Category Archives:

10 Mar

Middle Name Pride Day

Here are two big reasons to be proud of your middle name:

First, there are plenty of John Smiths and and Mary Jones. It’s the middle name your parents gave you that makes your name unique.

Second

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, your parents chose your middle name with great care. It often was selected to honor a friend or relative. That person may have possessed certain characteristics that they want you to inherit.

You could ask people for middle names that might be used in songs; there are lots of songs that use names…one of them must be someone’s middle name!

14 Feb

Contra Calling Article

Here’s a newspaper article about contra dancing written from the point of view of contra callers: It’s all right if you’ve 2 left feet . A snippet comparing contra and square dancing:

Contradancing is similar to square dancing

, but there are a few major differences. First off, square dancing tends to use prerecorded music, while contra relies almost exclusively on live musicians. Also, contradances tend to incorporate more styles and formations, with music based on Irish jigs and reels or Scottish and French Canadian influences, Rosenberg said.

Hmmm…by more styles, do they mean “musical” styles?

Here’s the whole article, in case the link goes away:

It’s all right if you’ve 2 left feet
Caller Paul Rosenberg once dreaded hitting the floor; now he enjoins others, including kids, to learn

By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer
First published: Monday, February 13, 2006

When Paul Rosenberg was in his 20s, dancing scared him worse than almost anything else.

“I used to hide in the bathroom during weddings so I wouldn’t have to dance,” Rosenberg said.

That all changed in 1980, when Rosenberg met a girlfriend who dragged him to contradances until he finally got out on the dance floor. He soon fell in love with it.

Soon, he found himself wanting to move beyond just dancing. He had had some experience as a master of ceremonies at running races, and thought he could translate that into dance calling. Now, 25 years later, Rosenberg makes his living as a dance caller.

The Capital Region is home to a vibrant dance culture that celebrates everything from contra to swing to square dancing. And at the center of that culture is a handful of very busy callers.

Many callers, dancers and musicians will be on hand for the annual Dance Flurry, which is held in Saratoga Springs each winter and has become the most popular of Capital Region dance festivals.

The event, which runs Friday through Sunday, features a variety of dance styles and regularly draws more than 5,000 people from across the country. Dances taught include New England contra, African conga, swing, Lindy hop, salsa, tango, polka, English country, Balkan, Cajun, Zydeco, Quebecois, country western, ragtime, reggae, klezmer, rock and roll, Scandinavian, Scottish, Irish, Romanian, Israeli and hip-hop.

“It’s the prompter who teaches the dance and gets the dancers to go through it a few times

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,” said Andy Spence, founder of the Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music and Dance, which regularly holds dances in the area. “There are some singing callers who sing squares and Kentucky running sets.”

Most of the local callers started out as dancers and have been honing their craft for decades.

“I was going all the time, and eventually I got recruited to help run the dances,” said Rich Futyma, 52, who has been dancing for more than 20 years. “Then I started calling. It’s not all that hard to do it.”

Contradancing is similar to square dancing, but there are a few major differences. First off, square dancing tends to use prerecorded music, while contra relies almost exclusively on live musicians. Also, contradances tend to incorporate more styles and formations, with music based on Irish jigs and reels or Scottish and French Canadian influences, Rosenberg said.

Dances can come from a variety of sources, Futyma said. Sometimes callers write their own dances, but there also are published books of calls, and callers can pick them up from listening to each other.

The dances and songs tend to stick to a standard length so they can be interchangeable. For example, tunes usually are 32 bars of music, which are broken up into eight-beat segments.

“The music essentially tells you when to stop one movement and start another,” Futyma said. “You and your partner dance that set of figures one time through, and then do it with another couple.”

One of the main reasons Rosenberg decided to become a caller was because of what he saw as an elitism among the callers who populated most of the dances in the 1980s.

“I was noticing that the callers were all coming from out of town and they were not paying attention to the beginning dancers,” Rosenberg said. “They were calling all of these complicated dances and there were always beginners who were floundering.”

The problem of elitism among some callers and dancers still pervades, Spence said.

“If they come to the dances early, they can get some instruction. Otherwise, it’s trial by fire,” she said. “If they expect dances to survive, they have to help the new people.”

Rosenberg has taken his love of teaching dances a step further and today travels to many schools to instruct children.

“I love doing it because everybody is smiling and getting into it,” Rosenberg said. “It’s especially fun for someone like me who had so much trouble learning to dance.”

Danielle Furfaro can be reached at 454-5097 or by e-mail at dfurfaro@timesunion.com.

