SquareZ

I came across this quote in a blog:

It was a swing rhuetta workshop – like square dancing, but with swing dancing, and in a circle.

(Here’s the cite, but you won’t be able to access it because it’s protected. Apparently protected sites come through just fine in the LiveJournal RSS feed.)

Swing rhuetta? Never heard of it. Off to Google. Nothing. Did I mean “swing rhetta”? Nothing relevant. Let’s try it without the “h”. “Swing ruetta” Google helpfully asks if I mean “swing rueda”. Bingo!

Rueda is danced in a circle with two or more couples. There is a dancer who calls the moves which the entire circle executes in unison. Some moves require partner changes and that’s when the fun begins.

Check out Swing Rueda – Circling the Globe! There’s a list of moves here, which include the Sushi Roll, Amoeba, and Treble Clef.

Swing rueda is based on Salsa Rueda or Rueda de Casino Interesting quote:

Although the names of the calls are presently the same across the board, the different towns in Cuba used their own calls. This was due to the fact that when the pioneers of Rueda de Casino started, they wanted to keep others from participating in their Ruedas. Nowadays many local variations of the calls can be found. They can change from town to town or even from teacher to teacher. For example, if you learn rueda in London you won’t normally be able to dance it with people who learnt with a different teacher. Furthermore, when a teacher runs out of calls but wants his class to keep going and make money, he often makes up new calls. This goes to detriment of the fun of dancing rueda with people you just met, but makes for an expanding world of rueda.

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Here’s an article from Stars & Stripes about square dancing in Europe: In Europe, it’s hip to be square. Check the website for pictures and links to contacts to find out more about square dancing in Europe, but here’s the text in case the article cycles off the web:

The state of square dancing in Europe these days is somewhat baffling, not unlike a caller with a stutter and a Cajun drawl.One might assume that since Americans turned the Continent on to square dancing after World War II, interest in U.S. military communities would be high, as it was a couple of generations ago. And if anyone lost interest, the assumption goes, it would be the student, not the teacher.

But while some Americans still enjoy swinging a partner round and round, square dancing doesn’t draw servicemembers as it used to.

Instead, it’s the student — the Europeans — that has taken to half sashays and rollaways.

There are hundreds of square dancing clubs on the Continent. The United Kingdom, for example, has more than 200. Germany double that. And more clubs are springing up every year, particularly in Eastern Europe, which, according to aficionados, is quite fertile ground right now.

“It’s fun, the people, the clothes, the atmosphere,” 40-year-old Karl-Heinz Schuchmann said last month during a dance in Frankfurt, Germany.

It would be misleading to claim this emblematic import from America is growing by leaps and bounds in Europe. But the fact is, despite the need for younger members, square dancing — and its close cousin, round dancing — remains a popular pastime for many Europeans.

The same can’t be said for Americans living in Europe.

“When I started” 14 years ago, Schuchmann said, “there were more Americans, but they went home.”

“It used to be different,” acknowledged Kenny Reese, a former U.S. servicemember who coaches square dance callers, mostly in Europe.

“When I started calling here 20 years ago, we actually danced on the caserns.”

Decades ago, hundreds of enthusiasts — from generals to privates — crowded into clubs to swing the night away. Women would come all dolled up in frilly blouses and prairie skirts or petticoats, while the men wore Western-style clothing, from cowboy boots to bolo ties.

According to Reese, Heidelberg, Germany, was the hub of square dancing in Europe, though by no means was it the only place.

From London to Paris, Vicenza to Bremerhaven, square dancing was quite the rage starting in the mid-1950s after Americans introduced it. In a sense, you could say it was a reintroduction, since the origins of square dancing are rooted in Europe, particularly in 17th-century England and France.

American immigrants gave it their own spin, but many of the dances more or less held true to their origins as folks moved West. The most significant contribution by the United States was the introduction of a caller, the person who cues the dancers to transition from one sequence of steps to another.

For generations, square dancing kept to its rural roots. Industrialist Henry Ford helped popularize it in the 1920s, but it didn’t gain a foothold until Lloyd “Pappy” Shaw wrote “Cowboy Dances” on the eve of World War II.

After the war, square dancing grew in popularity in the United States. Servicemembers based in Europe founded clubs and turned their hosts onto it, and by 1955 the European Association of American Square Dancing Clubs was founded. The EAASDC celebrated its 50th anniversary in September.

“In the States, it needs to be rejuvenated, from what we hear, but over here it is growing,” said John Sanderlin, founder of the Texas-Armadillos in Heidelberg. “It’s one of the largest organizations of its kind in Europe.”

