Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

Times are a changing, that’s for sure.

I’d argue that this is a good thing for if you don’t change, you’re probably dead. I enjoy change in my life. I like the upheaval that comes with it. It keeps me on my toes and thinking. I suppose it is true that not all change is good, but I think that there is good to be found in nearly all change.

The hardest thing about it though is that it is work. There is a huge amount of effort in adapting old ways into new processes.  Also, there is the risk of anger and frustration because what was learned at one point is “simple and effective.” When what is known becomes unknown, it is easy to dismiss it. The reasons are plentiful for this:

“It is a fad.”

“It won’t work.”

“It’s too difficult.”

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Granted, some change can be frustrating. In square dance land, it irks me to no end that, at club dances, parking spots are not reserved for the caller and cuer. This, to me, was (un)common courtesy.  It made for easy entry and exit. I don’t think I should have to ask for it, but I’m about ready to do so. It could be that new members don’t see it as important. I don’t know.

There’s other change on the horizon when it comes to square dance land. Numbers, in general, are down all over the world… even in Europe. It is a very real possiblity that organized SD will fade into history books. Indeed that last few times it made a comeback was due to a wealthy/famous patron. (Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, was one of the biggest ever.) Having a singular vision, whether you agree with it or not, can take an idea far and wide.

A contemporary example of one person’s vision moving through popular culture is Apple and the Macintosh and iPod. Steve Jobs is the beginning and end of those products. There are a number of people that can find fault with them (I’m not one of them, I think they’re great) but one person’s vision is what is being produced.

Square dancing is without vision. It is not without visionaries. We have those. However, what I’ve found is that for every hundred square dancers I know, there are one-hundred-and-one ideas different of how to make it better, stronger, and sustainable. Not only that, a very small percentage of these people are willing to change.

Have you ever heard the following?

• “If the dancers knew the definition, they could dance to my calling.”
• “If we teach dancers right the first time, they’ll never have a problem.”
• “I know that’s how your caller taught you, but here’s how you really do it.”
• “I don’t dance Mainstream, I got tired of it. Besides, Plus is where the fun really is.”
• “Come square up with me so I don’t have to dance with those new people.”

ALL of these thoughts and attitudes frustrate me to no end.

When we (I) teach new dancers, I don’t have tests for the definitions. I teach them “the correct way” but I also take the time to let that patterns turn into a form of muscle memory.  Teaching new people is NOT the time to shove definitions down anyone’s throats. If someone needs some help and a written defintion is needed, then share it.

If dancers can’t dance, it isn’t that they don’t know the definition, it is that I don’t know how to call it. The onus is on me to provide the calls and deliver them in a manner that can be danced. If I want to call something complicated, then I need to work my way up to it. It is my job to deliver success.

It is a case of knowing your audience. If your audience is proficient, then yes, open up your bag of tricks. If they’re not, why would anyone want to show off how clever they are? It is only going to make people mad, hurt, and embarrased. Sounds pretty stupid to me.

So, change is needed. I prefer the term “reform.” Back in the late 1990′s Callerlab aimed for whole scale change. It didn’t happen. Mostly this was due to the fact that not everyone believed in instant change. Transitions are important. Also, a number of people felt that their voices weren’t being heard. (It goes back to that single vision thing, but still, people that are affected should be heard.)

How would I reform the activity? (It is somewhat rhetorical as I’m working on it every day with every caller I help train and every dancer that I teach. I shape attitudes.) Still, there is some widespread change that is needed.

The biggest thing is that we need to make the program lists more fluid. That is, they need to change with the times. Old calls need to be brought into the lists and existing calls need to be moved, dropped, or forgotten.

The problem with this sort of reform is that a large number of callers, and I mean a LARGE number of callers read nearly all their material. Changing their programs means a lot of work, sometimes a lifetime’s worth of work would have to be changed. So, let’s not do whole scale reform.

Let’s pare down the program lists for Mainstream and Plus and make them manageable.  To learn how to square dance should take at MOST 12 weeks. 10-12 would be optimal. The Basic program has not proven itself to be viable. In Europe, where callers have insisted they need at Basic program, it turns out that it is only a stepping stone that needs a title. Their goals are the same as here in the states… get the dancers to Mainstream, then Plus.

Gadzooks.

So, we need a better, and more efficient, destination program then Mainstream, but more viable then Basic. Small and nimble, it should be fluid enough to teach a number of basic calls but large enough to provide variety.  Then, those calls that have been dropped or forgotten can easily be “quarterly selections” or some other sort of workshop move that can be thrown in at a moments notice.

It should be easy to pull calls out of the historical record… Square the Barge (one that comes to mind)…and put them in a dance. It should be encouraged.

Then, after dancing for a while… let the dancers decide when they want to move on to another program. Some might want to go immediately. Others, not so much.

We don’t, in square dancing, have many options. In the USA, we have a market based economy. (The current 2008 market meltdown not withstanding.) It thrives because of options that keep it flexible.

So, if (when) I have my way, a new set of lists will be coming. A set that can breathe with the times and stay flexible. Will it be the end of civilization as we know it? That’s what people said about the automobile, the refrigerator, the radio, nylon, plastic, flying, and the Internet. Change is inevitable. It’s only other option is death.

The dance you save, may be your own.

Until next time, keep dancing!

This was my second of two Taste events.  It was a blast.  A couple of new people.  We’re hoping they stick around for lessons.  (That’s always the hope, right?)