12 Feb

Gay Square Dancing in Florida

Check out this article on the resurgence of the South Florida Mustangs: Gay square dancing club begins lessons at Hagen Park: .

Here’s the whole article, in case the link goes dead:

Gay square dancing club begins lessons at Hagen Park

Participants try the promenade and do-si-do as gay square dancing club begins lessons at Hagen Park in Wilton Manors.

By Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted February 12 2006

Wilton ManorsTyler Black and Jack Hoppen buckled their knees and tapped their feet as they waited to hear which step they should use to start their square dancing routine.

The men met at a recent dance class hosted by the South Florida Mustangs, the oldest gay and lesbian square dancing club in the country

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, which revived its once-popular dance classes on Thursday.

Those who didn’t attend the first official class can still participate in the 20-lesson session at Hagen Park, according to the group’s treasurer, Dave Vowell.

“Square dancing is very gay-friendly,” said Vowell, who has been dancing since 1985. “We’re good dancers and we’re very energetic. It’s just all about the camaraderie.”

Black, of Hollywood, liked his first lesson, even though he admitted he’s not much of a country music fan — he prefers pop and dance music.

But Black said the novelty of gay square dancing persuaded him to give it a shot.

“I like trying new things,” he said. “I thought it would be fun.”

Wearing trendy torn jeans, a white button-down shirt and black boots, Black, 39, started the class beside Hoppen, 57, a square dancing veteran who he had never met before. Both quickly mastered about 20 steps, or calls, including the star promenade and do-si-do.

The South Florida Mustangs boasted more than 100 members in the mid-1990s but participants slowly withered to just a few and the group stopped offering lessons

, according to Bob Young, the group’s vice president.

Another club, Southern Country South Florida, has about 60 members and promotes both line and square dancing.

But despite the two groups’ popularity, Young thinks the square dancing scene is slowly fading away.

“Straight square dancing is shrinking because the people are just dying out, and the same thing is happening in gay square dancing,” Young said. “It’s just not attracting younger people.”

Still, organizers are hopeful that the Mustangs’ renewed vigor and new location, from North Miami to Wilton Manors, will attract gays and lesbians who want to learn a new dance.

“It’s something a lot of people who don’t want to go to the bars can do,” Young said.

After his first three-hour class, Black learned a few things about the dance and how he must stay focused on his steps.

“I started thinking about work and lost my step,” Black said. “It’s a lot of fun but you really have to concentrate.”

For Hoppen, who hadn’t danced in five years, the lesson was a good refresher.

“It’s like riding a bicycle,” said Hoppen, a Pompano Beach resident who joined his first square dancing group, the New York Time Square, 15 years ago. “It’s all coming back to me.”

For those who have never square danced, Hoppen likened it to a puzzle.

“When you get through a couple of calls and can make it back to home position, you’ve solved a puzzle,” Hoppen said. “It’s great.”

Classes started Thursday and continue for 20 weeks. Prices are $5 per class or $75 for the entire session. For more information on the South Florida Mustangs, call President Ken DiGenova at 305-343-1710 or visit www.soflamustangs.com.

07 Jan

A Contra Story

Here’s a nice story on contra in a cross-cultural context: CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Teens’ experiment with contra dancing offers a moral in cultural acceptance

My 2-year-old daughter loves musical instruments. In the warm months when she is downtown, she stops for every street guitarist and saxophonist, wiggles her hips to their tunes and then walks my dollar to the tip can.So it wasn’t surprising recently when she got excited at a West Asheville restaurant after a couple of musicians pulled out their instruments. She stared so intently at the guitarist tuning his instrument that I offered to take her away if she was breaking his concentration. When the violinist squatted down and offered my child the chance to pluck a string, she backed off and curled up against me, as if it were too much to contemplate touching that magical thing.

As an adult, I’ve lost a lot of my ability to be awestruck by the regular miracles of life, like musicians giving birth to melodies. But I was amazed by something else at the restaurant. Let me explain: I was there because it was the site of a Christmas party to which I had been invited. The party was for Latino teenagers, members of a Buncombe County Schools club called AIM whose goal is to help students reach their scholarly potential. The guitar and violin were there for the evening’s entertainment, which was to be a lesson in contra dancing.

As the musicians got ready, I thought to myself: This is going to be a disaster. I looked over in the corner, where the teens kept switching out tropical beats in a little boombox. These kids want to do a hip dance like salsa, meringue or cumbia, I thought, wondering how the party organizers could not know this. In Spanish, contra means “against” — and I figured these kids were going to be against something that looked like square dancing.