There are an estimated 9,000 clubs worldwide, from Norway to New Zealand. There are already three clubs in Russia and more than 300 in Japan.

Square dancing requires at least four couples, though there is typically more than one, four-couple square of dancers on the floor. The dance itself is based largely on the steps of traditional folk dances, such as the Morris, English Country, Contra and Quadrille, a French word that means foursome.

Some square dancing events, especially larger ones in Europe that draw participants far and wide, can span three days. Reese said a dancer attending one of these events could cover a distance of 20 miles by the time it’s over just by dancing.

“A lot of people don’t realize the fitness aspect to it

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,” he said.

Square dancing also requires concentration, which is why no alcohol consumption is allowed until after the petticoats stop twirling.

“It’s very good for the mind,” said Christiane De Keyser, a 56-year-old Belgian who, along with her husband and another couple, drove nearly 300 miles to attend the dance in Frankfurt last month.

“When you drink, your mind is not so clear,” she said. “The other people in the square are relying on you.”

Despite the prohibition, the socializing that goes on is one of the draws. In the decades following World War II, square dancing was a way for soldiers to get acquainted with the locals.

But over time, U.S. participation waned. Because servicemembers rotate assignments every few years, it was the locals who provided the continuity, Sanderlin said.

Groups such as Beaux & Belles (Frankfurt), Kuntry Kuzins (Wiesbaden), Heidelberg Hoedowners and Mannheim Mixers still exist, but very few Americans, if any, are members. Long gone are clubs like the Paris Squares, SHAPE Shuffling Squares and North Sea Hoe Downers.

A check of several U.S. installations in Germany found not one that serves as a base for an organized club.

People like Reese and Sanderlin are willing to help people, couples or communities get started. While there is some interest, Reese admits, things aren’t swinging like they used to.

“We’re not dying,” Reese said, “but it used to be different here.”

Sigh. First, it was comment spam (or Link spam, which actually affects this website. Since I wrote my own blogging software, I don’t have comment moderation (who’da thunk that spammers would run around manually entering spam comments into various special-purpose blogs); as a result

, I get a few spammy comments a week (which I promptly delete).

Now, it’s Splogs: a fake blog which exists solely for the purpose of building up page ranks for spammer sites. The splogs usually grab random content from other sources. How does this affect me? As I wrote about last year (Square Dancing in Weblogs), I set up a PubSub subscription to monitor mentions of square and contra dancing. Now, my subscription is basically spamming me with repeated articles. Once one splog gets some piece that happens to mention square dancing, more of them grab the piece. So I get tons of references to the same article, making the subscription much less useful.

Most recently, an article that I blogged several months ago (Square Dancing and Meditation) has been picked up. Maybe that’s a good thing. The original article was kind of interesting; maybe some people will be turned on to square dancing through seeing it in all these fake blogs.

It’s Fall…which means square dance classes are starting around the country, which means that newspapers are sometimes convinced to publish articles like this: The Craig Daily Press: Dancing the night away.

In case it goes away, here’s the whole thing:

Dancing the night away˜Never a dull moment’ at weekly Greenridge Mountaineers Square Dance Club

By Michelle Perry, Daily Press Writer

Friday, October 7, 2005

HAYDEN — Men suited in boots and stiff-collared shirts do-si-do their partners then promenade them back home. Women twirl in brightly colored skirts as they look for the next forearm to left grand. Everyone is smiling.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said W.G. Pankey of Craig. “There’s never a dull moment.”

He has been square dancing for 16 years, and now meets with the Greenridge Mountaineers Square Dance Club every Friday at the Hayden Congregational Church.

“I’m still trying to learn,” he said.

He has a good teacher. Jim Kline of Rawlins, Wyo., drives down to call the dance. It’s one of his four gigs every week. The other three are throughout Wyoming.

“Look at these friendly people I get to spend my time with,” he said during the Sept. 30 dance. “It’s well-worth my time.”

He is a patient yet energetic caller, talking beginners through basic steps and challenging the experts.

He describes square dancing as “friendship set to music,” and says the best part of his job is the people he meets. But sometimes the camaraderie gets in the way.

“We get to socializing so much we forget to listen,” longtime dancer Lois Norman said.

The music keeps the dances lively, too. Kline comes armed with books full of mini discs, each holding more than 40 songs, in a range of genres and decades.

“I like the variety,” Jan Sherman of Craig said. “You go from country to rock and roll to classical.”

