If you thought the print beer ad that featured square dancing was weird, check out this 1948 Lucky Strike television commerical, featuring square dancing cigarettes. It’s pretty chilling…and at the time, square dancers probably thought it was good publicity.
I found an old-time square dance competition here: The Vankleek Hill Fiddling Step Dancing and Square Dancing Competition. Here are the rules (PDF document). It’s kind of interesting; the squares dance to the house caller, and need to be able to do one of several traditional squares as well as respond to several different break calls. They also dance to their own caller.
Canada seems big on square dance competitions; I previously wrote about a competition at the University of Guelph. And many of the Northwest Teen Competitions take place in the Vancouver area; according to this page, the competition started in Vancouver.
In an entry back in February, I talked about a square dance marketing meeting in Southern California. It was held on March 2, 2003, and I finally found some details here. The presenters were:
They videotaped the meeting, and that tape may be available in the future. You can check out the preliminary outline that the site’s author prepared here; it’s not fleshed out, but it looks like there might be some good thought triggers if you’re thinking about how to market square dancing.
Check out this article about state symbols (and mostly about the state “folk dance” thing): Masters of the dance
Some sample quotes:
But something intriguing turns up when you research this subject. More than half the states have designated a state dance or folk dance, and it is the same one, the square dance. That appears to negate the whole principle involved, which is to elevate the locally distinctive above the homogeneity of modern American life.
and
These designations arose from a political campaign waged by what are known as club or western square dancers. Their recreation has none of the free-form jollity that characterises the folk tradition. The dancing is tightly choreographed, the dress code strict, and the organisation highly structured. There are something like 100 moves but, according to an article by Julie Mangin at tackytreasures.com, it requires at least 60 hours of lessons to learn even two-thirds of them. Folklorists say the whole thing dates back only to the 1920s. According to Mangin, “it is big business rather than folk dancing”
and
Now most of these laws do not specify the actual type of square dancing, but it is clear from the official pictures – showing elaborately petticoated women with elegantly tailored partners – what is meant. Clearly, western square dancing is a legitimate and respectable leisure activity. Eminently respectable indeed: it seems to be peopled mainly by white, heterosexual couples tending towards the elderly and conservative.
and
In other words, it may not be wholly unfair to see their long-standing campaign as another conspiracy by a handful of rightwing Republicans, with the complacent acquiescence of their supposed political opponents and the American public, to take over the universe. There’s no escape.
Here’s a modern square dance course offered at the Boston Center for Adult Education, taught by Chris Stacy. Based on the calls he listed in the course desciption, it sounds like he’s planning to get through Mainstream in 6 weeks at 1 1/2 hours a week. Whoa! Even Tech Squares takes 13 weeks.
So some square dance googling let me to this:
Lang’s last film of the forties was a neo-Gothic that may have been inspired by Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Rebecca. Secret Beyond the Door (1948) involves a vacationing heiress who meets and marries a charming stranger; they return to his mansion, in which each room has been decorated identically to the site of a famous murder. A follow-up film, House by the River (1950), concerns a writer who murders a servant girl. There was a lot thrown into the mix-sexuality, ghosts, square dancing (!) — and homicidal frenzy triggered by perfume. (In Secret Beyond the Door the killer scent was lilac.) Though the film was reckoned a failure, it did offer a villain Lang would return to again, the corrupt writer.
Square dancing? I can’t really tell which movie contains the square dancing, but I searched on both, and couldn’t find any further reference to square dancing…although I did find out that Alfafa was in House by the River.
What if, to some people, my weblog reads like the dullest blog in the world. I could feel my brain numbing just reading it. Maybe when a non-square dancer comes across this site, they think it’s the dullest blog. Or maybe even dancers do.
This weekend, I drove to Denver to call for the Rocky Mountain Rainbeaus. After a slight delay (45 minutes!!) in getting in to the venue (MCCR), we danced A2 and C1, had a dinner break (pizza in the church, since we got started so late), and danced Plus/A2 the rest of the evening. I always enjoy calling for the Rainbeaus; they’re a fun group.
I did the Levi Jackson Rag with them, and got a good response. The last time I tried it (with the Duke City Singles), the dancers had a few problems. This time, I left it at the recorded speed (about 129 bpm) and the dancers had no problems; it was fun to watch them get through it.
Driving to Denver takes (I hope there are no highway patrol folks reading) about 6.5 hours, interstate all the way, much of it flat, with not much traffic. So, I had a lot of time in the car, which I spent listening to tapes from previous CALLERLAB conventions. (I don’t have this year’s yet; I ordered them as MP3 files on a CD, and won’t get them for a couple of weeks. But just think: one CD with all the sessions, as opposed to 16 cassettes for 16 sessions, for less money.) There’s a lot of repetition, but also a lot of good info.
In an interesting juxtaposition, I listened to a tape from last year, with Jerry Junck (note to Jerry: jerryjunck.com is available as a domain name…why not grab it?) and Tony Oxendine talking about “Different Not Difficult”, and a tape from 1992 on successful choreography, also featuring Tony and Jerry (along with Bronc Wise and Jack O’Leary). In 1992, the callers assumed that the dancers wanted interesting and challenging choreography. Jerry talked about categorizing call usage as easy, medium, or hard. Jack mostly did gimmicks. Bronc talked about knowing the calls really well in order to develop interesting usages. He also stressed lots of checker-work. The discussion evolved around to dancing in Sweden and other European countries, and how the dancers there could do anything. In 2002, the focus was on providing something a little different, and making it easy by working the dancers up to it. For example, Tony had a sequence that he wanted to use: Heads Left Square Thru 4, Left Touch 1/4, Walk and Dodge, Wheel Around, Dixie Style to a Wave, Swing Thru, Chain Down the Line, Slide Thru (ZB). He described how he would spend the whole dance giving the dancers the skills needed to get through this sequence. Jerry also had a (substantially easier, but no longer MS) sequence: Heads Square Thru, Touch 1/4, Scoot Back, Split Circulate, Cast Off 3/4, Fan the Top, Right and Left Thru, Slide Thru (ZB) that he would use as a basis for several tips.
