We hope you’ll join us on March 13-15, 2020, for our annual dance weekend with Steam Machine at the Maplelag Cross-Country Ski Resort near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, about 4 hours northwest of the Twin Cities.

The cloggers began hosting the Moosejaw dance and music weekend 30+ years ago to provide an opportunity to take workshops in old-time music, clogging, square and contra dancing, and other traditional dance forms from national and local musicians, teachers, and artists.

The weekend features evening dances on Friday and Saturday night, workshops during the day on Saturday and Sunday, and lots of jamming all day long. Other highlights include skiing, hot tubbing, a woodburning sauna, and four endless cookie jars.

Homemade Midwestern-style food and lodging at the beautiful Maplelag resort are included in the registration cost. The weekend is open to dancers and musicians of any experience level.

REGISTRATION:

Registration for Moosejaw 2020 closed on March 4, 2020.

For questions or comments, please email: moosejawdanceweekend@gmail.com

MOOSEJAW 2020 STAFF!

Old Time Music by Steam Machine

As we continue to celebrate 40 years of the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, we are excited to have Steam Machine join us for the weekend as they’ve been such a big part of our community!

Steam Machine is a band that bridges the old-time bluegrass divide. These four young Midwesterners have a vast repertoire that pulls from the fiddle traditions of Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky, interspersed with rare early country and bluegrass songs. While serious about old fiddle tunes, Steam Machine also carries forward the power and glory of the old stuff with widely appealing drive and relevance.

All four band members are actively involved in perpetuating roots music and dance traditions as players, teachers, and organizers in their home communities and on the road.

AJ Srubas has played and taught fiddle for over 20 years, from the Augusta Heritage Center to the Berkeley Old-Time Music Convention. Early in his fiddling years he met Chirps Smith who introduced AJ to the lesser known old-time repertoire of the Midwest. Other influences on his old-time playing include Dwight Lamb and Al Murphy who in turn played with Cyril Stinnett, Lyman Enloe, and Gene Goforth.

Banjo player Aaron Tacke is known for his unique style of fingerpicking. In addition to playing and teaching, he works as a luthier at Hoffman Guitars.

Rina Rossi first came to old time music as a clogger and then square dance caller, performing across the midwest and Europe with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers. Always a lover of rhythm, she later took up bass and guitar. She enjoys laying down a strong and steady beat as a foundation for fiddle and banjo.

Born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, bassist Nokosee Fields tours with the country band Western Centuries. As a teacher, he has taught at the Augusta Heritage Center and has been involved with Dancing with the Spirit—an Alaska-based youth and community music program that aims to re-inspire fiddle and dance traditions in indigenous communities throughout the region.

In 2018, the band took second in the Clifftop traditional band contest, released their first album, and played for audiences from California to North Carolina with many in between. 2019 will see Steam Machine at festivals and concerts throughout the US, ranging from the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering to Boats and Bluegrass, teaching camps like the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Association Jam Camp, and preparing for their next album.

Our caller, T-Claw


T-Claw grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, playing punk and jazz. Spurred by his hometown fiddlin’ friends, he moved to the Northwest and fell into a vibrant old time music community. First he picked up banjo, then fiddle, then everything else.

Calling came intuitively after years of playing and organizing. He can be seen getting strangers to have a grand ol’ time in unusual surroundings. Over the last couple years, T has been steadfastly touring the Southeast and Midwest to play and call dances, stimulating interest in towns that no longer have old school square dancing.

Aside from calling at most of the country’s currently active dances, he’s called at festivals including Dare to Be Square, Morehead, Clifftop, Augusta Dance Week, Seattle Folklife, Portland Gathering and The Black Fly Ball. He can call for beginners as well as seasoned dancers, keeping moves suitable for the crowd. T-Claw focuses on accessible yet fun traditional style Southern figures. Hold fast and never let go!

Swing and jazz by Miss Myra and The Moonshiners!

Miss Myra and The Moonshiners are a formidable 5-piece swing band with a fresh female-driven sound grounded in early jazz and blues, playing original music amid a broad repertoire of classics from the ’20s and ’30s. Discontent to be re-enactors, they have developed a singular style, which continues to delight audiences and dance halls with the spirit of a musical tradition at its centennial.

Myra discovered her affinity for music of the pre-war era as a child of older parents from small town Minnesota who raised her on vintage records and ragtime piano. After a fateful trip to New Orleans in 2013, she fell in love with traditional jazz, leading to the founding of The Moonshiners in 2015. “The Boss” leads the outfit with her tantalizing guitar stylings and sultry voice, inspired in particular by guitarists Eddie Lang, Django Reinhardt, and Lonnie Johnson, and vocalists Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Lil Green. She is backed by a hard swinging and uniquely versatile section of four horns (cornet, trombone, clarinet, bari sax) wielded between two players, and the driving rhythm of an upright bass and trap kit.

With the flagship Moonshiners, or leading a duo or trio, Miss Myra stays in top form clocking over 150 performances per year, recently including a European tour and repeated appearances at the Sioux Falls Jazz Festival, the Bayfront Blues festival, the Dakota Jazz Club, and Crooners Supper Club among countless other dances, festivals, clubs, and theaters.

This year’s theme: Watcha Got Cookin’?

Start working on your costumes for this years costume parade on Saturday night, March 14. If you need inspiration for a costume, check you pantry or kitchen drawers or our very own Addie’s artwork for this year’s T-shirt.

FELLOWSHIPS & VOLUNTEER SCHOLARSHIPS 

Each year we offer fellowships and scholarships to attend Moosejaw. Complete the online registration and then submit the fellowship or scholarship form.

There are 2 full-ride fellowships available for first time attendees ages 21 and older. (The deadline to apply February 17, 2020.) Download the fellowship form.

There are also a limited number of volunteer scholarships available. These are open to attendees of any age and are not restricted to first time attendees. Volunteer scholarships recipients are selected by lottery and attend the weekend for $155. (The deadline to apply is February 17, 2020.) Download the volunteer scholarship form.