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This past Friday, the Kulp Auditorium at Ithaca High School was barely able to contain the sound of choir students belting at full volume.
Perhaps during the rest of the 2025-2026 school year, those same voices will be filling that room with their sonorous harmony led by Choir Director Kristin Zaryski. But on that particular day, these young singers were emitting sounds of unbridled excitement and shared joy.
After lining up in the hallway for salad, pasta, pizza, stuffed grape leaves, and meatball subs, the choir students packed into assembly hall to find a live string band warming up with some fiddle tunes.
FLX Squares was ready with a live band and caller to be the fun keynote activity for IHS’s annual Choir Kick Off event.
The Rough and Rowdy Ramblers (Jason Loux – guitar, Pete Thompson – fiddle, Sam Stallings – banjo) brought the frantic and energetic music and Marc Faris led this massive group of teenagers in swinging their partner, do-si-doing, etc.
The students brought the infectious energy and a genuine appreciation for what was going on. A good handful of students came up to the band and expressed gratitude for the activity.
Going on its fourth straight year of hosting square dances in Ithaca, New York and the surrounding area, this was FLX Squares first time putting on a dance in a public school. And hopefully it won’t be the last.
In the meantime, you don’t need to be a member of a high school choir to have great square dance fun in the Finger Lakes in October.
On Friday, October 3rd the Enfield Grange is hosting a square dance at 6:30 pm. See more details here: Enfield Grange Square Dance – Oct 2025
Looking ahead to Friday, October 24th, FLX Squares will be putting on a special square dance that is a fundraiser for WRFI radio station and is sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts. Read more here: Community Square Dance at Stone Bend Farm – October 2025
Hope to see you at a square dance soon!
The Vernal Equinox (or “the first day of fall”) is a special time, marking celestial movements and the passing of our joyous and music filled Finger Lakes summer. The maple and white oak trees in Ithaca, New York start to turn beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red, and brown, and the butter left out on the counter seems to keep its rigid form a bit more.
This year, the heavens weren’t the only thing in motion for the equinox. Over the weekend, FLX squares hosted two spectacular and joyful square dances around Ithaca, and we moved our bodies to the sounds of fiddles, banjos, guitars, and bass as the sun set.
On Friday evening, Broke Holler (this iteration included John Hoffmann on banjo, Joe Damiano on bass, Marc Faris on guitar, and Crystal Calabrese & Liz Toffey on fiddles) supplied their fiddle tunes for a dance at Stone Bend farm, featuring guest caller Sarah Gibson from Vermont. Sarah was on a tight timeline, having a Brooklyn apartment birthday square dance to call the following evening, but we were grateful she was able to squeeze a FLX Squares dance in the night before. As usual, the greenhouse at Stone bend filled with pizzas, picnic tables, skateboards, kids toys, and dogs was also packed with dancers holding hands and laughing to the music.
On Sunday, before the sun set on North Tioga street and a sunny summer in central New York, the Tompkins County Rounders assembled in a green easy up tent and proceeded regale the block with fiddle tunes for a rowdy group of dancers. For the fourth year in a row, we closed out Porchfest with our raucous expressions of community and joy with a square dance hosted by FLX Squares. This time, it was played by Sam Stallings on banjo, Lora Pendleton on bass, Jason Loux on guitar, and Liz Toffey and Pete Thompson on fiddles. Liz was a busy fiddler this weekend; not only did she fiddle both FLX Squares dances, she also played an early afternoon set at Porchfest as well (with a mix of members from Broke Holler and the Tompkins County Rounders: Joe Damiano, Sam Stallings, and Marc Faris).
While summer may be over in the Finger Lakes, square dances are not. We have another Stone Bend dance coming up on October, 24th at 6:30pm. This one is sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts. It features a band consisting of Jordan Kleiman on bass, Dan Lynch on guitar, Pete Thompson on banjo, and Clara Riedlinger & Rachel Eddy on fiddle.