March 8, 2005 - I Can Do This
Dancing with the Ruffles 'n Beaus is very stressful. Before each tip I take a deep breath, cross my fingers, and try to psyche myself up ("Focus, focus, I can do this.") I swear I think Pat is trying to scare us off. He is calling faster and harder each week. I think he sees us and thinks, "They're back again? Well, I'll get them this week." So he calls faster and faster with choreography from every weird position possible. I asked some of the club members, "Is it my imagination, or is he calling especially fast tonight?" They all responded "Wow, yeah."
They are a fun group but I just have a hard time relaxing and enjoying the dance. I find myself looking at the clock thinking, "Maybe we could leave early." But then I think, "NO. I WON'T let them win!" ("I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.")

March 7, 2005 - Busy Weekend
This weekend was a frenzy of dance. We went to the Wrangler dance on Friday and the Sundowner's Anniversary Dance on Saturday. On Sunday we went to Peter's caller practice dance (Scrambling Squares) in the afternoon and then to the Ruffles 'n Beaus (both class and club) in the evening. Oh, sore feet!

February 27, 2005 - New Square Dance Blog
I came across a new square dance blog written by a caller in Hawaii, which I found interesting. I especially liked his entry on Plus dancing.

From The Ewa Ready Square Dance Club Journal
Plus Square Dancing!
"You find fewer and fewer places that you can dance Mainstream in Square Dancing anymore. People go straight to Plus and never really learn Mainstream. Many of the Plus moves are longer calls than the Mainstream calls meaning 28 beat moves instead of 4 or 8 so if a 28 beat movement is called you can turn off the brain for 26 beats instead of processing 8 more calls. Many Plus dancers if you give them another 28 beat movement at beat 24 instead of 26 they will skip the last two beats of the last call and start from the wrong position or if you give them a call at beat 26 they have been standing for 2 beats because they did the 28 beat movement in 24. Either way it becomes Puzzling instead of Dancing and the whole feeling of dancing is lost. While I use Plus Movements I have never called for a Plus Club. One night a caller, called me up and asked me to cover his dance because he was sick. On the hour and a half drive to the Club I came up with the idea that I would only use the Mainstream Calls I had to, to get them between Plus Moves. So out of the 98 or so (depending on how you count them) Mainstream moves I only used between 20 and 30. So at my next dance I asked one of the Club members who was out at the Plus dance if they enjoyed the dance and they said they did. So a Plus Club can really have fun without about 60 movements of the Mainstream Dance. This brings me to the logical conclusion that Plus should be taught before Mainstream instead of after. The new dancers would be taught the longer movements that can be cued and Mainstream dancing would be for those people who can stack 2 or 3 calls and get their minds turned inside out. Of course you can try to tell me it won't work, but I've done it for years. I have always said there is no such thing as a hard movement only ones you don't know. If you danced 20 some years ago a caller didn't call to get people through a puzzle he called to push them to the limit. You left the dance dripping wet and your mind buzzing. That takes good dancers. We used to run to get into a square and the saving places they get by with now was looked down on. So lets put Plus in it's proper place and leave the Mainstream to the better dancers. Maybe then people wouldn't need A or Challenge because a good Mainstream dance is a Challenge!" - Written by ewareadysqdance
The Ewa Ready Square Dance Club dances every thursday night at the Ewa Beach Community Park, Hawaii.
Norman Hangman is their caller.

February 26, 2005 - Square Dance Poem

February 25, 2005 - Pat Carnathan
The caller for the Ruffles 'n Beaus is Pat Carnathan. Pat has a reputation of being rather arrogant and I've even heard people say he can be "mean" to the dancers, but, to be fair, we haven't seen that. He does joke and tease dancers as he is calling, but it appears to be directed to people he knows. I think it is just part of his quirky sense of humor. He is certainly talented and self-confident, and he has a nice singing voice. And, though his regular clubs are high level, when he calls for other clubs, he calls at floor level. We enjoy dancing to him.

From Pat's website;
"Pat began square dancing in 1977 with his parents. In June of 1980 the club he danced with had an Amateur Callers' Night and though he was scared to death he was clearly hooked. His first professional dance came in September of 1981 and he picked up a regular gig in January of 1982.
Pat's been calling and teaching for the Ruffles 'n Beaus of San Diego for twenty years, calling and teaching for the Finest City Squares for four years, and calling a growing high-level A2 dance on Mondays. He loves calling and singing to modern music. His goals include increasing the number of younger dancers by erasing old stereotypes and showing people that square dancing has modernized and is an entertaining pastime."

In addition to calling, Pat is a gifted pianist, arranging music for Shakedown Records, and also a gifted singer and composer, recording original songs under the name Patrick Neal.

February 24, 2005 - DBD
We first started dancing before Callerlab existed and there was no such thing as DBD (Dance-by-Definition) and All-Position dancing. This is the major difference we've seen in square dancing now that we've started dancing again. So, to learn DBD, we've started dancing with the Ruffles 'n Beaus, the self-proclaimed "highest-level Plus club in Southern California, bar none." I don't know if that's true. They are very good dancers, but we've met a lot of good dancers from around California at dance festivals, like the Fiesta and the Jamboree. As I see it, their claim to superiority is basically a knowledge of DBD dancing and that's simply learned. They don't dance with any more style or flair than anyone else.

I miss the frills of the square dancing we used to do. Without the "dancey" moves; the spins, the extra twirls, the swinging, it's just walking in formation. In fact, All-Position dancing has helped to eliminate a lot of the flair. A call like "curlique" where the girl was turned under the man's arm has become "touch a quarter" which works better for All-Position dancing, and is not gender specific, but is also not as stylish looking, either.

We were warned that the Ruffles 'n Beaus don't like visiters and that they try to intimidate and scare them away. They have a reputation of being arrogant and judgemental, a reputation they seem to take pride in, as a matter of fact. I've heard R&B members and even their caller openly criticize other clubs and dancers. One gets the impression that it's kind of their private joke that they are the only good dancers in the city. They think they are the future of dancing. They do have more young dancers and their classes move faster than others, but I don't know that their snobbish attitude is going to be a benefit to square dancing.

But we are not easily intimidated, we are pretty good dancers, and we have a few friends in the club, so we figure we can do alright. And I'd like to learn DBD.

February 17, 2005 - Round Dance
So after a month and a half of round dance classes, we now know one rumba. I can't believe how slowly everything is taught. There's only six couples in the class and it still takes 20-30 minutes to teach one step. Bill, telling the class how well we are doing said, "It takes some classes three months to learn this." I said to Lloyd, "Oh my gosh, I'm glad we're not in that class, It'd be years before we could actually dance!." Patty, standing next to me, heard, and started laughing.

February 8, 2005 - Tim Crawford
Now I have a new favorite caller, Tim Crawford. His bio says that he started dancing at age eight with a teen club in Canada. When he was nine years old he took part in an amateur calling night at the club, and a year later, at age ten, he began calling for the club! After thirty years of calling, he says he still loves it, and you can tell. He is so much fun to dance to. He's a "clown" and his calling is very silly, fun, and imaginative. At one point during a tip, he called "bue box." The squares all stopped completely. You could just see everyone thinking "what?" Then he says, "You don't have recycling here?" (Oh. Recycle) He also called "Playboy Magazine," (Centers Fold). He had several other clever calls, but unfortunately, now I can't remember them.

Tim Writes on his website;
"My hope at each dance is that both the dancers and myself enjoy each others company. To have at least one good belly laugh at each event. It’s about the dance experience for me. . .Choreo tends to come second to simply having a great time!!!

I eagerly look forward to each dance. Each one has it’s own memories for me.
Memories like. . .
Being wrapped in Toilet paper while calling, Having ping pong balls pitched at me, Being thrown in water, Calling after inhaling a little helium, Calling to 125 squares on one floor, My first trip to Europe, The laughter and smiles from dancers, Catching the wrong flight home, and ending in Montreal, Falling off the stage because I was acting like a fool, My MC job at the Callerlab Convention, Missing Callerlab because my son Colin was born, Mostly, Meeting and shaking the hands of my calling Idols.
I can’t wait to call!!!!!"

Tim Crawford is currently the Chairman of the Executive Board of Callerlab and calls up to level C-2.

February 7, 2005 - Jamboree by the Sea
"Square Dancers Promenade at Fairgrounds" - UNION-TRIBUNE - February 6, 2005
"600 Participate in Annual Jamboree by the Sea Festival"

This weekend we went to the Jamboree by the Sea, and annual event hosted by the Palomar Square Dance Association. All the callers, Tim Crawford, Jerry Jestin, Rod Shuping, and Steve Woodard were excellent, but we especially enjoyed dancing to Tim Crawford from Toronto, Canada. Not only is he a very skillful caller but also very funny. He clowns around and has fun with his calling and the dancers have fun dancing to him.

The festival started Friday night with an hour long "Round Dance Party," then three hours of Square Dancing held in three separate rooms; one for Mainstream, Plus, and Advanced dancing, plus another for Round Dancing.
The Saturday activities went all day, including a fashion show and a seminar. We arrived in the afternoon, which gave us about an hour of dancing before the dinner break. After dinner there was an exhibition by the Heritage Dancers, the Grand March, and then three hours of dancing, followed by more dancing at an open mike After-Party.
Sunday began with an "Hour of Madness" with three callers sharing the mike for a non=stop hour of dancing with no breaks or rounds. Then two more hours of dancing to finish up the festival.

These festivals are so much fun. There is just an added enthusiasm throughout the hall when there are so many squares dancing together. It is also fun to meet new people from different clubs and see some of the different styling touches they add.
We met a couple of very good dancers from The Rustlers, a Garden Grove club. Their club dances just once a month, but they have two guest callers at each dance, and they say they have 15 to 20 squares on a regular basis. Maybe some day we can visit The Rustlers and dance with them. Garden Grove isn't that far away.