That’s one of the perks. Square dancing is for everyone, anywhere, said Cathy Vorhees of Yampa.

“Square dancing is universal,” she said. “If you can dance in New York, you can square dance here.”

And square dancing is good exercise, Kline said.

“It builds your heart, it builds your mind, it builds your bones,” he said.

He cited a Mayo Clinic study that shows square dancing adds 10 years to one’s life, as well as decreases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.

But health benefits are not what the dancers are focused on. As the ladies make stars and circle the middle and the men swing their partners by the arms, everyone just appears to be having a ball.

“Even if we mess up, we have a good time,” Kline’s wife, Kathie, said.

That doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the mood is maybe even more lighthearted.

“That’s all it amounts to,” Pankey said. “Whenever someone fouls up, everybody just laughs about it anyway.”

Things have changed during the years. Errors are more common now as dancers push themselves to try new steps.

“When I was a kid, they had old country square dancing, but they’ve added so much to it by now,” she said.

Norman started out with the Boots and Bows Club in Craig in the 1970s, but the group disbanded in 1990. Boots and Bows merged with the Greenridge dancers in 1997, and now, the combined group is going strong every Friday night except during the summer.

Vorhees remembers a time when square dancing was so popular Craig had three clubs.

“There were groups up and down the whole I-70 corridor

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,” she said. “There were just a lot of people doing it, but things kind of fell apart.”

Most of the square dance demographic is a bit older now, but Greenridge members are aimed at attracting young people to the hobby.

“Square dancing has a stigma attached to it,” Sherman said, “so it’s hard to get people to come out. But once they do, they love it.”

That’s true for newcomers Debra Reglin and Gaye Schnackenberg of Craig. They square danced Sept. 30 for the first time since middle school. They were out of breath and smiling at the end of the night.

“They kind of tug you along with them,” Reglin said of the angels, or expert dancers who lead beginners, forcefully yet kindly, by the hand.

“I never thought this could be so much fun.”

For more information about square dancing, call Norman at 824-6773 or visit www.dosado.com.

I have a hard time imagining someone being so afraid of square dancing that she not only won’t do it herself, but also won’t let her 8-year-old son participate. But here it is:

You see…wow, this is sort of embarrassing, but I have a totally irrational fear of square dancing. I don’t think I could ever adequately explain that to E, which is why I told him it was strictly a transportation and timing issue. I’m also afraid of heights and spiders, but there are names for that. I don’t think squareophobia is in the dictionary. I’m also pretty sure I won’t find any sort of 12-step program to help me deal with my irrational fear.

For the rest, see naturalnitrate’s weblog

Her phobia (and others, judging from the comments) is based on embarrassment and having to dance with someone totally yucky:

Square dancing was the worst. During one spinning partner exchange, I steeled myself to grab Sweaty Eddie’s hand, reached out, and that was the end. Sweaty Eddie’s hand was so sweaty that my hand slipped right out and I ended up flat on my face on the gym floor in front of 2 PE classes. Thus began my deep hatred and fear of square dancing.

From a comment:

As an Army brat, like so many times before, I was the “new kid” in a small school in a small town. Thus everyone else thought it was a hoot to refrain from choosing me as a partner so that the one boy who had a crush on me could pick me. I call him the Nose Picker.

Believe it or not, square dancing has seen a recent urban revival among 20- and 30-somethings.

When I saw this quote, I was hoping for an article about square dancing’s urban revival. I’ve heard a little bit about traditional square dancing gaining some interest in Portland and San Francisco, but nothing about MWSD experiencing anything of the kind.

This was the opener for Square Affair rounds up lovers of the do-si-do in the Santa Maria Times. However, the article was about the annual “Square Affair” in Santa Maria. Sounded like fun, but the bottom line?

Older dancers love the dance for the socializing and exercise, but wish local young people would follow their urban counterparts’ lead and give the dance a whirl.

“Square dancing is gentrifying and we want to get young people involved because we don’t want it to see it go the way of the dodo bird,” said Jim Davis, who traveled from San Jose for the Square Affair.

Here’s the whole article, in case the newspaper article is no longer accessible on line:

Square Affair rounds up lovers of the do-si-do
By Mark Baylis Staff Writer
Believe it or not

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, square dancing has seen a recent urban revival among 20- and 30-somethings.

In cities such as Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and elsewhere, generations that have tired of the bar and club scene have taken a liking to the dance’s twangy rhythms, social atmosphere, kitsch and novelty factor.

The Central Coast Square Dance Association is pining for that same trend to occur here.

