Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

On 7/11 Martha and I traveled to Tucson to call for the Twirlers. It seems that every trip down has some crazy driving involved, and this one was no exception. About twenty miles into the trip, on a three lane stretch of road, I was in the middle lane and sandwiched in traffic. I slowed down to get behind the car to my left (the passing lane) and the next thing I know, the vehicle that was about four car-lengths back was nearly ON my bumper. He was honking his horn and started actually driving on the shoulder. I couldn’t believe it! After we passed the car that was going WAY too slow for the lane it was in, I pulled over to get out of that idiot’s way. He then pulled over himself and slowed down. We ended up passing him again and expected some more road rage, but we got nothing. He was just an old guy out for a drive and didn’t even notice us. Strange.

We got there with time to spare and this time I remembered my wallet so I was able to treat Martha to some dinner. It was fast food, but still, I paid.

It is billed as a DBD dance with a thirty minute workshop, so I pulled some hard stuff out of my memory banks to work. I did a 3-1 Line Coordinate and a Left handed Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears. The 3-1 Coordinate was tough for people to see at first, but they got it. The Left Handed SCandEtG was a little harder. I made sure to set it up so that the Girls were the leaders. (It is a skill that comes natural to them so why mess with a winner.

The dance was fun. We had just one square, so I tried not to over work them. I had a few requests. Cheeseburger in Paradise was one of them and Fields of Gold was another. Two good tunes and I enjoy them.

We lost a few people to (I think) early bed times, so we cut it short by about a half an hour. Still, we had a great time and it is a great facility. Thank you Rick for letting me call for you.

No, I didn’t call this one. Rick Gittelman was calling for the Checkmates and Martha and I figured that we’d go out and support him. We enjoy his calling and his company so we popped into the dance.

We figured that it would be small dance with it being a holiday weekend, but there were five squares. Very nice. There are whispers on the street about how much people may or may not like him and his calling, but I have to say that I really enjoy his calling. He’s got a very melodious voice and an excellent delivery. He also chooses music that is different than others. Yes, he’s got a few tunes that are probably in 90% of every caller’s record case. (Records? What are those?) He’s also got some tunes that he’s made his own.

He let me call a couple of tips with him and I enjoyed that. Though, I wish he’d pick singing calls that I know the words to when we work together. Our joke is that we do our best rehearsing via email.

It was fun and I’m looking forward to his next dance with them in August. (I’ll have to look up when it is.)

Until next time, keep dancing!

I know that the convention was over a month ago.  Sorry about the huge delay. I’m trying to stay on top of things, but sometimes life gets in the way.

Nationals was a blast.  My favorite part? Singing with the Ghostriders (a LIVE band) in the Mainstream hall at 9:00 on Friday night. I don’t know if it gets much better.

This was, I think, the best convention I’ve ever attended. The sound was great. The programming was excellent. The facilities were fantastic. Wichita was welcoming and charming.

At first, I questioned the location. During the caller school, I continued to think that, but as the convention started, the support from the city was very apparent. The convention staff reciprocated and sold visitor badges that said non-dancer. This let the public come in and watch. A BRILLIANT idea.

I danced a lot but tried to pace myself. I, along with my parter for the week, Thal, tried to do as much dancing as we could. (My wife, Martha, could not attend, but my “stunt wife” Thal, from Seattle, was able to join me.)

It was also nice to meet and greet callers that I’ve known for years, callers I’ve met via email but not met face to face, and callers that I’ve never met but got to know.

We did some non-dancing stuff too. There was a dinner on Wednesday night, with music by the Prairie Wranglers. They were fantastic.  “Sons of the Pioneers” fantastic. (Funny too.) During the convention, we attended Jerry Junck’s talk on attitudes. I took some notes, so I’ll have to find them and post them.

People think of it as a festival, but it isn’t.  A convention isis a gathering of individuals who meet in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. So, it is more than just dancing, it is about connecting and celebrating the one thing we all have in common, square dancing. It strikes me as odd that so many people have this desire to promote square dancing, but can’t agree on how to make it happen. Everyone has a slightly different take on the issues before us, and because of this, we can’t seem to be able to affect the change we need to make a difference.

There were only a few disappointments the entire week. I’m a square dancer and a square dance caller, but I enjoy round dancing. For me, the round dancing was too far removed from the day-to-day square dancing. A couple of halls had some round dancing it them, but it was once an hour. A single 2×2 hall might have been nice with Square Dance “level” rounds. (I put the word level in quotes because I hate that term. It implies ability, and we don’t talk about that anywhere in the activity. A number of people seem to assume that Mainstream is a beginner “level” so it must not be good. That is just wrong, but it is hard to overcome. That’s a discussion for another timel; I think.

Along the lines of disappointments was the floor that the round dancers used. It was that black floor tile. It was just awful. My dance shoes (with a smooth sole) stuck to the floor more than once and the seams between tiles caught my shoes more than once. It was touted as a great thing, but if I never see it again, that’s fine with me. Carpet would have been smoother and easier on my knees.

What else? I saw some good friends from Texas, Marvin and Tammy, and it was great to dance some with them. It turns out that they’d never really heard me call before, so that was fun. Then we spent some time dancing with them. Fun, fun, fun!

I saw no incidents involving the policing of attire. People were there in all sorts of attire and no one was removed from any dance floor. That is a huge bonus to me. Adults don’t tell other adults how to dress. (Unless that other adult is my spouse.) That anyone would feel “holier than thou” enough to ask someone to leave the floor due to their clothes is appalling to me. So, it was great that this was not an issue.

Thal and I went to the bid session for the 2012 nationals. After living in Washington, you’d think that I was supportive of their bid, but, in truth, I wasn’t. I know the leadership in the area, and while some of them are very capable, in four years, I’m not sure there will be enough strong leaders to get the job done. I’m sure they’ll put it out, but I think that Oklahoma City had a better presentation. So good, in fact, that I’m ready to vacation there some day. Their mayor was there and he said that if they got the convention, he’d take lessons and encourage his staff of 4,000 to take lessons as well. Can you imagine that? I guess that this is all I’ll be able to do. I hope they bid again next year.

That’s all I’ve got for now on nationals. If I think of more, I’ll add it in another post. As it is, I’ve got a month of dances to catch up on so I’ll be able to sneak stuff in here and there.

Until next time, keep dancing!