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King of the dance
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| H&N photo by Steve Kadel Chuck Brandsness, organizer of Sunday’s Fall Festival of Dance, works part-time at a Klamath Falls fitness club when he’s not square dancing. |
Chuck Brandsness began square dancing many years ago in Wisconsin
By STEVE KADEL
H&N Staff Writer
He was a member of a softball team that spent too much time on the field and not enough time at home, according to wives of the players. Eventually the women put their collective foot down and demanded that their husbands go square dancing with them.
Brandsness, who was not married, attended the dances with his teammates and made a surprising discovery — he loved square dancing.
“It’s the dance itself, but also the comradeship,” he said. “It’s a type of social club with no pressure. You dance a couple of rounds, then you sit and talk a while.”
Klamath Falls native
Brandsness, 72, was born and raised in Klamath Falls, and he returned here upon retiring in 1996. He joined the Klamath Country Squares and has been square dancing ever since.
Last Saturday the Klamath Falls club hosted a dance in connection with the Klamath Basin Potato Festival. Clubs traveled from Yreka, Mount Shasta, Medford, Tulelake and Lakeview with nearly 100 people taking part.
SMART fundraiser
Brandsness and the Klamath Falls club will be in action again Sunday when they take part in the Fall Festival of Dance, a fundraising event for the SMART reading program. He is on the leadership council for SMART, the program in which adults read to children in kindergarten through third grade once every week to help boost the kids’ literacy skills.
“The funds have been cut back so much for SMART,” Brandsness said.
Brandsness reads each week to two children from Conger Elementary School. He’s been a reader for four years.
“We’re hopeful that by teaching them to read, they’ll stay in school,” he said.
Fifteen different dance groups will perform during Sunday’s 2 p.m. event at the Ross Ragland Theater. They range from the Klamath Tribes and hip hop performers to those doing Hawaiian, aerial, modern, line, belly, ballroom, ballet and jazz dancing.
Two loves
For Brandsness, matching square dancing and SMART combines two of his loves. Although he never had children of his own, Brandsness said he likes children and raised 22 boys as a single foster parent in Wisconsin.
As organizer of Sunday’s dance review, he’s hoping for a big audience. Brandsness said he was impressed with the interest various dance groups showed in performing, adding he had to turn down seven other groups who wanted to show their stuff.
All of the money that’s raised will benefit SMART programs in Klamath and Lake counties.
“What makes this special is that it’s all local people,” Brandsness said of the dance festival.
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Catalina wrote on Oct 21, 2008 3:28 PM: