More news and views from Square Dance Land…

I truly believe that our 20th Century Square Dance needs to be updated to meet the needs of a 21st Century Society.

To this end, I’m looking at the programs we use to determine the content/moves we teach, how long it takes, and how we can make it easier for people to learn to dance.

If you’d like to be part of this conversation, please contact me. The more the merrier. That said, I really am not looking for people that say “things are perfect they way they are” or “we tried change once for 6 weeks, it didn’t work so we stopped.”

I’ve got no time for those kinds of attitudes.

Until next time, keep your stick on the ice. Oh, wait. That’s hockey. Until next time… keep dancing!

More (old) news from Square Dance Land…

I know, I know. I promised more updates more frequently. Rats. (I’m on vacation next week that will end at the National Square Dance Convention, so I may or may not have time to make many more updates.)

February 18th was my second to last dance with the Mainstreamers out in Apache Junction.  People were sad to see me go, and a couple asked if it was a political thing. I don’t think it was. My style, I think, is pretty open. I do use more contemporary music than most, but that’s rarely been a deal breaker. The issue was that they wanted to do lessons on the same night that they had dances.

Doing lessons/dances on the same night has both advantages and disadvantages. If people already have that night free, then it is a great fit. Once they learn, they’re used to being away from home that night. The disadvantage is that it can make for a long night, especially for those that come help the new people and then stay to dance.

There were quite a few people that were “walking wounded.” Bad knees, bad hips, and bad backs all get in the way of a good dance experience.

To accomodate the lesson/dance schedule the Mainstreamers wanted, they felt that a better start time was 6:00 and I just couldn’t get there.

Even with a couple of weeks left, I wasn’t about to quit, so we kept plugging along. We’d finished the Basic program and started working the Mainstream movements. I like to work them back to front because, all too frequently, we run out of time at the end. The last call on the list is Recycle and new dancers struggle with it because the see it right at the end and don’t get it worked/reviewed as much as it needs.

It was a night with a lot of review but had lots and lots of smiles. My kind of dancing.

Until next time, keep dancing! (And keep smiling!)

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!

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!

In square dance land there are a number of beautiful things that happen. I count myself blessed with the friends I’ve made and I’m thankful for so many rich memories.

Here’s another one. (The tissues are optional.) If you want to read the original, here’s the link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/20/shes_square_with_life/

Thanks go to Guy Steele for pointing this link out to me.

The article is © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

She’s square with life

By: Steven Rosenberg

Hospice brings partners for resident’s last dance

NORTH READING – Marilyn Coyne survived the Depression with little food and no heat in her parents’ flat in Portland, Maine. She married and sent four kids to college. She saw her husband and one of their children die. And, in November, after three years of fighting breast cancer, she was told by a doctor that she had months to live.

In hospice care and losing weight in recent weeks as the cancer crept through her body, she confided to a hospice volunteer that she had a last wish, something that recalled summer nights of her childhood and joy with her husband. She wanted a final square dance.

Yesterday, her wish came true. Coyne donned a floral skirt, a crimson petticoat, and a red peasant shirt, and walked to the center of a nursing room social hall, where nine professional square-dancers, dressed in cowboy shirts and calico, waited for her.

It had been a decade since she last clasped hands with a partner, but as music played, the elfin Coyne deftly followed the dance caller’s instructions of allemande left, promenade, and do-si-do. After five minutes of swinging her partner, and singing along with “She’ll Be Com ing ‘Round the Mountain,” Coyne let her thin, 82-year-old frame fall into a padded wooden chair and took a deep breath.

“That,” she sighed, “was wonderful.”

It may have been bittersweet, this scene, but it befitted the decades that led to it. For much of her life, Coyne had sought refuge on the square-dance floor. She learned the art as a child growing up on Portland’s mostly-Irish Munjoy Hill, where she received the nickname Minty. The name stuck for life (she never liked Marilyn, she says) and still hints of a youth long past.

“I’m Minty McNeill Coyne, the girl who could steal any heart, anywhere, any time,” she says.

As a teenager, she met Patrick Coyne. The two went to separate Catholic high schools in the city, but they became fast friends, brought together by poverty and hardship and, ultimately, by square-dancing. After their first square dance together, they realized there was more than friendship between them. “I just liked him from the very start. We were good friends and got along very well,” she said. They married in 1947.

In Portland, Patrick worked as a foreman for the city water district, and Minty took a clerk job at a credit union. The couple had four children. Minty says she lived a “simple life,” working, taking care of her children, and putting her passion into baking apple pies and attending weekend square dances. There, she found escape among people who, like her, reveled in music, dance, and small talk.

“I’d feel free when I danced, and it’s nice if you have a husband who likes it. I have some friends and their husbands would never do anything like that,” she said.

All of her children would graduate from college, fulfilling her dream for them. “I never could go. I wanted them to go so bad,” said Minty, who is 4 feet, 10 inches tall, has sharp blue eyes, and short silver hair.