I normally don’t think about the CALLERLAB convention hotel until it’s time to make a reservation. However, I wondered over to the CALLERLAB site, and they already had info on next year’s hotel. So I went to the hotel’s site, mainly to try to get a reading on where it is in Reno. No way! I couldn’t find a map anywhere! So I Mapquested it, but the resulting map didn’t really tell me where it was in relationship to the other Reno casinos. After zooming out a few times, it appears that the hotel is a few miles from the downtown action. So no walking around and taking in the sights…but who does that at CALLERLAB anyway? (Apparently, there’s a shuttle service going downtown, so you can get your sleaze fix if you want it.)
The only meals that one has to worry about at CALLERLAB are (depending on when one gets there), the weekend preceding and Monday morning. Everything else is taken care of. However, if one is there for the Beginner Dance Program, one does need to think about food. The hotel has a buffet (duh, it’s a casino), but it doesn’t sound too promising: some quotes from anonymous critics here: “Nothing exciting – just edible.” and “Not worth the trip.” (But we won’t have to make a trip because we’ll already be there…).
On the other hand, the reviewers here like it pretty well: “Well above average, and a good value, too. This is a big buffet with a big selection and good quality food. Breakfasts feautre made-to-order omelets and a decent selection of fruit and pastries. At dinnertime, the fresh meats and decent salad bar come out to play.” They also say: “A huge hotel, done-up very tastefully, which is a huge disappointment. This place seems to take itself seriously, so it doesn’t offer any of the cheesy thrills we look for in a casino.” And here’s their take on service: “Service Quality:
I just got back from the CALLERLAB Annual Convention. (Actually, I got back yesterday at about 6:30 pm and called a C2 dance at 7 pm.) As usual, it was four days of information overload and sleep deprivation, along with a lot of camaraderie and seeing old and new friends…and even a little bit of dancing. There was always too many options of things to do during each time period (probably the hardest choice was traditional/contra dancing vs. the CALLERLAB Foundation auction, which raised over $12,000…just as well I didn’t have a bidding number; I might have spent way too much money to make a record with Global Music Productions (Doug Bennett’s company)).
Here’s what I did:
Arrived in San Antonio at about 3pm on Saturday afternoon. A friend picked Bill Eyler and me up…the Wilde Bunch was a little nervous about both of their callers traveling on the same plane, but we made it.
Went out to dinner with Del Powell on the River Walk; the concierge had recommended the Rio Rio Cantina for Tex-Mex, and it was fine.
Went to the benefit dance for the CALLERLAB Foundation on Saturday night (can’t find anything about it on the web, although there was a flyer floating around). If I listed all the callers, I know I’d forget somebody, although I will mention that Golden Boot winners Andy Shore and Betsy Gotta called a tip together.
Sunday a.m.: Went to the Beginner Dance Party Leaders Seminar (pdf), even though I’d missed the first full day of the seminar. The most interesting presentation I heard was Mona Cannell’s on historical dance; I especially liked her insights on how clothes and fashion affect the type and style of dancing in a given time period.
Sunday afternoon and evening: Spent time with Vic and Debbie Ceder to make sure we could set up the LCD projector that I lugged with me with both his PC laptop and my TiBook. Kidnapped Andy Shore and his car to take us to Office Depot so we could buy some foamcore to make a projector screen, and then to a grocery store for supplies. On to the Board of Governors’ reception. Went out to Pappadeaux for dinner, continuing a tradition begun at the Dallas CALLERLAB convention. Had indigestion all night.
Monday morning: Breakfast with other panelists up on the 20th floor (what a view!). Opening session. Scrambled during the break to get the projector and jury-rigged screen set up for our 10:45 session on Digital Music. Thank you, Debbie Ceder! Vic, Dick Henschel and I presented (hopefuly) useful information. My presentation is online at here, Vic and Dick’s will be online soon.
Lunch with Don Beck, where we talked about Mac computers and OS X, and I demoed Stone Design’s software. There are a few Mac users (including Tim Tyl, Steve Hoffman, and Lynn Webster) lurking at the CALLERLAB convention, although the vast majority are PC users. I’m not sure I count, since I do most of my square dance calling stuff on a PC.
Afternoon sessions: Missed most of the first session because Don and I continued computer stuff in the hall, after being thrown out of the dining room. Caught the last part of Andy Shore and Tim Marriner’s teaching tips session (really good; get the handout from CALLERLAB), and most of the Fresh Ideas session with Jerry Jestin and Dick Mazziotti. Ditched out early to practice Hex Squares with Clark Baker so I could dance in the BOF session on Hexes (see Hexagon Squares for Clark’s presentation). Bill Eyler also presented; he does hexagons as a gimmick at festivals, with great success.
Dinner: notable for actually ending early. Did some dancing, went up and watched the auction for a while (Dick and Jeanne Gaskill bought the Global Music recording offer). Went back down to the dancing and got in on the standard Clark Baker post-dance fun stuff: hexagons, grand square variations, barstool dancing. Went to the bar and stayed up way too late.
So much for the first day. More later.