Copy Cats in May

What do the Copy Cats do when the regular season of dancing is over? Why we dance, of course. And at the annual end-of-the-year picnic, held this year at the Aldrich Road lodge in Perinton, we ate and played games, and we honored special Copy Cats Rick and Donna LaDonna with the Rathke award for outstanding volunteer service to the club. Bill Ryan provided the music and calls for the Copy Cats and our recently-graduated Kittens. Pictured (L-R) are Jim Lasch, Tami Adams-King, Laurie Collins, Dave Collins, Wally King, Liz Beauter, Royce Rogers

Copy Cats in June

Several of our members attended the 68th National Square Dance Convention in Atlanta, Georgia where they attended many dance sessions as well as helpful workshops on topics such as attracting and keeping younger dancers. Pictured (L-R) are Jeff and Debbie Blood, Mary Martin and Phil LaRussa.

Copy Cats in July

Even though the weather outside was far from cold the Copy Cats had a Christmas In July dance at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Webster. The dance was attended by eight squares of brrrrave dancers. Santa even made an appearance, thanks to our guests from Cayuga Cut Ups who stole our banner. Now, I ask you, is that a nice thing for St. Nicholas to do? Isn’t it better to give than to receive? Ron Brown and Jeanne Harter added to the festive mood with costumes and Christmas music as they called and cued for the dancers. And, yes, there were even Christmas Cutout Cookies. Thank you, new Kitten graduates, for the creative decorations.

Submitted by Jackie & Royce Rogers

On July 6, 2019, Sally and Jim Lee were presented with the Circle of Service Award by Sally Baechle. They have been square and round dancing for almost four decades, beginning with Boots N Slippers (Hilton) and now Silver Squares (Rochester). They have been officers in both clubs and have served with the Rochester Federation where they were active in promoting square dancing in our area. Jim and Sally were honored to receive this well-deserved award.

Submitted by Sally Baechle

The BELLES ’N’ BEAUS dance club is excited to start up again September 9 as a MAINSTREAM club.

Some of the advantages of mainstream:

• We can blend our class into our club at a much faster rate.

• We have “snowbird’ members who go south for the winter and upon returning they can jump right back in with no problem.

• We dance all evening with very little breakdown.

• A mainstream club allows new dancers, class members from other clubs, and dancers who want to dance with less focus on technical skills simply come and have fun.

Submitted by Bob and Alice Hager

On July 20, the Copy Cats conjured up snowmen and winter fun at their “Christmas In July” dance. Caller Ron Brown and cuer Jeanne Harter provided a great evening of music, and Auburn’s Cayuga Cut-Ups stole Copy Cats’ banner … with a little help from Santa. A wonderful time was had by all.

Photo credits: Jet Thomas

The 2019 Fall Friendship Ball is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, September 28, at the First Baptist in Penfield Church (same venue as the Copy Cats regular dances). This will be an afternoon dance, followed by a pot luck supper.

This dance was conceived as an opportunity for new dancers and established dancers to get together and kick off another season of dancing. However, in its first three tries, there have been very few recent grads in attendance. So, a few changes are planned for 2019.

Details are yet to be worked out, but in the interest of improving attendance by recent graduates, instead of making the event free-of-charge for all, there will be a “sliding scale” cost for dancers. All 2019 graduates will be admitted free of charge, but the cost for all others will be $5 per person, reduced to $3 if you bring a dish to pass, and free-of-charge if you “bring” a graduate.

It sounds complicated, but the idea is to encourage established dancers to take the initiative and connect with recent graduates and ensure that they join us for this dance.

Each club should work out how they want to make these connections. One idea would be to come as a group, or at least coordinate your arrival, so you can check in dancers and grads at the same time. Another approach might be to put out a sign-up list at your September dances, for grads and dancers to pair up in advance on paper, and agree to check in together at the Friendship Ball. Perhaps clubs with a large number of graduates could reach out to other clubs to find “sponsors” for some of their grads.