 I treated it very much like a Square Dance ABC event.  I taught the basics… Circle Left/Right, Forward and Back, Heads/Sides, Boys/Girls, Do Sa Do, Allemande Left/Right, Star Left/Right, Right and Left Grand.  Then, I taught Grand Square, Courtesy Turn, Pass Thru, 2/4 Ladies Chain.  Those calls made it a busy night and we all had fun.

There is so much that can be done with those basic calls and it nearly always provides food for thought.  I’ve heard the arguments along the lines of “if you used the Basic program and all its variations, no one would want or need Mainstream or Plus.”  I’ve also heard that this is why you should teach all positions and formations from day one.  The trouble with this world view is that it is very narrow.  Yes, if I did use these calls listed above, I could entertain for weeks.  (Perhaps even months.)  This is how, I think, clubs got started.  They learned a few calls, then added a few more, then added a few more.  The result was that clubs learned a lot.  Today, we want to teach all of that material in a very short time.  It is like baking a cake at twice the required temperature to cook it half as fast.

No wonder we lose dancers both in the learning phase as well in the clubs.

I am of the opinion now that new dancers should only see “Standard Applications” as their learning but be aware that there are other possibilities.  Yes, bad habits are hard to break as are calls that are always done the same way.  I’d much rather have a full floor of dancers than one square that gets all the permutations.

As an example, I taught arm turns last night as well as Courtesy Turn.  So, I didn’t call it by name, but walked dancers through Do Paso.  (Turn Partner Left, Corner Right, Partner Courtesy Turn.)  All but one dancer got it.  That one dancer really struggled.  We’d been doing Corner Left and Partner Right the whole time.  The shift came hard.  However, it wasn’t impossible.  Let’s get dancers through the motions first, let them know that there are options and, when they’re ready, expose them.  Fun first.

I’m now off for two weeks on vacation.  So, once I get back SD season will be starting and I’ll be posting lots more.

Until next time, keep dancing!

From the Complete Quadrille Call Book and Dancing Master, by Prof. A.C. Wirth, Ex-President of American National Association Masters of Dancing, published in 1902:

Quadrille:
quad-drille [kwuh-dril]
1. A square dance for four couples, consisting of five parts or movements, each complete in itself.

Etiquette For Ball and Drawing Room

• Avoid slang phrases
• Do not contradict
• Give your opinions, but do not argue them
• Dancing is subject to abuse by the thoughtless acquirements of bad habits
• Never take part in a quadrille without knowing something of the figures
• While dancing, endeavor to wear a pleasant face
• Never seem to be conscious of an affront, unless it be of a very gross nature
• Never become involved in a dispute if it be possible to avoid it
• Nothing charms more than candor
• Never repeat in one company any scandal or personal history you have heard in another
• Contending for a position in quadrilles indicates an irritable and quarrelsome disposition
• The most obvious mark of good breeding and taste is a regard for the feelings of our companions
• Be careful not to speak too freely on subjects of which you are ill informed. Allow those who are better informed to lead the conversation
• Never seem to understand improper expressions; much less use them
• If you have in any manner given offense do not hesitate to apologize
• Loud conversation, profanity, stamping the feet, writing on the wall, using tobacco, spitting or throwing anything on the floor, are glaring vulgarities
• It is very indecorous to be laughing, sneering, or commenting at those present. It shows a lack of refinement
• True politeness costs nothing, but yields the largest interest and profit to the possessor of any know securities.

I’ve been thinking about my dance for the Toe Stompers last Friday.  Someone asked me what made it great, and while there is no one thing that really made it a stand out night, there is something that I did notice.  I purposely kept every tip to a fairly rigid length.  Four minutes for patter/hast plus a singing call. 

No matter what, after four minutes I was done.  Observations about this:

It requires me to have something to say up front.  Like any public speaking engagement, you have to say what you want to say, then stop.  If you don’t have a road map, then you could wander for hours. 

Dancers, in general, like a great number of short tips as opposed to a few long ones.  They don’t tire out as fast.

Shorter tips mean more opportunities to use more music.  This is true of both patter and hash.  I might just “lay down the law” for new callers that are call guest tips at my clubs.  One time through the record.  It seems draconian, but it starts a good habit up front.

Until next time, keep dancing!

One of the things we talked about at callers’ school last week was judgement.

Jerry Junck said it best.  “Good judgement comes from bad judgement.”  He’s right, and I’ve been thinking about how my judgement has improved over the years.  (Not just in terms of being a dance leader, but life as well.)

I’ve learned, I think, a lot of powerful lessons about life and love over the years.  I suppose this is why people don’t learn “the easy way.”  There is no easy way.  Some things come naturally to some people, but overall, we live and learn, or we don’t live long.

I want to believe that I’ve become a better person as I’ve gotten older.  In someways, I probably am.  Not sure.  I will say that I no longer see most issues in terms of black and white.  Saying simply, yes or no about an issue denies it history and emotion.  It also leads to mistruth.  When you ask is something is right or wrong, the answer isn’t always yes or no.  Sometimes it is, “it depends.” 

This is true from everything from folk dancing to politics.

Judge not, lest you be judged.  Before you judge, walk in that person’s proverbial shoes.  You might see that your own position is wrong, or, perhaps, your view of the world is a tad to narrow.

Oh, and I’ve figured out why a basic truth of life is to “say something nice, or not say anything at all.”  People are their own worst critics.  When you make a mistake, you usually don’t need it pointed out to you as you can feel it burned into your retina just as surely as if you looked at the sun with binoculars.  What people need, at this point, is to remember that the world goes on, and that something good will happen.

After all, from bad judgement, comes good judgement.  Something good and something gained.

Until next time, keep dancing!