"On a cold Thursday night in February of 1978, dancers, Rod and Randy Miller, and Tod Whittemore were waiting in the lobby at the Cambridge YWCA for the aerobics class to end. At the stroke of 9pm we rushed into the hall to set up the sound equipment and tune up, while the dancers changed out of their winter clothes. At 9:10 the first Thursday Night Dance began. ...Dancers in the Boston area are indebted to Tod for founding a landmark dance series. Driven by Tod's energy, charisma, and sense of fun infusing the dance, the series became quite popular."Soon the dance grew to overflowing at the 'Y'. It became apparent that we needed a bigger hall. Jack O'Connor mentioned a great hall, a VFW hall in North Cambridge. His tip led to the current hall the dance is in. We moved in September 1982 after a couple of trial dances the preceding spring."
"Looking back over the Thursday Night Dance history elicits many stirring and fond memories. At least as important as the incredible music and great calling, are the many friendships that have blossomed over the years...Dancing, and in particular the Thursday Night Dances, have been an important aspect of my life, and I hope made a significant contribution to dancing in Boston, and I hope they will be remembered fondly by the historians of the dance.And it was. The hall was packed to the rafters with people wanting to express appreciation and bid a farewell to Tod. That summer, he worked at a dude ranch in Wyoming. (Tod is now married, and after living for some years in Tucson, Arizona, is now back in the Northeast, living in Connecticut.)"At the beginning, I promised myself when the desire to continue diminished, I would bow out gracefully. That time has come. It is a difficult decision. The truth is that I feel that I don't have the energy it takes to sustain the effort required to produce a dance series or a dance evening that is equal to the standard historically established at Thursday Night Dance and other dances in the area. So June 14th [1990] will be the last Thursday Night dance that I call as producer of the Thursday Night Dances. I'm sure that it will be a bittersweet evening."
The committee presented its proposal to NEFFA, and the Thursday Night Dance Committee was formed, with Dan Pearl as Chair, and NEFFA President Lisa Greenleaf as ex officio member.
Under its admistration, the TNDC has seen the dance resurge in popularity. Nowadays, it's typical to see 170 to 230 people at the dance (our record attendance is over 400).
On July 17, 1997, the committee honored its long-time booking agent and administrator, Larry Jennings, for his contributions to our series. Twelve callers (some travelling thousands of miles to attend), called a program of dances that either were written by Larry or have served to inspire him. The callers were effusive in their praise of Larry, who was delighted by the appreciation of the 260 people in attendance.
On September 7, 2000 we celebrated our tenth anniversary with free admission for all and special refreshments. The entire committee got on stage and enjoyed the appreciative applause of the crowd.
On June 29, 2005, Larry Jennings passed away. He will be missed by the world of dance.
Springstep, while providing a place for the dance to continue, did not meet the needs of our dance series. An informal survey conducted by Lisa Greenleaf revealed several interesting things about what dancers need and didn't care for, and with this data in mind, we decided to move the dance to the Concord Scout House starting in August 2006. (Springstep challenging financial situation resulted in their closing in 2013.)
We appreciate the support the dancers have given us as we have gone on our relocation spree.
Occasional multi-caller "NEFFA Contra" evenings present a variety of callers, some experienced and some just cutting their teeth.
We now offer a pre-dance intro session at 7:10pm.
Our booking coordinator is Lisa Greenleaf (email xxxlaleaf ATSIGN verizon DAHT net (but remove the xxx), +1-978-779-6077, 188 Vaughn Hill Rd., Bolton, MA 01740 USA.