At DOR, graduates received a copy of the Fall Friendship Ball flyer in their “welcome” packet, so they are all aware of this special dance, but that’s never been enough. We are reminded time and again over the years that it’s the personal touch—the direct person-to-person invitation from an established dancer—that makes new dancers feel welcome and brings them out to dance and socialize.

Please do your part and “bring a graduate” to the Fall Friendship Ball!

Submitted by Peter Emmel

Brenda Bixby sent us on a trip down Memory Lane by submitting photos from the Triggers Scrapbook. The Triggers club was founded in 1963 by Myron & Peg Huss, whose Daphne-Norma Leadership Award plaque is pictured here.

Brenda also sent a newspaper clipping with a club group photo. At the time of the photo, they danced at Parkland School on English Road. The clipping marks the club’s 25 Anniversary, so it would have been taken in 1988.

To find out a little more about the Triggers, we browsed the Promenader’s online archive. (That’s a full set of scanned back-issues going all the way back to 1962 HERE).

What we found was that the Triggers danced on Tuesday evenings and had very similar activities to those we enjoy today. Their Club News from September, 1990 is shown here, kicking off a new dance season just as we are doing now, almost 30 years later.

That same Promenader issue carried their flyer for a special dance on October 2, 1990, with guest caller / cuer couple Paul and Shirley Rzepkowski from Buffalo.

Thanks, Brenda, for opening this door to our dancing heritage!

When we’re out for an evening of dancing and socializing, we dancers tend to focus on … well, dancing and socializing. It’s easy to take the music and the caller—and the cuer—for granted. But there’s nothing easy or automatic about delivering a fun dance.

There’s preparation in advance—the selection of tunes, the choice of patterns aand variations to call. There’s getting all the gear to the venue and setting it up in working order. There’s the inevitable range of dancer skills and preferences to balance through the evening. And there’s the challenge of sustaining two to three hours of entertaining energy—no matter whhat happened earlier in the day or the week.

Then there’s the feedback. Every dancer knows to clap at the end of each tip—applauding an enjoyable performance. But tthat’s so automatic that it’s not likely to satisfy any entertainer’s need for positive feedback on the performance.

The caller I’ve known best, long-time Village Squares caller Jerry Carmen, told me he gauged his performance by two indicators: (1) the dancers who came up after the dance to say “thank you” and (2) the dancers who stayed for the full performance instead of leaving early.

Imagine yourself at the microphone, producing an evening of music and dance moves, and watching the crowd gradually melt away without anyone saying goodbye.

My guess is that Jerry’s feelings on this are shared by most or maybe all callers. I didn’t realize just how deep and far back this ran for Jerry until I came across his column—pictured here—frofrom the September, 1990, Promenader.

So, as your head and feet begin to ache and you start to think about the drive home, include a few thoughts about the caller and about expressing your appreciation. Stay to the end if you can, but if you must go, then take a moment after your last tip to take the caller aside and say something—even if it’s just “had a great time tonight, but gotta get home now.”

If you’re leaving for some reason related to the dance program, then it’s all the more important for you to say a few words to the caller or cuer. They need to know if something needs to change.

We have wonderful callers in our area. Some have a lifetime of experience and others are beginning to build up their experience. We should give them every ounce of encouragement we can. Thank your caller!

Here’s the text of Jerry’s column from September, 1990:

You think your club has the best caller in the area. His choreography is interesting. He is fun and comfortable to dance to, always patient and good natured. You wish to show your appreciation, but don’t know how.

It’s 9 PM and there’s ten squares prancing on the floor. By 10 PM only two squares remain. The caller looks about and thinks to himself, what am I doing wrong? Why does everyone leave so early? The dance still has another half-hour to go. By the last tip only three couples remain, and they’re the cleanup crew. So the dance ends early. On the way home, the caller wonders what he can do to make the dance more exciting. Do the dancers want more challenge? Different singing calls? Or maybe he’s wearing them down. Are the tips too long? Too Short? These and a lot of other things go through his head on the way home.