“Unless you have the young folk, it’s going to die,” said Lompoc resident Evelyn Baxter, who started dancing 16 years ago.

Younger generations don’t know what they’re missing, according to the approximately 225 attendees who danced their feet into a formation of blisters this weekend at the association’s Square Affair in Santa Maria.

The 42nd annual event attracted more than 100 out-of-towners from the around the Central Coast and California for three days of spinning, stomping and doing the do-si-do at the Veterans Memorial Cultural Center.

Women in colorful, ruffled dresses spun and twisted while men in boots, slacks and string ties stomped and clapped to traditional favorites and a few surprisingly modern numbers. Some danced non-stop Friday night and all-day Saturday, while others took quick breathers and jumped back in.

“You say, ‘I just can’t dance one more dance,’ and the music is going and you’re up again,” said Joanne Thompson of Santa Maria.

Festivals are held on a near-monthly basis up and down the state in addition to regular dances not sponsored by associations, such as those regularly scheduled in Cayucos and Solvang. It’s a small circuit and regulars commonly run into each other at the various events, making square dancing comrades out of cross-state strangers.

Some dancers follow particular callers, making sure they attend their events like a nightclub hound might follow a particular disc jockey. Callers work entire gigs and serve as live choreographers mixing song lyrics with directions to dancers in a dialect incomprehensible to anyone but an experienced dancer.

“You have to pay attention to the caller or you lose it,” said Joyce Tyger, president of the Central Coast Square Dance Association. “It keeps you sharp and helps you keep alert so you don’t stagnate.”

Older dancers love the dance for the socializing and exercise, but wish local young people would follow their urban counterparts’ lead and give the dance a whirl.

“Square dancing is gentrifying and we want to get young people involved because we don’t want it to see it go the way of the dodo bird,” said Jim Davis, who traveled from San Jose for the Square Affair.

Several thousand used to attend the annual Square Affair, according to event chairman Bert Berringer of Arroyo Grande. The decline isn’t just a local phenomenon. Attendance at other events like the National Square Dance Convention has also dropped in the last two decades.

From 1971 to 1991 the National Convention’s attendance averaged between 20,000 and 30,000 people, according display set up at the Santa Maria gathering. Now the festival averages around 10,000. In 1976, about 40,000 turned out for the event in Anaheim. Just 13,000 showed up at the same location in 2001.

The local chapter is looking for new dancers at its upcoming class at the Santa Maria YMCA, which runs at least 12 weeks and possibly longer. The two-hour, weekly class begins at 7 p.m. Thursday and is open for public enrollment for the first three weeks with the first class offered for free. Those interested can call Joanne Thompson at 937-1933 or Joyce Tyger at 922-6450.

A young person goes square dancing:

Before I went, I was warned by a colleague at work. “Why are you going to square dancing?” he asked. “Most of the men there will be wearing a string tie and have no teeth!” I scoffed at this description, reminding him that golfing used to be a game played only by senior citizens, but is now enjoyed by people of all ages.

So, I was quite surprised when I entered the gymnasium at the Ledyard Middle School to find myself in a sea of octogenarians. Yes, there were string ties and cowboy hats as far as the eye could see.

For the rest, see Square Dancing Update Another quote:

As “Pennies from Heaven” played on the Victrola, something crunched underfoot. Was that a fellow dancer’s hearing aid?

Bottom Line: She won’t be back

, but she hopes “I am that spry and active when I reach my golden years.”

SQDANZ: I heart square dancing…

PL8S.ORG: SQDANZ – ON

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From an interview with an anthropology professor who went undercover as a student at her university:

What does “community” mean to the students you talked to?

I saw a much more individualized version of community. For most people who said

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, “I’ve got community here,” it was the five people they hang out with. And that really becomes their university.

You can see that in the kinds of housing that students are attracted to. The old dorms are built according to the “big community” idea, with huge lobbies furnished with big overstuffed chairs, three TVs in giant rooms. But nobody is using them! People are going to an off-campus apartment to visit friends, or they’re all congregating in one person’s room. At my university we have one dorm with a waiting list, and of course this dorm has big suites, four rooms with a living room, washer and dryer, bathroom. It’s like an apartment with everything there. Students only ever have to interact with three or four other people.

I talk about the time my dorm had a big Super Bowl party and only a handful of people attended. Everybody else was sitting alone or with one or two other friends in their own rooms, watching the game.

This bodes ill for community/group dancing…unless there’s a backlash as these kids get older and decide maybe a larger community is a good thing.