The Culver City Collection
A Brief and Biased History of the Culver City Class
In January 1980, about a dozen enthusiastic Scottish Country Dancers and I,
their teacher, moved our class to the recreation building in Lindberg Park
in Culver City, California. The building had a wonderful, springy wood floor
that is gold to Scottish Country Dancers and is increasingly rare in this
locale. The class originally met on Mondays, but pressure from a popular
Karate class forced us to move to Tuesdays. We met year-round with a couple
of weeks off at Christmas time.
For over twelve years many faces changed and a few stayed the same. At its peak,
the class boasted over four sets of dancers; hard times saw just shy of two sets,
but typically class size was about two and a half sets. We celebrated special
occasions with party nights including St. Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day,
Halloween (hosted by the every countable Count MacDracula), and our Christmas
Party. I taught virtually every week. On those times when emergencies, business
travel, and a few visits to Vanessa's family in Australia kept me away, I was
very grateful that Helen Winton was usually able to teach the class. In 1987 we
witnessed the creation of the RSCDS San Gabriel Valley Branch and became part
of that Branch.
In September 1991, we moved away from Culver City to Camarillo, over 50 miles away.
At first, I thought I could continue to teach the class indefinitely, but the
realities of long distances and heavy rush-hour freeway traffic spelled an end
to that fantasy. Also, SCD in Culver City and West Los Angeles in general were
mature, but near my new home in Ventura Country, SCD had barely made a dent. It was
time to pass the Culver City Class on to able local teachers, and to concentrate on
building SCD in my new locale. With the Summer session in 1992, Eve and Jerry Lubin
became the new teachers--their class is healthy and vigorous.
This book is a collection of dances I devised while I was the teacher of the Culver
City Class. It is a rememberance of wonderful times and wonderful people.
Oberdan Otto, October 1993
© Copyright, October 1993, by Oberdan Otto
184 Estaban Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010-1611, U.S.A.
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