What our caller was experiencing was “dancer runout” (no relation to “dancer burnout”) disease. That’s the premature outflow of dancers that manifests itself in four groups; (1) those eager to follow the primeval urge to “beat the traffic”, (2) those who party with friends somewheres else, (3) those who have to get up early the next day, and (4) older members who run out of breath by the middle of the dance. Some clubs are afflicted more seriously than others. It appears to be contagious, affecting most of the regular members and leaving the guests to fend for themselves at the end of the evening. There Is no known cure. For the first group, moving up the quitting time only results in them leaving still earlier, inspiring others to follow suit. A half hour before the end of the dance seems to be the magic number. What none seem to realize is they are affecting the performance and self-confidence of the caller. If they wish to indicate they did not particularly enjoy the caller’s performance, this is the way to do it. On the other hand, if they really wish to show appreciation to the caller, the very best way ls to stay for the whole show.

Would you go to a play and leave before the last act? When you leave the dance early, you’re cutting out the caller’s last act. Most callers plan their programs to have a beginning, middle and end. The last tip is usually meant to be special. It may be a relaxer or a rouser, but always something the caller thinks he does especially well.

The old-time dancers can remember that twenty or more so year ago the average dance lasted from 8 to 11 PM and most stayed to the end. Some callers can remember completing the last tip and having the dancers clapping for more. Attitudes seemed different then. I can remember it was customary for dancers to line up after one of these sessions and file past the caller, thanking him for the great time. What has changed? Have the callers changed, the dancers, or maybe square dancing itself?

You really don’t have to line up like in the old days and thank him. You don’t have to tell him what a great dance he called. All this means nothing if you walk out the door early. If you respect your caller, think he does a fine job, and wish to show your appreciation, stay and dance the last tip. Besides, it’s good courtesy.

Submitted by Peter Emmel

For most of us, the desire to become a skillful dancer isn’t the main thing that brings us to the dance floor. What brings us is the friendships we have formed around dancing. We learn to square dance, and in the process, we integrate ourselves into an active and fun-loving social exercise environment.

Many of us just want to dance well enough to keep our skills from getting in the way of socializing—i.e. from embarrassing us or disrupting our friends. Others are motivaated by the challenge of learning new calls and variations on calls already learned. Accommodating this range of goals is a real challenge for callers, especially those who also teach classes. Teaching programs that move dancers along at too fast a pace, combined with club programs that don’t provide enough practice time, lead to frustration and dropouts—graduates who don’t return.

The RAF Promotions Committee is actively working to increase available Mainstream dance time for class members and graduates. We’ll address those efforts in a future posting, but in this “Tip Sheet” let’s focus on the teaching and learning.

Recently, Mike Callahan shared a November, 2017, article by Kip Garvey. It’s written by a teaching caller for other teaching callers, describing an important element of square dance learning. It’s an element that takes more time for most new dancers to develop than the “rush to Plus” allows. In Garvey’s view, this causes many new dancers to give up and drop out. The element he’s talking about is spatial awareness - a dancer’s sense of his or her position in each formation. (HERE is the full text of Kip Garvey’s article.)

In Garvey’s words:

Watch a new dancer class. Watch the dancers. See how they learn each call. At first, they learn movements. They relate the movements to the calls. They do not realize they are ends, centers, leaders or trailers. … New dancers simply are not spatially aware of their positions within formations until well into the learning process. … New dancers do not develop spatial orientation untill they have been square dancing for many hours, often as many as 40 or 50 hours of dancing. Some will become spatially oriented sooner. Others will take many more hours. Some will take years.

And later in the article:

The lack of spatial orientation results from a learning curriculum that is too fast paced, contains too many calls and lacks the single most important element of learning spatial orientation - time. New dancers need time. Time is the one thing they have been deprived of for the past three decades or more. There is no shortcut for learning spatial orientation.

