Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

News from Square Dance Land!

I’m trying to get caught up with my posts… really, I am.

On Wednesday, February 11th, Martha and I were headed back to Apache Junction for the Desert Mainstreamers.

I’d talked to the treasurer the previous week about their planned time change and wanted the opportunity to continue working with them, but the more I thought about it over the week, the less sure I was about it. Starting at 7 and going to 9 worked really well for us. Starting at 6 was just going to be too hard for me to do. Getting home from work, changing clothes, getting food, and getting to the dance in an hour was just not enough time.

So, I let everyone know that after “graduation” I’d no longer be their caller. As you can imagine, it went over like a wet blanket. However, I tried to keep it light-hearted. There were no hard feelings. While I can fault their decision and I did ask them to reconsider, the club’s leadership was determined. With no option available, I stuck to my guns and called it good.

All things considered, though, the lesson went well. I reviewed a little, taught a little, and we danced as much as we could. Several were still recovering from foot, leg, and knee ailments, so we were down a bit in our numbers, but everyone had a good time.

Graduation is/was on the 25th, so my goal was to be solid in the Basic program and work my way into the Mainstream program’s content.

There’s a lot of really good material in the Basic program, and were it up to me, I’d have been happy dancing what everyone had learned. However, the club’s leadership was determined to move into Mainstream.

It seems to me that we could do more with less, but change comes hard; especially when you want to fit in with what everyone else is doing.

Since we’re going to be dancing Mainstream, I figured that I’d work the back of the Mainstream program first. So many new dancers struggle with the last call on the list, Recycle. So, once we were throught the Basic program, I went out of order and taught it next.

It was another good class. I’m going to miss them.

Until next time, keep dancing!

News from Square Dance Land.

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I’ve posted. My memories of the events are starting to fade a bit, so I’m going to try to get caught up, but will be rather brief as it happens.

This post is, like the one before it, out of order. I’m not sure how I managed to skip it, but here it is.

On Friday, February 6th, I headed over to the Sunflower RV Resort to do a dance with Bob Jones and Annie Brownrigg. Bob is a caller that retired down here (I think it was an early retirement) and Annie Brownrigg is a cuer that lives in AZ as well. (I’m not sure if she’s retired or not. She’s a very talented Round Dance cuer and it would not surprise me to learn that she does it full time.

I left work a little early to get on the road to get to the dance on time. I would have made it, execpt for some construction on the freeway that closed the exit I needed to take. Go figure. They say the four seasons in Minnesota are Nearly Winter, Almost Winter, Winter, and Construction. It seems like it is year-round construction season.

I got to the dance just as the pre-rounds were starting. We had a good crowd, but it wasn’t huge. I think, at one point, we had nine squares on the floor. However, for most of the night, there were six. Bob and I shared the stage for all of tips. Working with Bob is great… our problem is that we have two vastly different song libraries. Thankfully, he had the lyrics to a number of songs on his computer, so I could wing it. This is not my favorite “way to fly” but I can do it if I need to.

We had a great time, and Annie did a fabulous job on the rounds.

The hall was great. Nice hardwood floors, good sound, and good lighting made for an excellent experience.

I’m looking forward to working with Bob in the future.

Until next time, keep dancing!