I think A House Divided! is a diatribe against higher level square dancers recruiting at Mainstream dances. As I understand this, higher level dancers are like vegetarians. The meat of square dancing is all the fun stuff: laughing and carrying on. Higher level dancers don't like that kind of stuff (says who?). So higher level dancers only come to lower level dances because they're hungry (want new dancers), not because they actually enjoy the (meaty) dancing. A quote:
Are you going to tell me that any upper level Caller or Dancer is not going to advertise his Upper Level class at every lower level dance he goes to?Ummmm....yeah, most "upper level" dancers I know don't advertise classes at every (or even any) lower level dance attended.
Seems like many square dancers want to blame square dancing's current ills on the existence of square dancing levels. If only there were no levels, we'd all be one big happy square dancing family, and square dancing would be as popular now as it was back in the [decade of choice when square dancing was popular]. Maybe...or maybe the higher level dancers would have moved on to some other activity that gives them the challenge they seek.
I think one of square dancing's current problems is that it's too hard to start. Mainstream is too big a chunk for an entry level. But does the mere existence of additional levels of dancing discourage people from starting? Does the fact that there is competitive ballroom dancing discourage people from starting to dance? Does a beginning line dancer quit because there are a jillion line dances and she only knows one? Maybe I'm weird, but I like room to grow. I like square dancing because I can find as much complexity as I want...no more, no less.