(Photo Slideshow Links to the many photos from the Festival are at the bottom of this post)
Preparations
Well over a year ago, a committee chaired by Bunny Riley began the work to make the 2012 Yuma Square and Round Dance Festival an official event of the Arizona Centennial Celebration. After hours of research and completing multi-paged forms, the committee had succeeded. Our Association had earned the right to display the State Centennial Logo. The work had just begun.
It took many people spending many hours to pull it all together.
As the planning progressed, more and more ideas were added to make the event truly special. Bunny spent the year collecting photos and memorabilia of Yuma spanning the century. Presidents Tom and Londa Mannan worked with the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park to have a special dance there during the Festival.
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The decision was made to invite the California Heritage Dancers to provide demonstrations throughout the Festival. This proved to be one of the most popular additions to the Festival.
Plans were also made to ask dancers to wear period clothing for the Saturday evening dance.
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Ribbons were printed bearing the Centennial Logo. Dangles were ordered to commemorate both the year and the prison dance.
As is usually the case, time seemed to fly, and it was February 10, opening day of the Festival.
Volunteers started arriving at the Civic Center at 7:30 a.m. to lay the temporary Mainstream floor and hang the many decorations.
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RV’s had begun arriving the night before.
Wagonmasters were Bob and Jo Claire, assisted here by Bob Tallman.
Rigs of all size lined the rows from large to small.
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Friday Night
Yuma weather could not have cooperated more for the Festival. Friday was a beautiful day, sunny and warm.
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Greeters were ready at the door.
Buzz and Jeannine had their crew waiting at the Registration Desk.
Ron prepared to sell dangles.
Myra was his first customer. The dangles would sell out before the evening was over.
Ann Carslay was sporting a Prison Dangle very similar to this year’s dangle that she earned in the 80’s dancing at the Prison on what she described as a “very windy day”.
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Vendors were ready for customers. Vendors this year were Mondiki, Cloud 9 Dance Shoes, Advanced Tech Orthotics and Yuma Photo.
The brochure table was ready.
Working behind the scenes, filling a very important role, were Pete and Linda, with their helpers, Jerry and Ruthie.
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In the hall, Al and his workers had rolls of 50/50 tickets on hand.
The Civic Center soon began to fill with dancers. Some renewed old friendships, while others took the opportunity to shop. 
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The Prison display in the main hall became a favorite place for photos.
Round Dancers enjoyed the Pre-Rounds with Cuer John Herr.
The California Heritage Dancers gave the first of 4 demonstrations of dancing as it would have been in 1912. They performed moves
that looked familiar, 
moves that looked entangling, 
and moves that produced thunderous applause.
Tom Mannan, President, welcomed everyone and introduced the Calling and Cuing Staff for the weekend, Callers, Jerry Jestin, Johnny Preston and Ken Bower, and Cuers, Kristine Nelson and John Herr.
The floor filled with dancers for the first tip featuring all three callers.
Following an evening of dancing fun in three separate halls, all dancers returned to the main hall for one final tip and another demonstration by the Heritage Dancers.
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Saturday Daytime
Saturday daytime was filled with workshops.
In decades past, Yuma Square Dancers were known as the Yuma Jailbirds. They dressed in costumes that featured black and white stripes. In the sixties to eighties, a popular event was to earn your jailbird dangle by dancing at the prison.
Dancers at the prison made front page news at least twice.
The first image is from March 3, 1969.
The caption reads:
KICKS HEELS – Debbie Stinson 15 of Mr and Mrs J Stinson 1124 SI roe I kicks up her at the Square Dance Festival here this weekend She and her family all earned a Jailbird for two dances he Yuma Territorial Prison Saturday Over 150 persons festival from southwestern slates
In the second image (lower right corner) from March 7, 1971, the caption reads
JAILBIRD DANCERS Jail bars at the Yuma Prison form a frame for dancers attending the Yuma Square Dancers Association Festival being held here this weekend All who dance at the prison courtyard receive a badge identifying them as a jailbird The festival ends at noon today after two nights of square dancing Grand ball was at Kofa High last night.
