We are one of hundreds of clubs across the United States and around the world (over 50 in Massachusetts alone) participating in Modern Western Square Dancing. This is a dance form descended from English country dancing and refined through the 20th century to reach the (still evolving) status in which you will learn it. In the early part of the 20th century, one major manufacturer was a big supporter of square dancing in order to keep their workers away from the taverns. One of the prominent web sites showing examples of Modern Western Square Dancing is located in Japan !
Music for Modern Western Square Dancing has changed a lot since those English country dances, and while you will hear some songs that have a country and western flavor, some Top 40 songs are even appropriate. One club in Massachusetts does square dancing to a lot of disco songs. And if you get complacent, take a look at the turntable the caller uses to play the music. Unlike a home turntable with slots for 33, 45 and 78, the caller's turntable has a continuous speed control, so once you are able to dance perfectly at 45 rpm the caller can always try it at 55 rpm !
We want you to know that we are eager for you to succeed in this class. Don't be afraid if it all seems new; none of us were born knowing how to square dance either. We look forward to having you in our squares, and when a square fills up, we just add another.
General Square Dancing Class Structure
Great Plain Squares has two regular "callers" who lead the club in square dancing, and also teach the class:
Bob and Chris have many years of experience teaching square dancing at all levels, and, in addition to Great Plain Squares, they call at many other square dance clubs. When they are not teaching or calling, they can answer virtually any question you have about square dancing.In general our callers alternate weeks, but sometimes they will fill in for one another to allow for vacations. The fact that we have two different callers should be quite helpful in your learning experience---learning to dance to two different callers is the first step toward dancing to the many callers you will encounter in the world of square dancing.
Angels
Some of the people dancing with your class are actually experienced square dancers called "angels". They attend to round out squares to an even multiple of 8 people. They also provide an example of how moves should be done. Contemporary classes throughout the world typically use these experienced dancers ("angels") to make it easier for newcomers to learn square dancing.
Review Period
If you missed the previous class or feel uncertain about some of the moves, join us for an informal review period. We hold this session 30 minutes before class each week. This review is organized by club members without the caller, and is intended to be a low stress slow speed opportunity to practice without worrying about keeping up to the tempo of the music. Of course if you do feel confident about moves introduced the previous week, you can come for the review period to help us form a full square of 8 people.
Round Dancing
Like many other square dancing clubs, Great Plain Squares also has a program of Round Dancing, a structured form of ballroom dancing coordinated by a "cuer" similar to the way square dances are coordinated by the caller. Our club cuers are:
Your Club Contact
While all the members of Great Plain Squares want to welcome you to the wonderful activity of Modern Western Square Dancing, we assign one person in particular to be your Club Contact. That individual should be checking with you frequently to understand how well we are doing at introducing you to the club.
Your Club Contact stands ready to assist you with any questions you might have, but of course you should also feel free to contact any of the club officers listed below:
Soliciting Your Feedback
From time to time, you may find various club members asking you questions about your experience with Great Plain Squares. Please don't feel there is anything you are doing to be singled out for this attention. We are trying to "tune" our new dancer program, and gathering feedback from all those participating is an important part of that effort. Also, club members are just naturally interested in helping new dancers (or experienced dancers, for that matter).
At the same time, don't feel you have to wait to offer an opinion. It may be that you notice something about our class that we had not thought of, or it may even be that we have a solution to your concern already planned.
Weekly Schedule
Besides our own special monthly dances and visits to other clubs, Great Plain Squares dances on Wednesdays according to the following schedule:
Fees
The charge for Wednesday dancing (to cover the cost of the hall, caller stipend, insurance, etc.) is $7 per person. Typically the Treasurer team will not be set up to collect when you arrive, especially if you arrive early for the review session. So at a break during the class, somebody from the Treasurer team will come to the classroom to collect.
Later on if you go to weekend dances they tend to cost $7 per person, depending on the hall where they take place.
If you choose to pay in advance for a 10 week series (starting with week 2), the price is only $60 for ten weeks (no refunds). This saves you $10 and saves our Treasurer team some amount of work. |
Dress Code
Depending on the weather, when long-term club members arrive you will see some women in fancy brightly colored dresses and men in matching long-sleeved shirts. But after you get over the visual impact, you will also notice that other club members are not in those fancy costumes and still manage to dance around the square.
Don't worry about it. If you decide to join the costume crowd, someone can tell you where to buy costumes or patterns.
Square Dance Class Curriculum
The Square Dance Class will start by covering the various moves of the "Mainstream" program defined by CALLERLAB, the worldwide organization that standardizes definitions for Modern Western Square Dancing. It is important to learn the moves in the order they are introduced, since later moves depend on knowing the earlier moves. Please show up by 7 pm each week. After you know the Mainstream program, our class continues with the "Plus" program defined by CALLERLAB. Knowing Mainstream and Plus equips you to dance at most of the Modern Western Square Dances in New England.
After the first few weeks, our Class Coordinator will give you a copy of the official Callerlab definitions of square dance moves. For those with Internet access to the World Wide Web, those definitions as well as the schedules and this handbook are available on our web site via:
If you have Internet access and can read Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) data on your computer, you can get online access to the full Callerlab definitions from the official source via following URL:
Those are the same definition documents provided to you by our Class Coordinator.
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