Flower City Square Dance
Rochester, New York | Dance
Music, Other
Support living traditions while building community! FCSD hosts square dances that bring people together, support working musicians and deepen cultural roots. Despite Rochester’s thriving social dance and old time music scenes, we're missing a square dance event! To make it happen, we need your help!
Flower City Square Dance
Rochester, New York | Dance
Music, Other
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $10,425 for development. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
85 supporters | followers
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Support living traditions while building community! FCSD hosts square dances that bring people together, support working musicians and deepen cultural roots. Despite Rochester’s thriving social dance and old time music scenes, we're missing a square dance event! To make it happen, we need your help!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Flower City Square Dance is a community dance organization based in Rochester, NY. We host public dances quarterly - once each in the spring, summer, fall, and winter - at different venues throughout the city. Square dancing is easy, friendly, and most importantly, FUN!
Our goal is to bring American folklife and traditional culture out of our living rooms and into public life. Rochester has plenty of old time musicians, jam sessions, and music fans, and square dancing is the missing puzzle piece to bring it all together. Ultimately, old time music is square dance music, and experiencing our cultural heritage in context helps create a community that is connected and rooted from the ground up.
We (Clara & Dan) are very lucky to be members of Rochester's amazing trad music scene. After years leading various jams, playing for contra and square dances elsewhere, and attending/working at folklife events and camps all over the country, we know how much work it takes. Ultimately, we're starting Flower City Square Dance because we love dancing and we love fiddle music, and we want to party about it! And we think you do too :)
Each dance will have live music, provided by a mix of local and touring musicians and dance callers. All dances are taught, so no experience is required. No partner? No problem! Dancers are encouraged to switch partners and all dances are gender-free, so anyone can dance with anyone. Square dancing is a great opportunity to make new friends and strengthen community ties.
This campaign will allow us to pay all of our musicians and callers fairly, as well as pay ourselves for our time spent organizing. Our biggest expense will be venue costs and insurance - we want to make sure we're doing this right and making it safe for everyone! But we also believe strongly that folklife events need to be accessible to all the folks, and that means keeping door prices as low as possible. Since we won't be able to rely exclusively on ticket sales to offset our costs, we're asking for your help to each financial stability. Call it mutual aid for dance! Artists get paid and we all get to dance!
We (again, Dan and Clara!) are deeply embedded in the national old time scene, and we're looking to bring some really incredible acts to Rochester for all our friends to dance to - as well as highlight some of Rochester's amazing local talent. Right now we're only planning 4 dances per year (spring, summer, fall, winter), but if we surpass our $12,000 goal, we'll be able to do a lot more! With 2 dances already under our belt in 2025, we've worked out most of the kinks and will be continuing to learn and grow throughout the 2026. Eventually, we'd love to add additional dance events, as well as dance and instrument workshops and concerts with national acts. Always looking towards the future!
We can't do this without working together, so thank you for supporting Flower City Square Dance, and supporting community dance and folklife in Rochester! We can't wait to meet you on the dance floor!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Spring Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our first dance, including base pay and gas money
Summer Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our second dance, including base pay and gas money
Fall Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our third dance, including base pay and gas money
Winter Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our final dance of 2026, including base pay and gas money
Admin & Insurance
Costs $2,500
This covers our costs for things like web hosting and maintenace, promo campaigns, fundraising, and very importantly, liability insurance!
Sound Systems
Costs $500
Sometimes venues provide an audio setup, and sometimes we'll have to hire an engineer and rent a PA system, this will cover those costs
Venue Costs
Costs $5,000
Some venue rental costs during peak days and seasons can be several thousand dollars. We need your help to secure great spaces!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Flower City Square Dance is co-directed by Dan Lynch and Clara Riedlinger.
Dan Lynch is an active Rochester-area musician, teacher, and organizer. Dan grew up along Madison County’s Oneida Creek, and learned guitar and banjo from his grandparents in St. Lawrence County. In addition to recording and performing his own music for over a decade, he has also been teaching private lessons professionally for over 11 years. Dan currently leads the Stringband Ensemble at the Submarine School of Music, and performs in the bands Clinton’s Folly, Old Erie, and the Heartthrobs Stringband. Dan studied New York State Folk Music with Jim Kimball at SUNY Geneseo, and has since continued working to support traditional music in New York and beyond.
