Here’s a nice positive article on square dancing. Unfortunately, the link looks like one of those temporary, current edition kinds of links, and I didn’t see an archive on the site, so it may disappear next week. (Actually, there is an archive search feature, but it’s buggy; clicking on links just takes one to the current page.) Since it’s such a nice article, I may archive it here someplace so it won’t get lost in the bit bucket.

I had a great time dancing at the Southern Arizona Square, Round Dancing and Clogging Festival and Swing Thru Arizona last weekend, although I enjoyed the Southern Arizona (Tucson) event only because some friends of mine from Albuquerque also attended. Until they got there on Thursday night, I was just standing around; I didn’t see any (other) singles anywhere. Also, the format of including rounds and clogging makes for very long interludes between square dance tips. So it was kind of a relief to get up to Phoenix, where being unattached is no problem and there were only squares. Not to mention being among lots of friends.

Andy Shore brought up an interesting issue for callers as we get ready to send new dancers out into the world: how do we prepare them for the many different ways that callers word the calls. For instance, some say “heads lead right and circle to a line” while others say “heads lead right and circle up four; head gents break to a line of four” while others have other variations. Or “single file circulate” vs. “column circulate” vs. “all 8 circulate”. I guess we have to train ourselves to use different wording so the dancers will be exposed to it.