Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

I was talking to Martha last night while we were packing.  It feels so strange being home on a Thursday night.  It is hard letting go of something that  you’ve worked so hard to maintain and nurture.

I’m sure the Fern Bluff Squares are going to do great things with Ray.  However, after being there since the beginning, it is a really strange feeling to let it go.  We started lessons in 2004, I think, and then in 2005 became a federated Washington club.

We ran lots of lessons, and even tried our hand a having a festival weekend.  We did just one, and it gave me the opportunity to work with the late Bill Helms.  That was a treat.  I can carry a tune, but Bill could really sing.  The beautiful part of it was that he would sing in a way that he made it look like you were the star.  He was amazing.

We moved halls more than once.  Several schools and one grange later, we ended up dancing at the Fern Bluff Grange.  For as out of the way as it was, people still came to visit.  We had as many as 6 squares in that hall.  I’m surprised it was still on its foundation after our last dance.

I’m going to miss everyone, but I’ve got great memories.  Thank you!

Until next time, keep dancing!

Boxing Day!

No, this isn’t where we all get together and fight over how to return our unwanted Christmas presents.  Though, some years I wonder if that really isn’t what it should be.  (Boxing Day is really about giving to the poor.)

This was my last lesson with the South Sound Singles.  I started, I think, calling for them on a semi-regular basis in 2003, and then, in 2004, became their regular club caller.  So, after 4 years… 04, 05, 06, and 07, it is the end of an era.

Lessons went well.  I didn’t teach too much.  We were missing a few people, but we did do a lot of review.  We worked on Circulates and Trades a lot.  Leo taught Double Pass Thru and “First Couple Go Left, Next Couple Go Right, to a Line.”  He did a nice job.

I’d left messages with Tom Tomlinson so he was there to observe and pick up my checklist.  He’s agreed to allow Leo to continue teaching and helping.  That’s great news.  Callers get better when they call to live people.  (As opposed to dead people?  No, silly.  As opposed to singing in the shower.)

After the dance, Leo made me misty-eyed with a small speech.  I was really touched.  The South Sound Singles also presented me a Christmas gift.  I’m going to be in Portland calling next Saturday, so I won’t be at their next dance.

It was a nice end to my time there.  I’m going to miss everyone, but I’ll be back to visit.  We do have lots of family in the area, after all.

Until next time, keep dancing!

This was my last session with FBS.  Ray Gallagher came by to observe and to get my checklist.

We were missing, I think, our two single ladies.  Colette/Larry, Sue/Charlie, and Fred/Mildred were there.  We also had another person, Fred, join us.  The new Fred danced many moons ago, so he wanted to see if he could play.  He was more than a little rusty, but he was a quick study and, should he decide to continue, I think he could get up to speed pretty fast.

About halfway through our review/teach, they had a “timeout” for a farewell cake and some good-byes.  It wasn’t easy, and I’m misty-eyed a week later, but some great memories were shared.

After we were finished, we said our goodbyes and I gave my teaching list to Ray.

I’m sure he’ll do great.  I’m going to miss everyone, but we’ll be back to visit.

Until next time, keep dancing!

Tonight was the night that I broke the news about our pending migration.  The reaction was, as I expected, mixed.  People are happy for us, but sad for themselves.  Truth is, I’ve got mixed feelings about it too, but what is life without taking some chances?

The show must go on!  So, Leo and I worked on Trades and Circulates.  I like to introduce them slowly, a piece at a time.  This way, people can establish some muscle memory.  I introduced Partner Trade, Couples Trade, and for some new material, Wheel and Deal.  (Wheel and Deal only from 2 Faced Lines.)  Leo worked on circulates from ocean waves as well as couples circulate.  Columns were saved for another day.

It was a good session.  Leo did a very nice job and, as they say, a fun time was had by all.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Until next time, keep dancing!

Before I start with this post, an apology first.  The past few posts were done using a beta copy of Apple’s Safari browser.  For some reason, it did like my carriage returns so they all appear as a single paragraph.  Sorry about that.  I’ll try to go back and fix them this week.  (I’m also sorry that it has taken me this long to get this dance posted in my blog.)

Sunday’s Solo Squares dance was where I broke the news to the club members that I was leaving.  (I’d told the club leadership in advance.)  It went over about as it was expected to.  People were happy for us, but sad for themselves.  Lots of questions and we answered them.

The dance itself was fun.  It was entirely consisted of Christmas singing calls.  (Real ones, not ones that I changed the lyrics to be Christmas-esque.  Oh wait, I did do the Christmas version of “Summer Sounds” but I’m not sure if that was someone making up new words or if there really is a song from it was based.  I’ll plead the fifth.)

We had three squares.  Two of which were dancing nearly all night.  We had a couple of visitors including Jack Hardin.  (He thought, I guess, that he’d try again to dance to me.)  I offered him a tip, but he politely declined.  I offered one to Gunter Monroe, and he took me up on the offer.  He did a very nice job.

I experimented, a little bit, with Cross Run.  For those of you that dance the Advanced Program, I directionally called Mix.  As I watched it, I decided that Mix (Centers – Cross Run, New Centers – Trade) is prone to overflow for the centers that trade.  This is true especially if you call Circulate.  I’m going to move my checkers and see if I can find some options.  Granted, a little overflow, every now and again, is okay, but I don’t want to push it.  Happy dancers are returning dancers.

Until next time, keep dancing!

