Dayton, Ohio
2012 Honor Roll Dancers
Leslie Hyll and Edmund Cordray
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Dayton, Ohio |
2012 Honor Roll DancersLeslie Hyll and Edmund Cordray |
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M.V.D.C. Honor Roll
Dancer(s) Nomination for 2012 |
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Nominating Club: Miami Valley Folk
Dancers (MVFD) |
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Name, Address, &
Phone of Couple/Person(s): Leslie Hyll & Edmund Cordray |
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Number of Years
Dancing: 50+
years |
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Club Elected
Positions and Years Held (Pres., VP, Sec., etc.) Elected positions
Leslie and Ed have held within MVFD are:
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Club Appointed
Positions and Years Held (Kitchen Chairperson, etc.) Appointed positions
Leslie and Ed have held within MVFD are:
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Service at Club
Level (Kitchen, Greeters, Clean-up, Decorate, etc.) The list of
appointed and elected positions Leslie and Ed have held – and hold – speaks for
itself. The
attached write-up details the scope of their activities, both for MVFD and in
the greater dance community. These
activities are very briefly
summarized here: · Leslie
teaches frequently (Ed less often) for MVFD and for other groups. · Leslie created a new MVFD position in 1997, Webmaster. She maintains not only our
website, but a folk dancers’ e-mail grouplist and an even wider
address/contact database. She also has redefined the position of Historian by scanning cartons full of
MVFD records and making the resulting digital files available to all on our
website! · Leslie
initiated and chaired MVFD’s Digital
Syllabus Project, covering workshops from 1953 to 2004. · Ed
manages MVFD’s large library of music, having migrated it from records to CDs
to indexed computer files over the years.
An experienced sound tech, he provides sound services not only for
MVFD’s visiting teachers and bands, but for other local groups as well as for
various concerts, festivals, and camps. · Ed
chaired the Michael Solomon Support Committee for 12 years, overseeing major
improvements to the building where MVFD dances, and personally taking care of
virtually all its maintenance. However, they
contribute in many smaller ways as well.
For example, Ed has arranged for a number of mini-workshops in
addition to our regular workshops, while Leslie tracks the dances played and
taught each week so we have a cumulative record and can do statistical analysis
at the end of the year. They take care
of a lot of the loose ends, whether it’s laminating badges or mending
curtains or finding beds for out-of-town visitors. But please see the long writeup! |
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Number of Raids and
Retrievals: MVFD does not "raid"; this is not customary in folk
dance. |
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Special Activities
(Organize or Assist with Demos, Weekend & Week long Workshops, Special Dances, Parades,
World A’Fair, State Fair, Festivals, etc.) Leslie and Ed have
planned and danced in a wide range of demos for many years now. They have danced at the Waynesville
Sauerkraut Festival, MVDC Day in the Park and Holiday at Home demos, and
myriad demos for nursing homes, schools, and all kinds of social
organizations (including the Buckeye Dance Conventions) in a remarkable range
of venues. Ed and Leslie have
chaired various weekend dance workshops, including the Tri-City Folk Dance
Festival for several years. In
addition, they have helped to identify suitable teachers for MVFD’s workshops
for at least the last 20 years. Leslie and Ed have
been involved with the Dayton International Festival Inc. (A World A'Fair)
every year since 1982 (Leslie) or 1990 (Ed).