Oblivious to my fears, the teacher for the night, a genteel Southerner, softly announced that everyone was about to learn a new dance, that the boys should turn to a girl to be their partner, which she explained was a risk-free endeavor since the girls should then accept such a kind invitation.

But the boys grimaced a little and shuffled their feet, not showing any inclination to find a partner. I was right, I said to myself. Now, I thought, just put the instruments away, insert a compact disc from a 21st century artist in that box, and this party will survive.

But the teacher politely said, “OK, boys, get in a circle” — which they did. Then she told the girls to make a circle around the boys — which they did. Then she said, boys, turn around and look at your partner — which they did.

Then the teacher talked them through the basics: how to turn, grab hands, do-si-do and a few fancier moves. The violinist and guitarist got the melody going, which grabbed my daughter’s attention, but I was fixated on the dancers. These kids started moving and swinging and spinning. And they were pretty good.

But what was even more mesmerizing than their skill was their attitude. They were smiling and laughing when they did well and when they messed up. They were enjoying this thing. I felt like the Grinch on Christmas Day, watching Whoville residents enjoy what they had instead of whining about what had been taken away from them.

Of course the Christmas season is not about the Grinch. It’s the time we celebrate the birth and life of Jesus. As a Christian, I think his main message was to not be too wrapped up into what we look like or what group we belong to, but to love and accept others no matter who they are.

In 20 minutes, these teenagers, many of them relative newcomers here, had not only accepted but embraced a part of United States culture. In this tale there was a contra — again, the Spanish word for “against” — but it was the young people going against my expectations. They were into contra dancing. I found out later they knew the evening’s entertainment would be something different

, perhaps uncomfortable to learn, and yet they had insisted on trying it out.

Even though I’m not particularly sentimental

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, I found their enthusiasm for this new thing lovely and moving. My wish is that the entire Asheville community could see them dance. And then take the time to let them teach us non-Latinos how to do the cumbia. I think it would make a nice Christmas story.

Joseph C. Berryhill, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at UNC Asheville. He lives in Asheville.

29 Dec

It’s Healthy to Square Dance

Check out this article: It’s healthy to dance square

I’ve posted the text below (in case the article disappears into archive ozone)

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, but you should check the original article for pictures and an audio segment featuring the calling of Ed Kremers.

Article published Dec 27, 2005
It’s healthy to dance square
The ‘do-si-do’ can help keep you in shape

STOCKTON — What’s good for the mind, body and soul and takes the edge off aging? If the phrase “do-si-do” means anything, it means better health through square dancing.

When dancers sashay, shoot the star and promenade home, they lower their risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, age-related memory loss, osteoporosis and depression

, health experts say.

So if getting fit in 2006 is one of your goals, take a tip from John Winnie, 63, and grab a partner.

After a heart attack in 1996, followed by several surgical procedures, Winnie ballooned to 333 pounds. In 2003, his doctor told him to get the weight off his 5-foot-9 frame, or he’d be “dead within the year,” Winnie said.
Gym workouts bored him, so he returned to a pastime he took up as a young man — facing off in a square with seven others and wheeling around a hardwood floor.

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports recommends 10,000 steps per day to maintain physical fitness. An informal study conducted by the Toe Draggers, a square-dance group in Beaverton, Ore., estimated that a typical dancer could expect to have about 9,000 to 10,000 steps per dance.

At Winnie’s checkup in August, his progress impressed his cardiologist.

“Whatever you are doing, keep doing it, because you are doing it right,” Winnie recalled Dr. Eric Braunstein saying.

Winnie has dropped more than 120 pounds. His blood pressure and cholesterol levels are good. He has no shortness of breath.

“Square dancing is a safe way to maintain cardiovascular fitness,” said Braunstein, of Pacific Heart and Vascular, which has offices in Stockton, Lodi and Valley Springs. “It is patient-controlled, meaning the patient can be aggressive and get his heart rate up, or if he feels winded, he can slow down and catch his breath.”
There are four levels of square dancing: Mainstream, Plus and the more professional exhibition levels, A-1 and A-2. Winnie and his partner, Marcia Schnell, 53, are A-2 level dancers.

Winnie would dance seven days per week if he could. With Schnell, who started when she was 21, he already travels from Dublin to Oakdale to square dance, but he’d like to get a group going in Stockton on Sunday afternoons. He needs 32 people to join him — couples or singles — even if they have never square-danced before.

“I don’t mind helping people learn,” Winnie said. “It’s great fellowship. There’s no alcohol or drugs involved, and you meet people from all walks of life. Everybody’s welcome.”