On Saturday, Leo Catt and I were scheduled to call a student dance at the Cedar Grange in Maple Valley.    This dance was “sponsored” by the Northwest Callers’ Association.  Sadly, where there were 3 student dances the entire month of November in the greater Seattle area, it seems that there were 3 student dances per weekend the first three weekends in December.  Since we were competing with a number of federated clubs, we got zero dancers.The fact that there were few student dances in October and November and many in December lets me infer a few things about our dancing world.  One is that a number of existing dancers give lip service about wanting to help new dancers along.  A caller colleague told me something that I think I already new.  Angels come in to support lessons in droves once the new students get past the halfway point.  That should speak volumes to our dancing community.  Out of 30 weeks of lessons, existing dancers come back to be supportive at week 15.  That just doesn’t seem right to me.  Granted, to be fair, there are a fair number that are there from week 1.  Still, if people don’t like those early calls, why do we spend so much time on them?The other thing that I infer from this is that there are a number of callers that either can’t or won’t call dances with just 10, 15, or 20 calls.  Protecting the innocent and guilty, I heard of dances where the caller was calling things like Scoot Back (#67) and Ferris Wheel (#53) when there was no way dancers would be past call #30, Wheel Around.  That is just not right.  Since we had no students at our dance, we just waited to see be sure.  In the end, Leo and his wife were there, my wife and I were there, Gunter and Kelli were there, and then we had pleasant surprise.  An Advanced/Challenge caller in the area, Jack Hardin came by to dance.  He said that he got news of my impending departure from the metro-Seattle area and wanted to hear me call as it had been years since he’d done so.  It was really touching that he came to visit.  I was just sorry that we didn’t have a square.So, we packed up and headed out.  Leo, Joy, Gunter, Kelli, Martha, and I went out to grab some dinner at a local restaurant.  Then we headed home.All in all, it was a quiet night.Until next time, keep dancing! 

I’ve been experimenting with Google Apps and have set up their email server to work with my domain.  If you are interested in having an email account @isquaredance.com, write me a note.  It is free.  For now, it will be set up as firstname.lastname@isquaredance.com.  You’ll be able to access your email using a custom URL and it will be totally private.  You’ll also have access to all the Google Apps using this login.  This includes the calendar, mail, talk/chat, and Google Docs.  Email me at stephen.cole@isquaredance.com if you are interested.Also, over the weekend, my ISP upgraded the server that my web site uses.  Everything looks like it works, but the blog entries have some special characters that need to be removed.  If I can figure out a way to remove them en masse, then I will. Until next time, keep dancing! 

I know this is sudden, but Martha and I are opting to leave Seattle.  There’s a lot behind the decision, and, if things don’t work out for us, we might return.  However, in January, we’re headed to sunny Arizona.  Yes, I know it is hot.  Yes, I know it is dry.  Down there, I expect when you tell people you’re moving north they say things like “you know it’s cold there, right?”  Or, “you know it rains a lot.”  When it rains here, we stay indoors.  (Most of us, anyway.)  When it’s hot there, they stay indoors.  (Most of them, anyway.)I’ve got a lot to do between now and when I leave.  (Martha will be joining me shortly thereafter.)  I’ll be teaching lessons for Fern Bluff and for South Sound Singles through December.  I’ll probably turn both clubs over to their new teachers in January.  Thanks to Ray Gallagher and Tom Tomlinson for stepping in and helping out Fern Bluff Squares and the South Sound Singles respectively.Thank you to everyone for all of your help and support over the years.  We will miss you all.  Don’t worry, we’ll be back to visit as often as we can.  Martha and I both have family here.   

I was reviewing my posts and saw that this one got eaten by the web site upgrade.  (For whatever reason, it was “saved” and not “published.” )We were missing one couple of students, but I think I knew that was going to happen. Still, we got through a number of calls, including Swing Thru.  I decided to try a different approach in teaching it to this club.  Rather than talk about two trades, those that can, trade with a right and, those that can, trade with a left hand, and call it Swing Thru, I opted to do just trades for most of the night.  Once they got it into their heads that they expected the pattern of the trades, I gave it a name. It worked so much smoother than in days (years) past.I think I’ll review it that way too.After Swing Thru, the next logical call to teach is Run.  The idea, in my mind, is that I have to convert the formation to one that dancers are familiar with so I can resolve.  By making a Two-Faced Line, it is easy enough to Bend the Line, and from Lines Facing, I can do a number of get-outs that are familiar and comfortable.  The trouble is that this is a lot of material to digest all at once.  I really try to limit my teaching to not go any farther than this and, I’ve found, it helps to review older material to let the new stuff sink in to the subconscious.It was a good night.Until next time, keep dancing! 

I had another good session with the South Sound Singles.  We had two students return after being gone for a 2-3 weeks.  So, we had to review quite a bit.  We also had some new angels so that helped a bit.  We lost some snowbirds, so they’re missed.

We’re past the halfway point for the program.  This makes it very hard to review all the calls before learning a new ones.  This is especially true for those calls that very limited applications.  Thar Stars, Walk Around Your Corner, See Saw, Alamo Waves, and Do Paso all have very limited applications.  (You really can only do them from a static square, but it takes a lot of time to teach and review them.) 

They are good calls, but my question is, do we really need to make them part of the learning process to get dancers in the club?  The more I think about it, the more I’d say no.  These are calls that could serve the population of Plus dancers or even be taught as a workshop call at a dance.  Why spend valuable time in class on them when we could spend much more time on things like circulates, trades, and casts?

At lessons we worked on Swing Thru a lot.  We also spent a lot of time working the call Run.  Leo taught Pass the Ocean and Extend.  He did a fine, fine, job.  We then worked on that material for the rest of the night.

I’m looking forward to our next session.

Until next time, keep dancing!