Dan Gorno
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D
ear AlgomaTrad Community,
You may have already heard this through social media, but just in case, we wanted to let you know that our dear, wonderful friend Dan Gorno passed away today June 21, 2015, on this Father’s Day, and on this summer solstice, – day of most light. We are filled with immense sadness but when we visited him 2 weeks ago he asked us to send you all this message: “Keep spreading the love and carry our memories into the future”, so we also must be thankful for that love and those memories and we are inspired to continue his work in any way that we can.
Dan has been at the very heart of AlgomaTrad since it’s inception in 2004. His spirit and his love for music, dance, arts, people, and nature has always been passionately shared with our AlgomaTrad community as well as with many, many other communities in Canada and the U.S. So many people have shared so much about Dan on the “AlgomaTrad Loves Dan Gorno” and “Dan Gorno’s Waltz Posse” facebook pages…he was always spreading the love and was a great trickster spirit in all our worlds.
We were so lucky to have had Dan call a couple of dances with the O’Schraves at an intimate spring dance he organized this past May 16th near his home in Bellaire. Some of our wonderful board members were also able to come down. He told us a few days later that it had been a very emotional evening because he realized it was the last time we would all be doing this together with him calling. He was amazing as usual, smiling, funny, bright, well, you know how he was, you’ve experienced that magic many times – even though he was feeling rough. It was a special night…but then again, all those dances and camps over the last 12 years have all been magical. Because Dan was magic.
Brian Pickell wrote a song called “I’ll be there” which includes his composition “Dan Gorno’s Reel”. We’d like to remind you of the words…and we’ve taken the liberty to change one small thing…or large, depends how you look at it.
He’ll Be There
Where the water meets the shore
And the sky touches down
And you see the white birds soar
He’ll be there, he’ll meet you there
he’ll be there, he’ll be there
Where the water meets the shore
he’ll meet you there
Where tunes are dancing on the air
And feet are sounding on the floor
And our hearts begin to soar
He’ll be there, he’ll meet you there
he’ll be there, he’ll be there
Where tunes are dancing on the air
he’ll meet you there
(Dan Gorno’s Reel)
Where songs and laughter banish care
Table’s loaded grab a chair
Pass that bottle I declare
He’ll be there, he’ll meet you there
he’ll be there, he’ll be there
Where songs and laughter banish care
He’ll be there, he’ll meet you there
he’ll be there, he’ll be there
Where songs and laughter banish care
he’ll meet you there
(Dan Gorno’s Reel – up to speed!)
We will miss him. The enormity of our loss is incalculable. At the same time, the enormity of his love and inspiration dwarfs that loss. Long live Dan Gorno!
Love to you all, Pat, Julie and family