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February 25, 2006 - Ow
As I twirled under his arm, I felt a tug at my hair. "Yee-OW," I squealed, (not to be confused with "yee-haw"), as I looked up to see a clump of my hair dangling from his watchband.
February 20, 2006 - SD Guru
I came across this entry in a blog:
"I am still dancing!!! Ballet class twice a week and ... I have started taking flamenco. Classes at my flamenco studio are taught by an instructor from Sevilla. Where they take flamenco VERY seriously. So twice a week in ballet I get yelled at in French and twice a week in flamenco I get yelled at in Spanish. But I LOVE it! What I do NOT love is SQUARE dancing."
And this is the part I like --
"Why in the world would anyone want to do square dancing when they could be doing ballet or flamenco instead?"
Why indeed? It is hard to understand.
"Lloyd, why don't we stop square dancing and take up ballet or flamenco instead?"
"Ballet? or flamenco? And I thought square dancing had a long learning curve."
She goes on to say -
"In the last couple of months I have had to learn, and teach kids to do, an excessive number of advanced square dance steps. I am like this square dance guru now and yet it is so embarrassing to be able to own up to something like that!"
Yeah, I know what she means. I'd certainly be hesitant to say I'm a square dance guru, too.
("Excessive number of advanced square dance steps")?
February 7, 2006 - Sashayed
Squareing up, I looked around and saw that the other three couples in the square were all sashayed.
"I'm feeling a little out of place in this square," I said.
"Well, then this is the perfect time for you to try it," Helen said.
I wasn't so sure. I can dance lead in the class because it's easy calling, but Pat calls pretty hard choreo. But they all said yes, yes, yes, we should try, so we did. I actually think Pat was going kind of easy on us, just to be nice, but even though. . . I was doing okay, dancing along, until we ended a sequence in lines and I heard Pat say, "and we're all facing. . . IN" (except me,) and later in the tip, "and you should be facing. . . OUT" (except me,) and yet a third time! -- "Why am I always facing the wrong direction?" I said. "It's the slide through," Bob said.
Aha! It's the slide through. That is a tricky one.
January 31, 2006 - Press Release
Apparently square dancing will play a part in the plot of this week's episode of the sit-com "Still Standing." I have never seen this show and know nothing about it, but hopefully it will portray square dancing in a good light.
The following information was sent out by Callerlab.
WHAT: Still Standing (EPISODE: "Still Flunking")
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 2006
TIME: 8:00pm (7:00pm Central)
TELEVISION NETWORK: CBS
The upcoming episode of Still Standing, entitled "Still Flunking," is schedule to air this coming Wednesday, February 1, at 8:00pm (7:00pm Central) on CBS. Square dancing plays a prominent role in the episode (starting on page 25 of the script, and continuing almost to the end on page 40).
The good news is that the character played by Sally Struthers (All in the Family) is an avid square dancer. ". . . I told you, I'm a member of a senior square dancing group. It's a fabulous workout . . "
The otherwise-characterized news is . . . well . . . watch the episode and see.
If you do tune in, be sure to watch all the way through to the end. There were four takes of the scene where Louise (Sally Struthers) is teaching Brian (Taylor Ball) to square dance. In the first two, Sally flubbed a line (in the exact same place) --- bringing production to a screeching halt.
I'm told the tag CBS intends to air is a blooper of this scene (although this could change, and the tag might even be dumped altogether as a last minute network scheduling decision).
Writer: Adam F. Goldberg, Director: Joel Murray
Show Stars: Mark Addy (Bill Miller), Jennifer Irwin (Linda Michaels), Jami Gertz (Judy Miller), Soleil Borda (Tina Miller), Renee Olstead (Lauren Miller), Taylor Ball (Brian Miller)
Guest Stars: Sally Struthers (Louise Miller) , J.C. Crimp (Reuben), Kellie Young (Elisa), Terri Cavanaugh (Square Dance Teacher), Tom Wilson (Coach Stone), David Wachs (Arnie), Victor Rojas (Dexter)
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January 30, 2006 - Contra Dance
For about a year now a friend has been trying to get us to try contra dancing.
"You should try contra dancing."
"Yeah, maybe we'll try it someday."
"It's a lot of fun."
"Yeah, Maybe we'll try it someday."
"You'll like contra dancing"
"Yeah, Maybe we'll try it someday."
It got to be kind of a running joke. We were not enthusiastic.