Several dancers from this year’s Festival took the time to drive up to the prison to dance. 
Bob Stutevoss called for the hour long dance on the concrete plaza overlooking the Ocean to Ocean bridge and Mission.
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Dancers, as well as onlookers, enjoyed the event despite the slant to the surface and the warm temperatures.
Jan assisted Bob by holding an umbrella over the record player to prevent sun damage to the records.
Several dancers came in black and white colors, but Larry and Dolly really got into the spirit of the event by wearing their “prison uniforms”.
Saturday Evening
Saturday evening opened with another demonstration by the California Heritage Dancers. This time, clothed in their more formal apparel, their dance included many intricate waltz steps. One could feel the specialness of wearing the tux or hoop skirts while gliding across the ballroom floor in the early 1900’s.
The Grand March, directed by Arnold Tramp, followed, taking several minutes for all the participating dancers to enter the hall.
The Color Guard, consisting of teen members of the Civil Air Patrol, presented the flags of the United States and Canada in an impressive display of precision.
Lance Watterberg gave the invocation.
Mayor Alan L. Krieger was on hand to welcome the dancers.
Presidents Tom and Londa Mannan thanked their staff and introduced the Callers and Cuers.
Each of the three halls was a swirl of colors throughout the evening.
Mainstream
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A-1
Those in the A-1 Hall experienced a special treat when Johnny Preston added his vocal rendition to John Herr’s cuing for one of the rounds.
Soon, it was the end of the evening, and time for the last tip.
Following that tip, the Heritage Dancers gave one last demonstration.
We owe this group a huge thanks for showing us how different and yet how similar dancing 100 years ago was.
They truly brought the Centennial theme alive for us!
Sunday Donut Dance
Before we knew it, it was early Sunday Morning. Two of the first dancers up were Hoyt and Bernice, getting the coffee and donuts ready for the rest of us.
Dancers arrived with sore toes, but big smiles.
Not everyone was relaxing, however. Some were working to take the floor up from the Mainstream Hall and the decorations down from all the halls.
The morning’s casual dance featured callers and cuers from the floor.
Dancers literally filled the floor as the Festival Callers kicked off the morning with the first tip.
Other Callers and Cuers included
Barbara Haines, Cuer, Sun Lakes Sun Dancers
Bob Tallman, Caller
Kristine Nelson, Festival Cuer
John Herr, Festival Cuer
Larry Kraber, Caller, Saddlebrooke Squares
Joan Tharme, Cuer, Wild Rose Country Dancers
Tom Gray, Caller
Ron Noble, Cuer
And then, it was over. Time to start thinking about next year’s Festival, under the planning of Patt and Gene Jones, Presidents.
THANK YOU to Everyone who made this Festival a success. We could not begin to list them all from the Presidents to those who work almost unnoticed behind the scenes, Thank You, each and every one, and especially, Thank You to you, the dancers, who attended the Festival, for without you, there would be no Festival!
Photo Slideshows from the weekend can be accessed by clicking on the collages below; each collage opens the photos from a different segment of the Festival.
Click here for photos from Friday’s Pre-Rounds, First & Last Tip
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Click here for photos from Friday’s Mainstream Hall
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Click here for photos from Friday’s Plus Hall
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Click here for photos from Friday A-1 Hall
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Click here for photos from Friday California Heritage Dancers
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Click here for photos from Saturday Opening Ceremonies
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Click here for photos from Saturday Pre-Rounds, First and Last Tip
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Click here for photos from Saturday Mainstream Hall
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Click here for photos from Saturday Plus Hall
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Click here for photos from Saturday A-1 Hall
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Click here for photos from Saturday California Heritage Dancers
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Click here for photos from Festival Candid Shots
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Click here for photos from Sunday Donut Dance
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Photos by Anita Adamson, Ron Adamson, and Bernice Odom
