Across the U.S. and Canada Conny Taylor was held in high esteem by his peers and was, indeed, a legend in the annals of international folk dance. Someone once remarked to me, “We still have great teachers in folk dancing but we don’t have great leaders.” It is true, and upon hearing this statement my mind immediately flashed to Conny, who possessed both these attributes. Most certainly, Conny was a primary reason why the dance movement flourished so prolifically in New England. He was a rare and precious treasure who enriched the lives of so many people. We have lost a great mover and doer in the dance world but his legacy lives on.
—Vonnie R. Brown
Thank you, Conny.
For all the fun you made happen in Maine.
For when I went to teach in the East Coast without a partner, you were always willing and available and a fun partner.
Also when I went to teach at “Uncle” Ralph’s [Ralph Page’s] Year End Camp and I was apprehensive about presenting Mexican dances to contra dancers, you made me feel at home.
And also at Oktoberfest [in Stowe, VT].
For all the times the Taylors’ home was open to us and we had a station wagon-full of students. You were so hospitable.
I know you are having a blast up there with Madeline Greene and Henry Lash.
Thank you for all the fun times.
And for your valuable support of the San Antonio Folk Dance Festival for all these many years.
—Nelda Drury and the San Antonio Folk Dancers in Texas
Someone asked Conny, “Aren’t you bored teaching hambo?” because he and Marianne would always start their classes with hambo. “I don’t teach hambo, I teach people,” he said. That means people mattered for him, not the hambo. I love that expression.
—Ada Dziewanowska
I knew and loved Conny for forty years. As a folk dance teacher, I found both his skill and his love of the dances unparalleled. He combination of knowledge and wit made the experience of learning from him unique. While he could be a stern task master when teaching footwork, he never lost his sense of humor and never missed an opportunity to have fun and play pranks, especially at camp. I frequently had the pleasure of dancing with him, and those times were magical.
But the best times I had with Conny were outside the dance. He was one of my dearest friends, and he was kind, loving, and always there when I needed him. We laughed and cried together, and my life has been so much richer for having known Conny. His passing has left an enormous void, but his memory will live on forever!
—Cate Mamber
Tim and I have been thinking about Conny stories to share and there are three that I feel really describe the impact he had on my life, as an individual. As a dancer, it goes without saying, Conny taught me how to dance!
I am not entirely sure which year exactly this was... I think it was the Oktoberfest of 1975— it was one of the years Dick Crum was teaching. I was helping Conny and Marianne set up the Monday morning brunch and Conny asked me to man (woman?) the coffee window. At one point Dick came up to my window, handed me a dollar and kissed me. I was in absolute shock! Dick was chuckling and I looked across the room to see Conny laughing so hard he was nearly on the floor. Then he pointed to the top of the window and there I saw he’d taped a sign— “Kisses $1.” He said it was because he wanted to see just how many people read the directional signs he put up. Needless to say, I kept the dollar!
The next story is more about what Conny did for both myself and my husband Tim. It was Conny who brought us together— more than thirty years ago. The Grind Group— Conny’s performing group— needed more male dancers. So he told all us young unattached females to go out and ask some young men to come join us. I had noticed a very attractive young man while dancing at MIT but I was too shy to talk to him. With Conny’s request as my courage I introduced myself to him and asked him to join us. That was only the beginning. Thank you, Conny.
The third story is a lesser one, but one that demonstrates how big Conny’s heart was. I worked for Marianne for two years as her private secretary. I became quite close to everyone as friends, and I have cherished my friendship with this family ever since. In 1997 Tim and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary by taking a weekend and going to Oktoberfest. However, a week before, I injured my foot and was unable to walk very well, not to mention dance. I didn’t know it until I got home after Oktoberfest, but I had fractured a bone in my foot. We drove up to Vermont anyway. I didn’t get to dance much at all— I managed a waltz while wearing my very carefully-made Ukrainian dancing boots, which were nearly as snug as a cast. I spent the rest of the time sitting with my foot up and watching. Conny made a point of sitting with me as much as he could to keep me company. We talked a lot and it was like getting acquainted again. Such kindness and compassion— a true friend.