Square dancing combines all positive aspects of intense physical exercise with none of the negative elements, according to Dr. Arron Blackburn.

“It could add 10 years to your life,” Blackburn said in a 1997 article in the United Square Dancers Association News.

On Dec. 16, the Oakdale Squares celebrated the holidays in full dress at the Grange Hall. Ladies executed the flutterwheel with a whoosh of red and green petticoats, as their gents, sporting Christmas ties, steadied them for a California twirl.
Sonora resident Lilian Graham, 75, and her husband, Jack, 77, have been dancing together for 53 years.

“I have no health problems, just a little bit of arthritis,” Lilian Graham said. “Dancing keeps me going. You hear that music, and all your aches and pains disappear.”

In 2003, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City found seniors who participated in mind-stimulating leisure activities had a lower risk of developing the brain disease dementia. Square dancing involves executing the dance moves as they are called, so the brain and body have to be tightly coordinated, said Oakdale resident Ed Kremers, who calls for the Squares.

“One of the things people don’t see is the important mental exercise going on, having to listen carefully and react,” said Kremers, 54.

Kremers has been a caller on and off since he was 14, traveling the country and witnessing the benefits of dance.

“People dance well into their 70s and 80s,” Kremers said. “They have to memorize the calls. Besides crossword puzzles, this is another option to keep their minds sharp.”

Modesto resident Isaiah Spears, graying at the temples, declined to give his age but said he’d been dancing for 10 years.

“The more you do it, the easier it becomes,” Spears said. “It should be our national dance.”

28 Dec

Higher level square dancers = vegetarians?

I think A House Divided! is a diatribe against higher level square dancers recruiting at Mainstream dances. As I understand this, higher level dancers are like vegetarians. The meat of square dancing is all the fun stuff: laughing and carrying on. Higher level dancers don’t like that kind of stuff (says who?). So higher level dancers only come to lower level dances because they’re hungry (want new dancers)

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, not because they actually enjoy the (meaty) dancing. A quote:

Are you going to tell me that any upper level Caller or Dancer is not going to advertise his Upper Level class at every lower level dance he goes to?

Ummmm….yeah, most “upper level” dancers I know don’t advertise classes at every (or even any) lower level dance attended.

Seems like many square dancers want to blame square dancing’s current ills on the existence of square dancing levels. If only there were no levels, we’d all be one big happy square dancing family, and square dancing would be as popular now as it was back in the [decade of choice when square dancing was popular]. Maybe…or maybe the higher level dancers would have moved on to some other activity that gives them the challenge they seek.

I think one of square dancing’s current problems is that it’s too hard to start. Mainstream is too big a chunk for an entry level. But does the mere existence of additional levels of dancing discourage people from starting? Does the fact that there is competitive ballroom dancing discourage people from starting to dance? Does a beginning line dancer quit because there are a jillion line dances and she only knows one? Maybe I’m weird, but I like room to grow. I like square dancing because I can find as much complexity as I want…no more, no less.

15 Dec

Are Callers Bossy?

Every once in a while, square dancing gets mentioned in the comics. Back in 1992, Scott Adams had Dogbert as a square dance caller in the Dilbert comic strip::

Swing your partner, dosey-do, now clap your hands… uh-oh, that’s all the square dance moves I know… I’ll bluff the rest. Slap your partner in the face

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, Write bad checks all over the place, Flirt with strangers, annoy your spouse, Get a divorce and lose your house, …uh… dosey-do.

This weekend, the Brevity strip commented on the bossiness of square dance callers here. The strip shows a caller (with live music!) saying “Swing your partner round and round, now do-si-do…” and a dancer commenting “Man this guy’s bossy.”

I guess callers are sort of bossy control freaks, but I’ve always seen it as a consensual relationship: after all, the dancers are paying us to boss them around. The goal is to give the dancers pleasure. (Several years ago, a couple of callers (the initials of their last names were S&M) published a caller note service called Top To Bottom. I was told the allusion was deliberate.)

08 Dec

Old Time Squares

Stig Malmo, a caller in Denmark, writes:

Do you remember callers like: Floyd woodhull, Ed Durlacher, Fenton”Jonesy”Jones, Joe Lewis, Les Gotcher, Ed Gilmore …I have an extensive collection of older square dance records. In the past 8 years I have been working hard to get an even better and more complete collection. All the records are the original soundtracks from the old 78 rpm records.

These look like some real classics. Stig has put snippets of some of the recordings on his website

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, but if you’re interested in the full recordings, you’ll need to email him. The website: Square Dance Oldies.