2007 Honorary Chairperson
Mona Cannell  

The Dayton International Festival, Inc. is especially happy to honor Mona Cannell. Her presence and influence in this festival has been a strong one for many years.

Mona along with her husband, Leonard, became involved with DIFI in 1975.  They first participated as teachers and dancers for the USA organization in l976 and continued in this capacity until 2005.  In the late l980’s the Cannells took over as the USA representatives and organized this booth through 2006.  For several years Mona taught dancing to children of the Alexandria Montessori School having them represent the USA on the festival stage. Mona’s teaching expertise has been used by other festival groups as well.  She taught and coached dancers for both Great Britain and Canada several times.  The DIFI Youth Group Dancers depended on the coaching and guidance of Mona for many years.

The Cannells have also been an integral part of Dayton’s recreational dance scene.  In 1975 they became involved in historical dancing in time for the bicentennial and have remained active in that and contra dancing every since.  Mona has led a contra dance group at the Michael Solomon Pavilion for many years.  She served as the Miami Valley Dance Council representative to the Ohio State Square Dance Association.

Mona can thank the Girl Scouts for introducing her to folk and square dancing in the early 1950’s. This led to a lifetime of dancing and teaching.   Life in the Air Force gave her and her husband the opportunity to continue to learn more about square and round and contra dancing wherever they happened to be stationed.  When they finally settled here at Wright Patterson and in Kettering, Dayton and our International Festival became the beneficiaries of this recreational dance knowledge.




Previous Honorary Chairpersons