Clark Baker has written an article on Hexagon Squares (dancing with six couples in a hexagonally-shaped formation, not a rectangle). I first saw them while dancing to Bill Eyler , and I’ve called some simple stuff on occasion. But Clark has taken it to a whole other level, suggesting that six couples can dance a hexagon when most of the dancers are in four-couple squares and the caller is calling normal squares.

Anyway, Bill wrote an article for on hex squares in May 1993 for Mikeside Management, the note service published by Stan Burdick from 1992 through (I think) 2001. (Maybe he’s still publishing it; I let my subscription lapse.) Clark wanted a copy, so I went through my back issues and found the article. As I went through the old issues, I realized what a wealth of good information is buried in that (and other) note services. I say buried because there’s virtually no way that a new caller can get copies of those old note service issues, unless they happen to know a retiring caller who wants to get rid of old stuff and happened to be a subscriber, or unless they’re lucky enough to live in Albuquerque and have access to the Lloyd Shaw Foundation Archives. But even the archives don’t appear to have Mikeside Management.

So I googled Mikeside Management, just to see if it has any presence on the web…and there are two: one is in a listing of contact info (I think) in a Danish callers publication, and the other is here: Caller and Cuer Database — Corben Geis, in the notes of a caller who was a Mikeside Management columnist.

Well, I’ve got my back issues, and I do go back and mine them for ideas…but it’d be nice if the info were accessible to others.

Hope you had a good Halloween, and that any dances you called were lots of fun.

I got a couple of responses to yesterday’s Spook ‘Em stuff. People thought it was fun, but somebody pointed out an error: since Spook ‘Em is a 4-person call, you can’t really do Stretch Spook ‘Em from parallel waves; it would be like trying to do a stretch Trade the Wave from parallel waves. Vic’s CSDS program let me do it, but that’s because I entered it wrong; I should have put it in as a four-person call. GIGO.

Here’s a little web tidbit that’s amusing for a minute or so: Lady Liberty Fireworks

Some fun dance lyrics: Therapy Boogie.

If you google square dance lyrics, 18 out of the first 20 hits are for Eminem’s song, “Square Dance”.

Happy Halloween!

Back in October 1991 (back when there were a lot of caller note services, and I think I subscribed to almost all of them), Rusty Fennell published a description of a totally silly Halloween call in his Mainstream Flow notes:

Spook ‘Em: From any four-person ocean wave, all dancers lean forward and look in the direction of the dancers facing their same way in the wave (alias Take a Peek) and LOUDLY say “BOO”. Timing is 4 beats by the time they rock back from their ocean waves to move into the next call.

He adds:

In the beginning, I try to be very dramatic when teaching spook ’em, explaining that this will probably be a “holiday call” that will endure the years. But, when I offer them the last part of the definition (the boo part), they know that they have been had…and the fun will begin.

Well, every once in a while, I break out Spook ‘Em around Halloween. This year, I decided to do it with the Half Crazies, my C2 group. Admittedly, Spook ‘Em doesn’t seem like much of a challenge call…but it actually provided a bit of a workout on some concepts.

I did things like:

• Spook ‘Em, but interrupt after the first part with a Trade the Wave (I told them that Spook ‘Em is a two-part call: (1) take a peek and (2) say “boo”)
• Swing the Fractions 4/5, but interrupt after each part with a Spook ‘Em
• As Couples Spook ‘Em
• Spook ‘Em and Circle 1/4
• Rotary Spook ‘Em
• Lines Spook ‘Em Thru
• Spook ‘Em Along
• Spook ‘Em Perk Up
• Stretch Spook ‘Em (both from parallel and tidal waves)
• Stretched Wave Spook ‘Em
• Once Removed Spook ‘Em
• Cross Concentric Spook ‘Em
• Checkpoint Spook ‘Em by Spook ‘Em
• Triple Wave Spook ‘Em
• Offset Waves Spook ‘Em
• &etc

It was all extremely silly, but the Stretch and Stretched Wave, Cross Concentric, and Checkpoint, where they actually had to do something before or after doing the call, provided a little bit of interest (albeit with terrible flow).

Rusty Fennell doesn’t seem to be calling any more; the only real on-line legacy I can find is an article in the Article Co-op: New Idea to promote Square Dancing as a social activity.

It’s too bad all those old note services can’t somehow be put on-line. I know I go back to my old copies periodically to get ideas and inspiration, and they’d be great for new callers to peruse.

Want to learn how to do the Ketchup dance? Las Ketchup was on the CBS Early Show this past Monday to perform and teach the dance. I missed it (oh darn…). Trying to learn on the web is hard; I’m having a hard time trying to figure out the timing, particularly in the last part, where everything seems to get combined (hands to head, knees back and forth, body-wiggle. I found a Sony page that had a link for learning to do the dance, but it was a .exe file; totally useless. You can watch the video here, but it’s useless for learning the dance. I’m also having a hard time figuring out where to start. The dance moves seem to fit the chorus, but there’s a whole verse before the chorus starts, and I haven’t seen anybody do the dance with the non-chorus parts.

So why am I interested in a silly fad dance? Because it’s a fad. Because, for the next few? couple? one? month, people will be wanting to do it. People still like to do the Macarena; I’m glad I have it in my music collection. I don’t know if the Ketchup Dance will reach the same stature (if Sony and Columbia have anything to do with it, it will), but one might as well be prepared.