In connection with AWAF, one (or both) of them has: -
performed
with four different ethnic dance groups -
choreographed
and directed American, Croatian, Slovenian, Macedonian, and Pan-Slavic suites
for the Živio South Slavic Dancers -
directed and
choreographed for the Bagatelle French Dancers for 10 years -
directed the
Italian dancers for 3 years -
directed,
choreographed, or consulted for the Beseda Czech and Slovak dancers for 5 years And that doesn’t
count the many performers’ dance costumes Leslie has sewn or embroidered over
30-plus years! Or the sound services
Ed has provided to dance groups, bands, festivals, and camps from California
to Wisconsin to Ohio (including Cityfolk as well as MVFD and other local
venues). |
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M.V.D.C Position and Years Held (Pres., VP,
Treasurer, Trustee, etc.) Ed has
served as Michael Solomon Support Committee Chair (1998-2010). Leslie has served (in addition to being
MVFD’s liaison) as the following:
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State & National
Positions and Years Held (State Corp, State & National Convention
Positions, etc.) Ed has
served as State Convention Treasurer (2006, 2011). Leslie
has served as State Convention Folk Dance Chair (2001, 2006). In addition, she has organized demos and MVFD’s
participation in costume shows when the convention has been in Dayton. For the 2011 Convention, she prepared
displays on the history of square dance and of MVDC. |
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State & National
Conventions Attended California:
1975-1980 National:
1982 Ohio:
1984, 1988, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2011 In
addition to State and National Square Dance Conventions, Ed and Leslie have
attended a great many folk dance and leadership workshops, festivals, and
camps, among them the below: Various MVFD
Ethnic Folk Dance Workshops 1972-present (far too numerous to list!) Planina Folk
Dance Camp 1972-1976 Bannerman
Family Folk Dance Camp 1974-1975 Kentucky
Dance Institute 1975, 1977, 1980 California
Statewide Festival 1975-1980 Peninsula
Council January Festival 1975-1980 Oregon
State Folk Dance Camp 1979-1981 Lloyd Shaw
Foundation Workshop 1981 Maine
Folk Dance Camp 1983 Oakland
Scandinavian Festival 1984-1986 Stockton
Folk Dance Camp 1986, 2007 Christmas
Country Dance School, Berea 1987 Mendocino
Balkan Music & Dance Camp 1987-1989 Scandinavian
Week at Buffalo Gap 1989 Swedish-American
Week in Sweden 1990 Telemark
Experience, Norway 1990 Door
County Folk Festival 2007-2011 Buffalo on
the Danube 2009, 2010 Boston—Montreal
Folk Dance Cruise 2011 Oglebay Folk
Dance Camps, Old World Music & Dance Camps, San Francisco Kolo Festivals
(various) |
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Write Up Because of the scope and depth of their involvement
with the Miami Valley Folk Dancers, MVDC, and the greater Dayton dance
community, MVFD has chosen to nominate Leslie Hyll and Edmund Cordray as MVDC
2012 Honor Roll Dancers. The positions
they have held with MVFD, their contributions to MVDC, and their involvement
in various recreational dance groups and events (not just in Dayton) all bear
witness to the leading role they have played in recreational dance for more
than 35 years. Leslie Hyll became a member of the Miami
Valley Folk Dancers in 1972 at age 12, having spent her pre-teen years in the
square dance community. With her
parents, Lou and Nancy Hyll, she attended dance workshops in Ohio, Kentucky,
and Virginia. As a teenager she danced
with the Kettering Historical Dancers, and wrote a published paper on the
history of American folk dance. During
and after her college years, Leslie broadened her knowledge by attending
dance workshops from Maine to Norway. Ed Cordray had dancing parents as well, and
was an accomplished folk dancer by age 12.
The list of his West Coast memberships at the end of this writeup
shows that he was usually active in several clubs at a time, with an emphasis
on Balkan dance. In his twenties, he
performed in the semiprofessional ensemble Westwind. Ed has attended dance camps all over the
country; he was 17 when he partnered his sister as she taught Norwegian dance
workshops across the U.S. It is therefore no surprise that when Ed
found himself in Dayton for a training course and checked out the local
dancing, he should have found a kindred spirit in Leslie. Their commitment to dance was apparent even
in their 1991 wedding, which was held in folk costume at the Michael Solomon
Pavilion and attended by many in the Dayton dance community. Ed and Leslie continue to attend workshops
together; in the past few years they have been in not only Ohio but Indiana,
Illinois, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and California. Leslie and Ed’s breadth of experience has
made them a wonderful resource for recreational dance in Dayton. Leslie is perhaps the most knowledgeable of MVFD’s
dancer-instructors, and gladly teaches dances at any level. Her repertory is wide, although she
particularly enjoys English, German, French, and American dances. (Ed’s range is also wide, but emphasizes
the Slavic dances.) Leslie has taught
courses in dance at Wright State University, and always includes some
teaching and audience participation in the demos she arranges. She has helped several local ethnic groups
rediscover and present their dances. She
organized the Tri-City Folk Dance Festival for several years. Leslie established (and continues to
maintain) a website for the Miami Valley Folk Dancers that provides not only
information about our club, but links to ethnic and folk dance groups all
over Ohio as well as to related organizations like MVDC and Culture
Works. In addition, she has set up and
manages a group e-mail account for members of MVFD and other interested folk
dancers. Leslie also maintains an database of present and past club members as well as
dance contacts throughout the Midwest and even farther afield, which the club
uses for mailings and publicity. One of the largest of Leslie’s undertakings
has been the creation of a CD containing scanned syllabi from every known
workshop sponsored by MVFD from 1953 to 2004.
