Sisters enjoys barn dance hoedown

Sisters' first annual Barn Dance, hosted by the Sisters Movie House, was just plain old fashioned fun. More than 400 were in attendance from the young-in-body to the young-in-spirit.

The Barn Dance was the brainchild of Lisa Clausen, owner of Sisters Movie House. Clausen had wanted to find ways to bring more performing arts into Sisters. She said, "Although we are primarily a movie house, I wanted ways to combine our film venue with live performing arts, finding things that are more community oriented."

Clausen's first foray into combining the two venues was last April. She brought in Katie and Doug Cavanaugh to perform prior to "Heart of Gold," a film documentary about Neil Young. The success of the event encouraged Clausen to bring in more local artists to accent films that have music as a theme.

Clausen was visited by Elisabeth Ames a few months ago, and they discussed the concept of combining the two elements. Ames loved the building and the concept. However, Clausen said, "After listing to her music, I thought, Holy Smoke, this is not music to sit and listen to; this is music that gets you up and going. Having it inside just didn't make any sense."

One thing led to another and the event became the Barn Dance. Clausen said, "We thought what a great time to celebrate the end of summer the last weekend before school was scheduled to start. It was the 'last chance summer dance'."

The event also made up for a missed party last year.

Last summer, when Sisters Movie House was nearly ready to open, they were scrambling trying to have the building ready. Clausen said, "Honestly, I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to open on schedule. There were so many things that needed to be done, so we ended up canceling the grand opening festivities, because we were not sure that we were going to be open on time."

It was all good old fashioned fun for those old enough to remember the "good old days." There was a little of everything; variety set the stage with dancing to the music of Elisabeth Ames and the Countrypolitans, a cupcake walk, a water melon seed spitting contest, a bean bag toss and above all a pie eating contest.

John Baldwin was musing about his strategy for next year's pie eating contest. Baldwin produced an heroic effort and came up with the advice, "Next year I will skip the bratwurst before the pie eating contest. I came in third, one bratwurst away from victory."

But he groused in good humor about the bean bag toss saying, "It was rigged, with full cans on the bottom; next year I will look first." He went on to say, "Absolutely, I'll come next year. This is the fabric of Sisters right here."

Rob Corrigan, Chairman of the Sisters School Board, said, "I think it is great that we have another new venue in Sisters. I will be back next year for sure. I have some strategies for the pie eating contest that I am not at liberty to discuss, but I will be a major contender next year."

Ted Johnson said, "I give Lisa a lot of credit for attempting something like this." Then, he went on to try to coax the pie eating strategies out of Corrigan with very limited success.

Gene Baldwin, custom hat maker and no apparent relation to John Baldwin, thought the event was great. He had a beer and enjoyed the people-watching. Baldwin said, "Some people thought there would be more people, but actually it seems like there are a lot of people here. It is just that it is rather spread out, so the numbers are hard to guess."

The atmosphere was the best part for him, and he is excited about coming again next year.

Fran Willis summed the evening up with the comment, "It is great to see the sense of community here; the variety is great from the fire department to children, and all are a part of something. This is the essence of our community."