Stephen’s Square Dance Blog

More news from Square Dance Land…

On Saturday, February 14th, I headed to Show Low for the White Mountain Rim Rompers. Our friend Thal was in town and had a flight on Sunday, so Martha stayed home to entertain and then take her to the airport. She wanted to stay at a hotel near the airport and take a cab, but that was just silly. It was a great visit and it was great seeing her.

The trip to Show Low was uneventful. That’s the way I like them. There was some construction, so it was a little slow. I nearly always stop in Globe for a pit stop.  I left 60 degree weather and ended up seeing snow on the ground. How bizarre.

I got into town with time to spare, so I grabbed a small bite to eat in Show Low and headed to the dance. They’ve changed their format a little. From 6-7:00 they want Plus lessons or a least a workshop. I don’t have a list to go off of, so I just picked a few calls to teach and went from there. I picked Crossfire, Coordinate, and Single Circle to a Wave. Along the way, I reviewed some other calls as well depending on what I saw.

One of the funny things about this is that I see a workshop as different from a teach. When squares breakdown, I’ll do a quick teach/review to get them up to speed. If I’m going to do a real workshop, then I’m spending some quality time to do a thorough teach. Some, in the Tempe/Mesa area are upset with me because, when something causes the floor to break down, I’ll go back and fix it to make sure it is right.

To me, one of the most important things is making dancers successful. Though, I’ve had a few people tell me, in no uncertain terms that I’m to call dances and if people can’t dance they should go back to lessons.

So, being asked to teach is like asking a fish to swim. It is part of my nature. I go out of my way to make my choreography easy to dance to, but, at the same time, challenging enough to keep people engaged. If I see a basic (and I mean BASIC) call bring the floor to a halt, then it is review time. I will not fail these people that came to me to be entertained.

We had a fun time with two squares of Plus dancers.

At 7 the Mainstream dance started. It was relatively uneventful. I pulled out as many love songs as I could find. Some were actually love songs. Others were turned into love songs by my editing of the lyrics.

During the evening, I’d gotten a request for the Grand Colonel Spin. For those that don’t know, this is a specific song, with specific choreography, that is a little on the unusual side. The Grand Colonel Spin uses a call not on any list today called, appropriately enough, the Grand Spin. Not a big deal. It is a quick teach and away we go. It was such a success that we did it TWICE!

People that think it is boring to do the same figures in a singing call record four times over need to dance this record. It isn’t always the variety that makes square dancing so much fun, sometimes it is the victory dance at the end.

Afterwords, I was hosted by Chuck and Mary Ellen Bittorf. Thank you very MUCH! Sunday, bright and early, I headed home to enjoy some quality time with Martha.

It was a fun dance and a great end to a fun week!

Until next time, keep dancing!

News from Square Dance Land… I’m still way behind. It is now May and I’m still blogging about things that happened in February. I’m going to have to work pretty hard to keep up; please expect to see a lot of activity over the next couple of weeks.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I had company with me at the Desert Mainstreamers. My good friend (from the days when she was a club president where I was the club caller), Thal was in town visiting. So, we took her dancing with us.

On Thursday, the 12th of February, I was booked at the London Bridge Squares in Lake Havasu, Arizona. For those of you that don’t know, the actual London Bridge is there. (Hence the name.)

Martha had to work and couldn’t join me, so Thal and I were off on an adventure. And, what and adventure it was. I’d taken time off from work as there was no way to get there in a day and back again. I forget how long a drive it was, but it was many hours. The LBS also put me up in a hotel. This was a problem at first because we needed a room for Thal. At first, none seemed available, as there was a pyrotechnics convention going on in town. FIREWORKS! Though, we got lucky and got her an extra room.

Since we were at the dance, we didn’t get to see any of the firework displays that were going on across town. The next morning, at breakfast, a number of people still smelled of gunpowder. Too funny.

Oh… before I forget, there was a “life lesson” imparted on the trip over. We left and I had just over a quarter tank of gas. I figured we’d stop along the way. Somewhere, about an hour into the trip, I started looking for gas stations… and looking… and looking… and looking. Yes, I ran out of gas. It happened just over a small hill EXACTLY as I came to the exit for a rest area. The engine stalled and I coasted to the exit, down the ramp, and into a parking spot. Thal looked at me and said “so, I guess we’re stopping?” I said yes and that we were out of gas. She laughed pretty hard. The car turned over, but I was sure we’d not get far. I called AAA and an about an hour later, a nice guy with a tow truck came by and sold me 4 gallons.  Five miles down the road was a gas station. So, I was just this |—| close to a gas station. I filled up there and we were on our merry way.

The dance was a lot of fun. We had about 3 squares. Most of the time, there were two dancing. The president of the club apologized profusely that there weren’t more dancer, but it seems that there was a festival in Yuma that weekend and a number of people left early.

We alternated Mainstream and Plus tips. Not my favorite method of running a dance, but, it is one that works for some. (I’d rather have a Mainstream hour and a half and then a Plus hour and a half.) There were some clubs that were visiting that got my contact info. I’ve added a couple of dates to my calendar over this. I’ll be calling in the Vegas area at the end of the year and I’m on the LBS schedule for next year too.

I was there in time to set up my gear, but the cuer beat me to it. They offered to let me set up my own gear, but I have no problem sharing. (I know many that do have issues. No clue why.) So, I got set up and away we went.

It was a fun dance and it was great introducing my friend Thal to Arizona. Both Martha and I miss her (and all of our other Washington/Oregon) firends a lot.

Until next time, keep dancing!