Clara Riedlinger is a fiddler, folklorist, and filmmaker based in Rochester, NY. She grew up in a family of avid Finger Lakes square dancers, before moving to Baltimore to study documentary film. There, she rediscovered the joy of Old Time fiddle music and in 2020, began studying “in the tradition” with world-renowned old time musician Rachel Eddy. Since then, Clara has traversed the Appalachian chain learning knee-to-knee from contemporary culture bearers. Since returning to Upstate New York, Clara has been a key player in Rochester’s Old Time music scene, leading multiple community jam sessions, teaching workshops performing regularly in the bands Clinton’s Folly and Cattail, and leads an open community band with Country Dancers of Rochester.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Flower City Square Dance is a community dance organization based in Rochester, NY. We host public dances quarterly - once each in the spring, summer, fall, and winter - at different venues throughout the city. Square dancing is easy, friendly, and most importantly, FUN!
Our goal is to bring American folklife and traditional culture out of our living rooms and into public life. Rochester has plenty of old time musicians, jam sessions, and music fans, and square dancing is the missing puzzle piece to bring it all together. Ultimately, old time music is square dance music, and experiencing our cultural heritage in context helps create a community that is connected and rooted from the ground up.
We (Clara & Dan) are very lucky to be members of Rochester's amazing trad music scene. After years leading various jams, playing for contra and square dances elsewhere, and attending/working at folklife events and camps all over the country, we know how much work it takes. Ultimately, we're starting Flower City Square Dance because we love dancing and we love fiddle music, and we want to party about it! And we think you do too :)
Each dance will have live music, provided by a mix of local and touring musicians and dance callers. All dances are taught, so no experience is required. No partner? No problem! Dancers are encouraged to switch partners and all dances are gender-free, so anyone can dance with anyone. Square dancing is a great opportunity to make new friends and strengthen community ties.
This campaign will allow us to pay all of our musicians and callers fairly, as well as pay ourselves for our time spent organizing. Our biggest expense will be venue costs and insurance - we want to make sure we're doing this right and making it safe for everyone! But we also believe strongly that folklife events need to be accessible to all the folks, and that means keeping door prices as low as possible. Since we won't be able to rely exclusively on ticket sales to offset our costs, we're asking for your help to each financial stability. Call it mutual aid for dance! Artists get paid and we all get to dance!
We (again, Dan and Clara!) are deeply embedded in the national old time scene, and we're looking to bring some really incredible acts to Rochester for all our friends to dance to - as well as highlight some of Rochester's amazing local talent. Right now we're only planning 4 dances per year (spring, summer, fall, winter), but if we surpass our $12,000 goal, we'll be able to do a lot more! With 2 dances already under our belt in 2025, we've worked out most of the kinks and will be continuing to learn and grow throughout the 2026. Eventually, we'd love to add additional dance events, as well as dance and instrument workshops and concerts with national acts. Always looking towards the future!
We can't do this without working together, so thank you for supporting Flower City Square Dance, and supporting community dance and folklife in Rochester! We can't wait to meet you on the dance floor!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Spring Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our first dance, including base pay and gas money
Summer Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our second dance, including base pay and gas money
Fall Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our third dance, including base pay and gas money
Winter Dance Band
Costs $1,000
This guarantees payment for the musicians and caller of our final dance of 2026, including base pay and gas money
Admin & Insurance
Costs $2,500
This covers our costs for things like web hosting and maintenace, promo campaigns, fundraising, and very importantly, liability insurance!
Sound Systems
Costs $500
Sometimes venues provide an audio setup, and sometimes we'll have to hire an engineer and rent a PA system, this will cover those costs
Venue Costs
Costs $5,000
Some venue rental costs during peak days and seasons can be several thousand dollars. We need your help to secure great spaces!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Flower City Square Dance is co-directed by Dan Lynch and Clara Riedlinger.
Dan Lynch is an active Rochester-area musician, teacher, and organizer. Dan grew up along Madison County’s Oneida Creek, and learned guitar and banjo from his grandparents in St. Lawrence County. In addition to recording and performing his own music for over a decade, he has also been teaching private lessons professionally for over 11 years. Dan currently leads the Stringband Ensemble at the Submarine School of Music, and performs in the bands Clinton’s Folly, Old Erie, and the Heartthrobs Stringband. Dan studied New York State Folk Music with Jim Kimball at SUNY Geneseo, and has since continued working to support traditional music in New York and beyond.
Clara Riedlinger is a fiddler, folklorist, and filmmaker based in Rochester, NY. She grew up in a family of avid Finger Lakes square dancers, before moving to Baltimore to study documentary film. There, she rediscovered the joy of Old Time fiddle music and in 2020, began studying “in the tradition” with world-renowned old time musician Rachel Eddy. Since then, Clara has traversed the Appalachian chain learning knee-to-knee from contemporary culture bearers. Since returning to Upstate New York, Clara has been a key player in Rochester’s Old Time music scene, leading multiple community jam sessions, teaching workshops performing regularly in the bands Clinton’s Folly and Cattail, and leads an open community band with Country Dancers of Rochester.