But, Saturday we went contra dancing.
And, it was a lot of fun! We did like it! And we are planning to go back again.
Contra is sort of like square dancing, but not really. It uses some of the same moves and like square dance, involves interacting with all the dancers in the "line." It also has a caller (or maybe cuer is more acurate), since the dances are a set choreography. But contra has a whole different look and feel to it. It's more traditional and "old country." Part of that may be attributed to the fiddle music. Traditionally contra dances always have a live band playing, which of course, is always fun.
Unlike square dance, contra does not require a year of lessons. In fact we had just a quick, half hour run-through of the basics and were ready to go. The dances are simple enough that you can concentrate on the music and the fun of the movement and dance itself. Though quite repetitious, they are fast and lively, and in the group we were dancing with, involved lots of swinging. Because they are so active, they do not get boring and you just learn as you go. It was a lot of fun and also a pretty good aerobic workout. It's actually pretty amazing how much you can do with just one quick lesson. All of the dancers were smiling and laughing and appeared to be having a good time.
Maybe we should have tried it sooner.
Also -- Happy Birthday Peter!
I only mention it because I know you hate them.
I, on the other hand, have always considered a birthday to be the most important holiday of the year. I celebrate mine for the entire month.
January 20, 2006 - Neighbors
A friend was distressed because her neighbor, whom she'd never met before, complained he was being bothered by her dogs barking while she is at work. "My dogs do not bark." she said. She then told me this neighbor lives alone, doesn't go anywhere, and just watches T.V. all day. "I think he needs to get a life," she said. So she has come up with the perfect solution to the problem, (one I"m sure I would never have thought of.) She is going to go over and invite him to start the new square dance class. "He needs to get a life," she repeated. Now, I admit I've had some run-ins with my neighbors, but I've never considered inviting them to a square dance as a way to settle our disputes. What a nice idea. I suspect her visit will be a real surprise to him.
January 17, 2006 - Stop and Go
There seems to be a new trend for callers to continually stop the music while calling. I've danced to several callers who were doing this. They repeatedly turn the music off, or way down, as they give a call, then up again as the dancers move. I find this extremely distracting. It creates an uneven stop and go pattern as the dancers stop, listen for instruction, walk to their positions, then stop again to wait for the next call. The music is almost incidental to the procedure and the rhythm and flow of the dance (if you can even call it dance anymore) is completely destroyed.
Perhaps square dancing will eventually evolve to a point where music isn't even needed at all. The caller will just call out the moves and the dancers(?) will find their positions with as little movement as possible, like living chess pieces moving on a grid. We could call it Square Drill or Pattern Pacing, or maybe Puzzle Plodding. Already the emphasis of square dancing is on pattern formation rather than flair. I think it's the enginering influence.
January 16, 2006 - Weekend Dances
Great dance on Friday. The one on Saturday, not so great. Granted, Finest City doesn't do rounds, but with alternating Beginning, Plus, A-1, A-2, and Challenge tips, we were standing around even more than usual. And though everyone was raving about the caller, I didn't particularly like his style.
January 1, 2006 - New Year's Eve Bash
We spent New Year's Eve ringing in the new year with the
Rustler's Square Dance Club in Garden Grove at their "New Year's Eve Bash" dance where Pat Carnathan was calling along with Tim Pepper and David Mee. Quite a few Ruffles 'n Beaus attended, following Pat to the dance. The evening started with an Italian dinner of lasagna and spaghetti at 7:00 and square dancing starting at 8:00.
The Rustlers dance a fast pace Plus Level, and with the three callers calling "tag team" style for all of the tips, it was a very lively and fun dance, with a lot of joking and bantering between the callers and the dancers.
They had about twenty squares dancing. There were also rounds, some line dancing, an advanced tip, raffle drawings, a slow couple's dance with the lights turned down low, and a countdown clock set to keep track of the coming new year.
"Father Time" also paid a visit and later "Baby New Year."
A little before midnight they stopped the tip-in-progress to hand out horns, streamers, blow-outs, and apple cider.
"Is everyone still squared up? We still have a few minutes. Let's start the music again."
"Wait. They're all holding glasses of cider."
"Aren't the Rustlers known for their 'no touching' dance tips? They can do it."
"But they might spill."
"They'll be careful."
So we danced while holding glasses of apple cider, while waiting to toast in the New Year. No one spilled.
A very fun dance!
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