In both semesters, there is a week that the club uses as a review. In the fall, it is the week of Columbus Day; in the spring, it is Spring Break. We do not teach any calls this week, and only review. This class does not count towards attendance.
For the class meeting, this week, I took the time to discuss, briefly, the history of Square Dancing, and then highlighted some of the differences about our club.
Here are some of the ideas that I highlighted in the discussion:
- Origination of Square dancing as arising out of folk dances brought from other cultures *Inclusion of callers to help people remember the next steps
- Rise of popularity of square dancing in the 1940s and 1950s
- Spread of Square Dancing due to GIs during WWII and the period following it
- Square Dancing is still very popular in Germany and Japan
- How there was no set definition of calls-varied by club, caller and region
- In the 1960s, formation of Caller Lab to help codify the calls
- Still the group that defines what the definitions are, and what calls are on what list
- Describe the different programs of Square Dancing (mainstream, plus, advanced, challenge), and about how many calls are on each list
- Split off Square Dancing from tradition squares
- Explain as a club, we dance at the plus level-it is what the class is going to be learning
- In the past forty years, popularity of square dancing has declined
- With few exceptions (clubs affiliated with colleges and universities and gay clubs), most clubs cater to an older crowd that does not appeal to younger people. Hard to recruit new members.
- Tech Squares is different in many ways from other clubs:
- Music
- Dress
- Being a singles club
- The speed and energy that we dance
- The level that we dance at-we expect callers to call "hard"
- Our social atmosphere that encourages people to socialize outside of the club