One son became a doctor, a daughter became a lawyer, another son went into real estate, and a third son, Danny, was an assistant secretary of state in Maine. At a family picnic in 1991, when Danny Coyne was 40, Minty watched as her son collapsed during a basketball game and died.

“I screamed ‘Danny’s dead, Danny’s dead’ over and over, and cried and cried,” she said, adding that there is no such thing as closure when one loses a child.

Tired of Maine’s frigid winters, the couple moved to Gulfport, Fla., in 1995, determined to square-dance as much as they could. She sewed all of her dresses and shirts. She bought her petticoats and shoes.

Ten years into their retirement, Patrick died, and Minty moved north to be closer to her daughter, Carol. She settled into an assisted-living facility in Tewksbury and soon after, felt pain around her breast. After tests, she was told she had breast cancer and had a breast removed.

The cancer never went away.

After Coyne mentioned her desire for one last square dance, Camryn Walsh, of Care Alternatives Hospice, decided to bring the dance to Minty. Walsh arranged to bring the Riverside Squares, a Danvers square-dancing group, to Minty’s floor at the Meadow View Care and Rehabilitation Center in North Reading.

“What we really try to provide is comfort and dignity when patients and families are faced with incurable disease,” said Walsh.

For an hour yesterday, the music played and dancers danced while a small crowd of nursing home residents, and Minty’s nurses and social workers, hooted and hollered in appreciation. Then the dancers packed up and were gone, and Minty sat in the dining room, talking about everything from the economy and technology to nature. She’s waiting for a really warm day so she can take a walk outside. “I don’t like sitting around,” she said.

She does not fear death or dwell on the idea of not being around much longer. “I know I’m going to die one day but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t think about dying,” she said. “I believe in afterlife. I assume there’s a heaven. . . . I’ll let you know if I get there.”

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com.

More news from Square Dance Land!

It seems that not only am I way behind in my updates but I also skipped an event. For those of you on FaceBook, you know already about the changes coming in the Cole household. We’re expecting our first child in September. (Give or take.)

Saturday, February 7th, I headed up to Payson/Pine to call for the Zane Grey Twirlers. They’re listed as being in Payson, but, like so many other places, they’ve been priced out of spaces inside the city limits and had to move down the road to Pine. It’s a nice little facility and it isn’t *that* far off the beaten path. It is, however, a trek for me, so I had to get a fairly early start.

I went solo because we were expecting company later in the week and Martha wanted to clean and run some errands.

The trip was uneventful and we had a nice dance. I split the tips alternating between Mainstream and Plus. I don’t like doing that because people sit for too long, but, I suspect that there’s an amount of learned behavior that has made this practice acceptable. I’d rather call Mainstream for an hour or so and then call Plus for an hour or so.

They had two squares with just a little overlap between those that knew Mainstream and those that knew Plus. Nearly everyone stayed the whole time. One couple did leave early, but they (like me) had a day job and got up at the insane hour of 4 a.m. Ewwww…

I workshopped a little bit, but I tried not to do too much. Coordinate was causing some problems as was Crossfire, so I spent some time working both of them. Coordinate’s biggest issue? The initial circulate. It seems that is one of the biggest issues that I see in our square dancing populations. As dancers move up the “program ladder” they take shortcuts. Callers are partly to blame because we’re the leaders that are letting this happen. However, when I’ve stuck to my guns it doesn’t usually work out well for me.

After a number of repetitions, we got the Coordinate down pat fron the standard formation. I did take a chance and call it once from a different formation. Don’t worry, I walked them through it and made sure they celebrated when they were done.

It was a good dance and everyone had fun. I’m not sure when I’m headed back there, but I’m looking forward to it.

Until next time, keep dancing!

News from square dance land!

On February 9th, I headed up to Scottsdale to fill in for the talented Dale Dockery at Bucks and Bows. I’d learned from my previous experience there to avoid much of what people call DBD. DBD is an acronym that means “Dance By Definition.”

Somehow, somewhere, somebody decided that the term DBD would represent a harder skill level of dance. The thought is that, if you know the definition of a call, no matter the formation or position you are in, you can dance it. The truth is that it is among the more asinine things that has ever been created by the square dance community. If you think about it, EVERY square dance EVER is done using the definitions of the calls. If you didn’t, you’d be wandering around.

Anyway, what I leaned at the B&Bs from my last time filling in was that there are a number of dancers there that prefer the standard positions of calls ONLY. Variations are tolerated in small amounts.

When I teach things, I tend to stick to the standard formations then branch out with more creative uses of calls at workshops and dances. However, I will show some calls from two positions, if it is warranted. For those in the square dance community, calls like Scoot Back, Follow Your Neighbor, and Split Circulate have both sexes doing each of the actions. More than that, it can be detrimental to the learning process.

The note I got from Pat and Dale said to review:

In the beginning there were no standardized square dances. Every caller had their own list of calls and knew how to teach them. Eventually, a few braves souls sat down to flesh out a list that would let callers travel around the nation, then internationally, and call dances.