The Square Dance Blog

Here are the top 15 Reasons to try Square Dancing!

Thanks to the County Line Square Dance Club.

•Single? Come and meet new people.

•Are you dating? Come and see if your future mate can follow directions.

•Newly married? It’s a cheap date but lots of fun.

•Busy family life? You owe it to your spouse to take time for each 
other.

•Bored? Couch potato? Get up and move.  The exercise is great!

•Shy? Don’t worry, he/she’ll hug you when they call “yellow rock.”

•Lonely? Get lots of attention with seven other people in the square 
helping you have fun.

•Not coordinated? If you can walk, you can square dance.  Like any 
new activity, you get
better with practice.

•Newly retired? Here’s an opportunity to stay active with a new hobby 
and new friends of all ages.

•Older retired? Here’s a fun way to exercise your body and your 
mind.  Would you believe that square dancers live longer? You bet 
they do!

•Travelers? Square dancing is really big in retirement communities 
all over the south. Square dancing is called in English around the 
world. It’s a fast way to meet new people.

•Home schoolers? Square dancing can take care of your physical 
education credit.  Children should be able to follow directions.  It 
is particularly good for junior-high school and up.

•Empty nesters? Now is the time to find a hobby to do with your 
spouse. Go square dancing.

•Guys – The caller tells you what to do. You don’t need to know 
anything about square dancing when you come to the first dance. Just 
come prepared to have a good time!

•Gals – The caller tells you what to do too. It’s easy; it’s fun!

Dances for beginners are every week, fall through spring.  Cost is 
minimal. Get the list of places and times.  Many dances run through 
the community education departments.

Each week is a party with new friends.

How about: “Fun, Friendship & Fitness-Square Dancing”?

So If you’re going to make up a bunch of t-shirts with this on just remember where you got it.

Brian

If you live in the Minnepolis/St.Paul, Minnesota Area here’s some information about Square Dance ABC.

http://www.squaredanceinfo.com/ABC%20generic%20flyer.pdf

Brian

If you subscribe to the Square Dance ABC email then you know it has been quite busy this week with talk of the Oprah show and all.  What I am trying to get at is it was brought up on one of the emails that maybe square dancing should look for sponsors.  One caller, who I forget it was, said that he would not be opposed to wearing a vest or shirt with the sponsors on them while calling.  Now what I will propose is that we work the sponsors into the calls.  (and no I’m not serious but play along with me)  Let’s try: “Walk and your local Dodge Dealer” or how about “Slip the Clutch, and if you’re clutch is slipping then come on down to AAMCO Transmissions.  OK, I got this thing started, let’s see how far we can take it.

Brian

A great big THANK YOU to Dee Scott who is the Producer for Friendship Set To Music-the TV Show.  http://www.friendshipsettomusic.com This TV Show that airs on Cable Access Stations around the country.  They have just concluded their 5th season of producing a show about square and round dancing.  If you live in a area that does not air the show, then click the link for the show and contact Dee to see about getting the show on your local cable access channel.  In January, season 6 starts.  Right now there are 124 shows that have been produced.

How about 26 people who did not dance before had a ball at the ABC Dances called by Dick Rueter up in this part of the world.  Now there are 26 people who know the fun that is Square Dancing.

So here I am thinking again, and maybe this has been tried but here goes.  ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars is highly popular, I know some square dancers that watch it so how about if we would do an email campaign to have the stars learn to square dance for the show.  Now I do realize that this is a competition as far as the show goes but I would bet that the producers could come up with something to not make it a competition.  If you want to, here is a link to ABC TV: http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html?lid=ABCCOMGlobalFooter&lpos=CONTACT

What do you think?

I came across this link from Norman’s Square Dancing Blog (and yes it’s listed in the links).  This is an idea from Nasser Shukayr, who is a caller and one of the creators of Square Dance ABC.  Here is a link to his idea.

http://www.nshukayr.com/ssccnewslet.htm#20081005

Now I’m going to open a can of worms.  As a wanna be caller (my real job lets me tell people where to go), I would be interested in knowing who some of the new callers that you enjoy dancing to.  By new let’s go with 2 years of calling or less.  Leave a comment with their name.  Let’s give them some recognition.

That was a good time this year in Wichita.  I got to attend some of the seminars this year.  One of the seminars I attended was put on by MIke Hogan of Omaha, NE.  He talked about marketing and square dancing.  I did see his web site which is: http://www.squaredanceomaha.org He has some great ideas.  I wish him luck to take this type of web site to a national level.