Dayton, Ohio

1993 Honor Dancers Jewel & Kenneth Steed

They began City of Dayton sponsored dancing with Michael Solomon in 1950 and became charter members of the Dayton Square Dance Club and the Dayton Round Dance Club but after a few years the MVFD became their chosen group and we became the recipients of all their mental and physical dance energies. Here was a couple we could always trust and depend on.

We were a small group of 30-40 in the early days but Kenneth and Jewel "rolled up their sleeves and pitched in"! Their greatest contribution was their one-to-one help with beginning dancers. Accomplished and knowledgeable dancers themselves, their help and encouragement, their persistent kindness were invaluable. The growth and quality of our group was always paramount to Kenneth and Jewel and they used their personal funds to create a brochure which was distributed widely in the early 60's to explain and spread the word about folk dancing.

Their good dancing was conspicuous in our annual winter Sunday afternoon concerts at the Dayton Art Institute and in many, many other community demonstrations of folk dancing. In 1966 and '67, when the MVFD brought a first to the Dayton area by presenting the folk music and dance of the southern Slavic countries via the Duquesne University Tamburitzans at Memorial Hall with a full house each time, Jewel was our champion ticket seller!

Jewel and Kenneth were an honor couple in our group long before the MVDC "honor couple" tradition was begun, and we believe that our greatest tribute to them is our active, fun-loving membership of almost 100. We believe they are worthy contestants, in this our 40th year, to become the MVDC's honor couple.

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