Dance is rich in entertainment value; it is beautiful to watch. Dance is fun, innovating, captivating, full of positive intentions, a form of exercise and makes us feel good. Dance has roots steeped in history and means different things to people all over the world. Dance is best friends with music and together they create some of the most memorable experiences in life!
Also, dance can be a legacy. In my family, there are many ties to dance. I say ties, because the dancers in my family are like shoelaces. You probably don’t notice shoelaces very much; it’s mainly the shoes you focus on. My family of dancers is like that, we’re shoelaces. We know we’ll never be the shoes (professional dancers) and that suits us just fine! For the record, our shoelaces now and forever, are laced up nice and tight. We all love to dance and for us it is part of our lives!
I have a sister-in-law who used to entertain USO Troops as a dancer many years ago. She has been dancing since she was a young girl. For the past 30 years, she has been the choreographer for local school productions and is well known in Portland Oregon. Her daughter, my niece, got her mother’s gene for dance and can dance anything quite well and she is one heck of a hula dancer. I have another niece, and she dances every week up on a rooftop in Hollywood to Hip-Hop routines with her class. She wouldn’t miss it for the world. Then there’s me, you know me, how do you think I got to be a blogger for the Fordney Foundation, I danced. Dancing is a passion of mine and it is my very first obsession with creation and art. I will never stop dancing!
Probably my favorite of these family dancers is my mother’s cousin, Evelyn. Evelyn was my second cousin and was dancing way before any of us. She was incredibly sweet, kind and pretty. She married a man named Don. Both Evelyn and Don Cozen loved to ballroom dance. They were from the Pasadena, California area until 1975 and later moved to the Los Angeles area. They took ballroom dance lessons and went out dancing as often as they could.
Beginning this year, the Fordney Foundation makes it possible to memorialize those you honor, who loved ballroom dance. We call these memorial contributions. We would be honored if you wished to make a donation to our foundation on behalf of your loved one. It is a wonderful way to give and pay tribute to those who loved dance. We have on our website, a Yellow Brick Road to engrave their name on a brick as a memorial to that person. You can be sure your donation is appreciated, as it goes a long way in assisting generations of dancers in the future. When you visit our website, at the top menu bar, click the Donate button, drop down to “Memorial” and this will bring up the Yellow Brick Road Memorial.
The Fordney Foundation wishes to personally thank Darrell Cozen (son of Evelyn and Don Cozen) and his wife, Christine, for annually donating since 2017 on behalf of his mother and father. Besides Evelyn’s love of dance, she also felt strongly about donating to worthy causes and charities. We are honored to receive these gifts in loving memory of Evelyn and Don Cozen and carry on their legacy as our very first brick and who inspired us to create a memorial Yellow Brick Road.
Thought Of The Week:
The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do – Kobe Bryant
***If you would like to help our next generation to learn dance, contribute to our DREAM program. Go to www.fordneyfoundation.org and click on the “Donate” tab and scroll down to “Go Fund Me” button or you can send a check directly to the foundation at the address that appears on the website at the end of that page. Or if you would like to have a brick engraved on our Yellow Brick Road for someone who has passed away and loved to dance or was a dance advocate, then scroll down to “Yellow Brick Road Memorial” and remember to insert their name in the memo box.
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