Indio, CA Square Dance Festival 2008

The Twelfth Annual Riverside County Square and Round Dance Festival held in Indio, CA was lots of fun! It was great to see old friends and make new ones, and the line-up of callers was spectacular. Over a thousand dancers attended, and many were in an RV. Marshall Flippo, Mike Sikorsky, Johnny Preston, Gary Shoemake, Wade Driver and Tony Oxendine called, and Ray & Virginia Walz, from Tucson, cued the round dances. (A second cuer Linda & Bill Maisch were also there, however we didn't dance with them very much.)

We arrived on Thursday the 13th of November, were assigned to a parking spot with power and water out under the palm trees on the entrance avenue. We found a congenial group of friends already enjoying 'happy hour', and joined them until time to get ready for that evening's dance. Milt Rogne gave us coupons for free date shakes in a neighboring burg, which we had at lunch time on Saturday along with Jim and Peg Opperud, when we needed a break from dance.

First picture is a shot taken in the Taj Mahal, the smaller of two ballrooms for the festival. You can't see all the squares on the floor, but I'm guessing there were about 20 or 25. This hall was mainly used for square dancers who have learned higher levels of dance than the "plus" level we dance.

Here's Eloise with long time friends Jim and Peg Opperud during a break in the action. This is the main dance hall and shows people out round dancing between the square dance 'tips'. On the left in the next picture is Marshall Flippo, who has called square dance for 58 years, still brings in the crowds on his world tours. On the right side is Johnny Preston, in my mind the most versatile caller I've heard. He can sing any genre of music, and make it sound great. During the after party on Saturday he sang "If I Were A Rich Man" a song from the musical Fiddler On The Roof.

Gary poses with Jim and Peg. Bill and Jerene Knicker we first met and camped with last year during the Yuma Festival, their photo was pretty dark but thanks to Adobe Photoshop we were able to improve it some. Next is the main hall with square dancers, and I don't know how many squares are there on the floor. [If there were 1000 dancing, and 25 squares are in the smaller hall, 800 people could be dancing!]

Lorne, Bill and Dean take a break. A photo of Ardith and Ron is a little blurry, and our Adobe Photoshop helped only a little with that. Jim & Val...the first time we've met, but hopefully not the last time we can dance together! Joan and Lorne are two solo dancers, but they seemed pretty, um, chummy. Let's start a rumor...Not.

Another shot in the main hall. Julia and Dean are big into rodeo's during the off-dance season. Ray Walz lives in Green Valley and cues in the Tucson area, and is the round dance cuer for Marshall Flippo at Rincon West RV park in Tucson. We can often get to dance with them when we stay in Benson, AZ where my brother George and his wife Wilma have lived for many years.

Here's a fun couple, Milton (Milt) and Carol Rogne. They're Canadians but we try to overlook that. They've rebuilt a wonderful 1928 Ford 1/4 ton Pickup, which is show worthy. Another fun couple to dance with is Fran and Ted Dusek even though they are tennis players. Callers Gary, Mike and Wade pose for Eloise.

Here's a group picture of many who were in the individual pictures. And, Richard and Nadene, excellent dancers who we are priveledged to dance with in Tucson. Ray and Virginia Walz perform during the after party on Saturday night. Mike Sikorsky during a singing call. He really gets to gyrating. Milt made the comment "Mike's the only guy I know that can wear his trousers out from the inside." Johnny Preston singing a solo at the after party.

All of the staff, cuers and callers perform a skit. It didn't make much sense to Eloise or I, but it was entertaining to see them doing such crazy antics.

We had a great time at the festival. The dance floor was really good. One night ice cream and different toppings was served, another night pizza, the last night cake and pumpkin pie. The facility was pretty torn up for interior road construction, but they made provisions so to cause the least inconvenience to attendees.

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