The alphabetical index of all the dances runs to 22 pages of small
type. In 2000 she organized a massive
scanning and proofreading effort; with the help of numerous MVFD members (and
Ed), the CD was completed and published in 2005. Orders for this syllabus CD
have come in from all over the country as well as abroad! Leslie and Ed are contributing all profits
from this labor of love to the club. Leslie has written a history of MVFD, and
maintains both hard-copy and electronic archives of programs, letters,
photographs, and other documents dating back to the club’s beginning. Digital copies of hundreds of historical
artifacts are publicly available on the MVFD website. Leslie has now turned her organizational and
computer skills to preserving the history of MVDC. She has established an on-line digital
archive for MVDC and is busily discovering, scanning, and organizing MVDC
artifacts. For his part, Ed has taken charge of
preserving the wealth of music that MVFD has acquired over its nearly-60-year
history, from records to digital files.
After transferring all of the club's records and tapes to a CD format
(some 350-400 hours of work), he updated the club’s book-sized listing to
show all music by name, nationality, type, and CD number. As
technology progressed, he put all the CD music onto a computer that offers
our members speedy retrieval and considerable flexibility in handling the
music. (No more record boxes!!) As members bring back music and dances from
new workshops, and as software evolves, Ed continues to update our collection
and add new capabilities. All the groups that dance at the Pavilion
have benefited from Ed’s willingness to take on responsibilities. His chairing of MVDC’s Michael Solomon
Support Committee for 12 years contributed greatly to its current status as
possibly THE best dance hall in Dayton.
He oversaw the refinishing of the floor, installation of a new roof,
and improvements to the women’s restroom and kitchen. Ed personally painted the outside of the
entire building, and took care of most of the ongoing repairs and maintenance
to the Pavilion, from installing new locks or gutters to replacing the
hot-water heater – and much more.
Somehow the wall panels were magically in place come winter, the light
bulbs replaced themselves…. Between 1972 and 1988, before he moved to
Dayton, Ed had regularly provided sound for bands at half a dozen established
West Coast dance camps and festivals.
He continues to provide or manage sound at various local dances, including
many of the Cityfolk contra nights, and at the Door County Folk Festival in
Wisconsin. (His choice of car is
dictated by the need to transport an entire sound system at the drop of a
hat.) Ed has put his skills at the
disposal of a number of local dance groups as well as visiting teachers. Both Ed and Leslie have created and nurtured
relationships with other cultural organizations, such as Cityfolk, Culture
Works, and Dayton Dance Partners.
These partnerships have introduced recreational dance to a larger
audience than just MVFD or MVDC, while bringing to Dayton some teachers or
bands that clubs could not have afforded on their own. Ed and Leslie started out by contributing
their time and knowledge; when the first National Folk Festival was held in
Dayton, they recruited and organized volunteer workers for the event and
presented a style show of ethnic costumes.
Over the years, however, they have quietly increased their financial
support to these institutions, and have been instrumental in helping them
continue despite Dayton’s economic challenges. For their many combined years of
contributions to recreational dance in Dayton, and their continued commitment
to keeping folk dance available to the greater Dayton community, MVFD is
proud to nominate Leslie Hyll and Edmund Cordray as MVDC 2012 Honor Roll
Dancers. Together, they have truly
helped to shape the face of recreational dance in this city for the past 20
years. PRESENT AND PAST CLUB MEMBERSHIPS: Leslie and Ed are currently
active in five dance organizations:
Over the years they have been
members of a considerable number of other dance groups, including:
In addition to the
dance-oriented organizations listed above, Ed and Leslie have belonged to:
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Copyright © Miami Valley Folk Dancers 2012