Conny is with the Angels now, whatever he wanted to call them, and he is young and healthy and dancing in the clouds, laughing his impish laugh! Maybe he is teaching the Angels to hambo... step swing, step swing, one, two, three....
All my love,
—Kiki (Babcock) Waldron
We’ve known Conny for more than forty years— ever since we first started attending the international folk dances at the Central Square YWCA [in Cambridge, MA]. And I’ve loved him ever since.
His quiet, steady, patient demeanor; his clear instructions; and his kind smile as he tried to teach us the particular style of a dance all endeared him to us.
We shall miss him.
—Judy and Marshall Deutsch
I’ve known Conny since 1958, when I was a full-time ballet student at the Boston Conservatory of Dance and Music, where he and Marianne had been brought in to teach international traditional dances. Their course was required curriculum for serious dancers. I still have their notes including the list of dances they taught.
And now it’s almost fifty years later. What a legacy the two of them have left to those of us they trained as dancers, and to those of us they trained to be community dance leaders— the leaders and dancers of Framingham Folk Dancers and FAC, as well as so many others. What a debt we all owe! Thank you, Conny!
Yodeling— forever another delightful memory I’ll have of Conny:
Years ago at the Star Island Conference Center where I was conducting dance and movement workshops of various kinds, it occurred to me it would also be fun to do a yodeling workshop based on the yodel songs many of us have learned from the Taylors, who had learned them from the Trapp Family Singers [in Stowe, VT]. So for several years in a row I incorporated those fabulous yodeling songs in my workshops. We even entered “talent” shows where we did a sort of yodeling yoga dance (???) balancing on one leg in various yoga poses while singing the repertoire of nifty yodels in two- and three-part harmonies. Can you imagine!
At Star, years later, people are still talking about our yodeling sessions. They’d never ever seen or done anything like that before or since. Thanks for that too, Conny!
—Judith Stames-Hamilton
At a folk dance Halloween party many years ago, a tall woman wearing a mask and a long dress asked Cal to dance the hambo, which they then did. On the way home, I asked Cal how the hambo was, and did he know who his partner was. He was surprised to learn that his mystery partner (who danced very well, of course) was Conny!
—Irene Howard
Whatever one may say about Conny (and who didn’t?), his importance to the folk dance community is inestimable. I was funneled through Old Joe’s [Old Joe Clarke’s, a rooming house in Cambridge, MA populated by many folk dancers] into the Thursday night dances, and was happily immersed among the kinds of friends I’d never experienced before (I had a sheltered Nebraska upbringing). Conny’s example, as both a dancer and a teacher, had a huge (if unconscious) influence on my later endeavors in the Morris. It’s sad that such an enormously vital person had to suffer such a debilitating disease. I will rather remember him at the head of a vigorous chachak, or clearing the floor in a definitive hambo.
—Shag Graetz
Conny’s vivid imagery for the “wrong” way to do dance figures (“Planet of the Apes” in Dayagim, “ballet class” in Erev Ba, “watching for Skylab to fall” in Carnivalito) helped me to remember some styling details! I feel fortunate to have been introduced to folk dancing with the Taylors in Cambridge and with Conny at the Paulist Center in Boston. His asking me to help with FAC’s Lexington parade float was what first got me involved socially in the folk dance community. Many years of dance fun have followed, and many memories of good times with him and Hélène. He is still with us in spirit at FAC dances and camps.
—Kathy Hagelston
Even though we have not been lucky to have benefited directly from Conny’s knowledge, enthusiasm, and teaching (having come to Boston rather recently), we are truly grateful for his immeasurable contributions to this community that has given us so much joy and has been our “home away from home.”
—Ksenija Marinkovic and family
