Catskills Folk Connection

On a snowy day in January, 2007, folklorists Karyl Eaglefeathers and Ginny Scheer stayed warm around Ginny's dining table and created Catskills Folk Connection, a folklife center for the Catskills region.  They chose to focus first on the square dance tradition because Hilt Kelly, legendary fiddler and square dance caller, was still practicing his craft.  The first year programming was planned in conjunction with a consortium of local and regional arts, educational and civic organizations who generously offered their expertise and their spaces for the first round of dances and workshops in 2008.  The consortium included Roxbury Arts Group, Hanford Mills Museum, West Kortright Centre, Bright Hill Press, and the Town of Roxbury.  In subsequent years Catskills Folk Connection (CFC) sponsored dances at traditional venues, a lecture/demonstration about John Coss, an elder traditional musician, and initiated projects that will focus on the mountain landscape, and on the traditional materials collected at Camp Woodland, and that will offer square dancing to an after school program.