26 with Steampacket and to run sound on March 12, March 26, and April 23.

Anna Patton of Vermont offers a solo CD at www.annapatton.com and CDs and Downloads of her band Elixir at www.elixirmusic.com/store. She also teaches online lessons in Ear Training/Aural Skills/Music fundamentals by ear. Lessons are $40 for 40 min or $50 for an hour. Contact annameryl@gmail.com.

Anna was scheduled to play at the Portland Triple-Decker.

Neil Pearlman of Portland, Maine offers CDs and downloads of his music at www.neilpearlman.com/looklisten.

Neil was scheduled to help lead the Pic’d Up Orchestra on March 12 and to play with Katie McNally on April 30.

Dugan Murphy of Portland, Maine offers online classes in contra dance calling. He offers both an introductory class as well as classes for active callers with a little or lots of experience. Class offerings are listed at www.portlandintowncontradance.org/workshops.

Dugan was scheduled to call and mentor new callers on March 26 and April 23.

Dela Murphy of Portland, Maine builds websites for people. Learn more about this service at www.nufsed.consulting or email her at dela@delahere.com.

Dela was scheduled to call on April 30.

Alex Deis-Lauby of New York City offers CDs of classic lullabies. To order, you can email Adeislauby@gmail.com or go to www.store.cdbaby.com/cd/liladeis.

Alex was scheduled to call at the Portland Triple-Decker.

THANK YOU if you are able to financially support any of these performers. With arts events around the country canceled for the foreseeable future, many artists are experiencing dramatically reduced income.

Dances cancelled until May 10

Hi from our home to yours! As most of you have likely heard, this week Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, has prohibited civic and recreational gatherings of more than 10 people through at least March 31. The CDC has recommended closing all events like this until at least May 10.

We take your safety seriously, so we’ve chosen to cancel all Thursday night dances through May 10. We’ll also postpone The Portland Triple Decker until later in the year. Stay tuned for a new date!

Together, we’ll weather this coronavirus crisis. Social distancing doesn’t mean we can’t be social! We’re planning some fun in our Facebook Group, so head over there to join in. We miss your faces and would love to see you on the internet until we can see you in person. <3

Take care of yourselves and wash often!

Questions?

Here’s a brief FAQ!

Q: When will we start dancing again?

A: Hopefully we'll resume dancing in May. We'll use our best judgment and will let everyone know in the coming weeks.

Q: Anything I can do to help PICD or our artists?

A: Without door admission income and our annual fundraiser, PICD will be losing some money as we continue to pay fees and ongoing organizational expenses during the month that we incur whether or not we host events. If you can support PICD with a donation to fill that financial gap, we'd appreciate that. Donate here or buy some new PICD swag.

You can also support artists who would have performed with us. Join our Facebook Group to stay in the loop on live-streamed concerts hosted by our musicians and see the other blog post from today for details on how to buy CDs, solicit services, or donate to them directly.

Dances cancelled in March 2020

Your safety is our biggest priority. As we've learned more about COVID-19 and the huge role social distancing can play in both reducing spread of the virus and in avoiding overwhelming our heath care system with an exponential spike in cases, we have decided that it's prudent to act early.

It's our shared responsibility to look out for our own and each others' wellbeing. We love dancing - and we know you do, too. Hopefully these actions will protect folks in our community so we can continue to dance with all the people we enjoy for years to come. We'll continue to assess the situation and get in touch later this month about whether or not it is safe to resume dancing in April.

Questions?

Read this FAQ and/or get in touch.

Q: There are no confirmed cases in Maine yet. Why cancel now?

A: There are currently 92 cases in Massachusetts, 1 in Vermont and 5 in New Hampshire. People travel regularly between Portland and spots like Boston, New York, New Hampshire and other New England areas for work and socialization (like dancing!). We're assuming the virus is already spreading here as it did in Washington State, where individuals who showed no symptoms infected others and the disease spread unknowingly before it was detected. Acting sooner than a visible outbreak means we can slow the spread and keep our healthcare system from being overwhelmed.

Q: But can't people who appear sick just stay home? And everyone else can use good hygiene?

A: Sure. And there are a number of PICD dancers who are healthy, yet more susceptible to severe symptoms of the virus due to age, sex, or their immune system. With a fatality rate that is likely somewhere between 3-5% and the reality that some dancers won't know they're infected and attend, contra dancing at this time is a risk that could significantly and negatively impact the most vulnerable of us. We've learned that social distancing can decrease the spread of COVID-19 by ten times. Not dancing seems like a relatively small inconvenience to protect our community.

Q: Gosh, this sounds serious! Am I okay?

A: We're not canceling dances this month because it's unsafe to go outside! This is about making measured decisions based on science: the number of attendees at an event x the amount those attendees touch = the amount this highly contagious virus can spread in a short period. Contra is high-touch! ;)

For practical tips on how to keep yourself safer at events, see our last blog post.

Q: When will we start dancing again?

A: Hopefully we'll resume dancing in April. We'll use our best judgment and will let everyone know in the coming weeks.

Q: Will the artists and series be okay financially? Anything I can do to help?

A: Without door admission income, PICD will be losing some money as we continue to pay fees and ongoing organizational expenses during the month that we incur whether or not we host events. If you can support PICD with a donation to fill that financial gap, we'd appreciate that. Donate here or buy some new PICD swag.

You can also support artists who would have performed this month by buying their merchandise. Here's some places to do just that (we'll post other opportunities in the PICD Facebook group when we become aware of them):
Neil Pearlman: http://neilpearlman.com/looklisten/
Bennett Konesni: https://www.patreon.com/worksongproject
Glen Loper: https://riptidedanceband.com/

Update as COVID-19 Spreads

Keeping everybody safe

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the Northeast, it's inevitable that Maine will see cases soon.

We're monitoring the situation carefully and paying close attention to CDC and World Health Organization recommendations.

Your safety is our top priority -- and the last thing we want is to negatively impact members of our community who are at-risk because we selfishly wanted to dance together!

So, here's what you should know:

We will make decisions regarding future dances thoughtfully and will keep all of you informed. AND, we strongly urge you to take the following precautions when attending a dance:

1. STAY HOME if you're sick or have been sick in the last week.

2. STAY HOME if you've been on a cruise or in a location with ongoing community spread in the past 14 days (Italy, China, Iran, South Korea, Washington State, California, New York). If you're in MA and NH where a few cases have been found, consider not traveling to us.

3. If you're immunocompromised or otherwise at higher risk of contracting the disease, please consult with your doctor and make the best decision for you. People with chronic medical conditions and older adults are at higher risk. Consider staying home for your own safety.

4. WASH YOUR HANDS before the dance, often during the event, and after the event. We'll have the kitchen open for hand washing. Use hand sanitizer (available at the top and bottom of the hall) throughout the evening.

5. Cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow or into a tissue you immediately discard. Wash your hands after coughing or sneezing.

6. Don’t touch your face. If you need to touch your face, use a tissue and throw it away immediately.

7. Sanitize your phone, devices, water bottle, etc. that you use at the event before and after the event.

Again, we'll be monitoring and making decisions regarding events ongoing. We'll keep you informed.

Thank you for your support keeping everyone safe and healthy!

Welcome New PICD Leaders!

These are the folks who help keep our dance community awesome.

Julia Fitzgerald, Jennifer Melillo, Graceson Cyr, Jim Beckwith, and Shane Myers have all joined recently the bevy of PICD dance managers. See them soon on stage making announcements, paying our so-lucky-to-have-them performers, and making everything goes smoothly.