Keep an eye on this page. It’s under construction now, but at some point we may be able to dress little square dance mannequins in proper square dance attire. Maybe people will be happy dressing dolls on line and won’t force real people to wear the silly clothes.

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The Stanford North American Dance Workshop looks like it would have been fun. I admit to being an eclectic when it comes to dance; I like a little variety.

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According to this rec.folk-dancing thread, CNN Headline News ran a story on contra dancing on October 5. Did anyone happen to see it?

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For more on the continuing MWSD vs. traditional square dance saga, check out this thread on rec.folk-dancing.

While “researching” (read surfing) square dance competitions, I found this article on the decline of mountain community square dances in North Carolina. The whole article is interesting, but I was particularly interested in theories about the decline:

What happened to this rich tradition of mountain square dancing and why did it die out after decades of vitality? I have interviewed many dancers who were active during those heydays of square dancing, and I’ve heard a number of answers. According to Jackie Hyatt, whose husband danced with Soco Gap and who herself was a “square dancer” with the Sylva team, the rise in popularity of the Texas two-step at local dance halls is what put an end to square dancing. Joe Sam Queen suggested that with the coming of rock-and-roll, community socialization became more stratified by age group, thus inhibiting the passing on of traditions to the next generation. Better transportation may have also contributed to the break-up of formerly tight-knit local dance communities, and certainly the lure and addiction to television was not conducive to community interaction or participation.

MWSD seems pretty much an age stratified activity. Sure there are a few teens and twenty-somethings who square dance, but based on my experience, I’d say most square dancers are in their sixties and seventies…that is, the parents of the kids who were listening to rock ‘n’ roll in the 1960’s and 1970’s, when MWSD peaked in popularity. I wonder if MWSD, with its rigid gender roles, dress codes, and rules of behavior, was a reaction to the societal changes that were occurring as the boomers came of age. What do you think?

Yesterday, at the Huntsman World Senior Games 2002, there was a square dance competition. I couldn’t find any rules or procedures for the event on the web site.

At the 2002 California State Square Dance Convention, there was a youth square dance competition. Sixteen dancers participated, and they used a format similar to that used by the Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Competition: each square’s actual dance time is tracked, and the square that danced the most wins.

I think this fits the idea of MWSD better than some competition based on style, appearance, and tricky pre-planned choreography (although that’s certainly how most other dance contests are judged). I personally dislike practicing the same thing over and over to make it look perfect, but I like the idea of practicing problem-solving so that dancers can cope with whatever the caller calls.

Canadians seem much more into square dance competitions…maybe that’s why they have more teenagers who square dance or maybe they have more competitions because they have more teenagers who square dance (chicken and egg?). I had an article that mentioned a square dance competition at Guelph University. I also found this page on a square dance competition for a Quebec Young Farmers group. The Pacific Northwest Teen event is often held in Canada.

This whole article was brought on by an article at CircleLeft by Bud Wolkins: Where Do We Go From Here on why we should introduce competition into MWSD. Although I’m not a particularly competitive person, I agree that competition might help attract more people to square dancing, although I disagree with Bud’s judging criteria: “Judging could be done on correct moves (goodbye Hungarian Swing), dancing attire, facial expression (are they having a good time?), are they dancing to the beat of the music, and dancing the correct number of beats for each move. (Anyone remember how many beats for Grand Square?)” All of these things are important, but the major difference between MWSD and other dance forms is the dancers’ ability to solve choreographic puzzles in real time, and I’d like to see that added to the judging.

Be sure to spread the word about Vic Ceder’s new Clubs database. Through the wonders of modern relational database technology (tongue slightly-in-cheek, but I actually do think it’s pretty cool), the clubs that you call for show up in your listing in Vic’s Caller database. The advantage of a database is that clubs can manage their own listing and don’t have to wait to be added by someone else. The disadvantage is that clubs or callers have to be proactive and list themselves; it’s not like the Open Directory, where there’s an active editor searching out links.

At any rate, the more clubs there are in the database, the more useful it will be. So be sure to tell the appropriate people to sign up.

We’d never see anything like this in MWSD, where hard-core, gender-based clothing is not only preferred, but required at most events.

Here’s a page from Switzerland, detailing the advantages (for men) of skirts over pants. And here’s an article about a girl who won the right to wear pants under her graduation gown (the school had a dress code that specified that girls had to wear dresses under the gown). Apparently, this is not an uncommon issue; here’s an NCLR article about a 2002 Florida case.

How about a Stamp Out Stupid Dress Codes web ring? Looks like it doesn’t exist any more, though; too bad! Also too bad many of the links at the No Tie Zone are broken.

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Here’s a good square dance club name: Stormy-Dyke-Dancers. Almost worth a trip to Germany!

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I’ve added a What’s New button on the left; it’ll list stories, dates, and comments added in the past 14 days. Let me know if you’d like the number of days to be settable or if you’d like me to use cookies to remember when you last visited so I can specifically tailor the what’s new info.

Torture is going to a square dance and being unable to dance.

Yesterday afternoon, I fell on a stupid little step in Albuquerque’s Old Town while taking Andy Finch and his wife around to see the sights and twisted my ankle. I spent the afternoon “rice-ing” it (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) and went to the first night of the Wilde Bunch’s Chase the Chile, where I enjoyed the potluck and didn’t particularly enjoy watching other people dancing while I couldn’t (the “rest” part of RICE).

So I’m not dancing…not calling…and I’m not at the workshops this afternoon. Maybe with continued icing and some ibuprofin, I can dance C2 tomorrow morning at the ACES Balloon Fiesta weekend (yet another dance event in Albuquerque that I can’t do).