Garvey goes on to pointedly urge club leaders and his fellow callers to revise their teaching programs. He suggests that instead of pushing ahead to get through Mainstream and Plus in one year, teaching programs should allow more time for new dancers to practice and develop their spatial awareness. Not all callers or cub leaders will agree with Garvey’s message about teaching, but there is a growing consensus in our area that more Mainstream dance time is needed. As discussed at this summer’s RAF Club Presidents meeting, the RAF and club leaders are actively working on making that happen.

Meanwhile, what’s so important about spatial awareness?

Spatial awareness is important because in square dancing, where you go (i.e. your next movement) is determined entirely by where you are (i.e. your position) when the movement starts. It’s actually your position, not your gender, that determines your movement in the call. Teaching “ladies do this and men do that” gets new recruits dancing right away because they come in the door knowing their gender. If they have to first learn how to tell if they are ends or centers or leaders or trailers before they start dancing, we are likely to lose most of them after one session.

For some calls, the difference between your movement pattern and someone else’s depends on whether you are an “END” or a “CENTER” in the starting formation. For other calls, it depends on whether you are a “LEADER” or a “TRAILER” in the formation. And in many formations, you are in two positions at once, for example a leader and a center. Which of these is the “operative” position depends on what the next call turns out to be—i.e. whether the next call has you working with the people beside you or those in front of and behind you.

How quickly you recognize your position and link it to the appropriate movement is the essence of your dancing skill. Comfortable and resilient dancers develop the habit of mentally noting their position at the end of each call, so as to be ready for the next call.

I don’t know how to teach square dance movement patterns or spatial orientation awareness, but I do know how to make diagrams.

Accompanying this article is a diagram that I hope will be a useful visual aid to hand out at square dance classes. Its purpose is to help dancers build a mental picture of the formation they are in and visualize their position in it. Keeping a diagram like this in mind also makes call definitions more intelligible. (Click TIP SHEET-POSITION.pdf to view/download/print a PDF version.

(Experienced dancers who occasionally break down their square when they freeze on a call when they are in an unfamiliar position should also take one of these home - maybe in a plain brown envelope, so nobody else will know.)

Submitted by Peter Emmel (in partial response to a suggestion from Mike Callahan)

The monthly magazine American Squaredance carries a regular column called “Callerlab Viewpoints.” The topic in the September, 2015, issue (Volume 70, Number 9) covers a very timely topic, so we present the column below in its entirety (with minor changes to adapt it to our area):

Callerlab Viewpoints, by Mike Seastrom

The following has been edited from “Square Dance Nebraska—Ideas.” A special thanks to Mike Bramlett for sharing some great information on the subject of how to be a good angel.

Is your halo on straight? It is important that as many club members as possible come to the class as “angels.” What are “angels”? They are the wonderful people who volunteer their time to ensure that new dancers have the best possible learning experience.

“Angels” provide new dancers with their first real look at a club. How “angels” behave and treat new dancers, other “angels,” and visitors will affect class members’ decisions regarding whether or not to join your club.

“Angels” are also role models. No matter what the instructor and club try to communicate to the students regarding etiquette, attitudes, or styling, class members inevitably take their cues from what they see “angels” doing. So it is important that “angels” be extra careful to be good role models.

Smile, be enthusiastic, and enjoy the dancing. Be friendly, courteous and gentle. This is sometimes easier to say than do, especially if it has been a long day. Let’s be honest; some of us have personal agenda, perhaps disagreements with club policies, or less than cordial relationships with specific club members. These issues are out of place at new dancer events and must be put aside.

Although most of us do the right things instinctively, the majority of the time it can’t hurt to reiterate certain points. The following advice for “angels” has been extracted from several sources, including articles in square dance publications and handouts prepared for other clubs.

“Angels” Are Not Teachers

This is perhaps the most common misconception that can cause problems. The primary teaching function of an “angel” is to teach by example and be in the right place at the right time. One important thing you can do is establish hand holds after every move. Not only does this help students maintain their orientation in the square, but it’s also a very good habit for every dancer to develop.

It is always tempting to explain something your square is not getting, and the new dancers will often ask you to do this—but you must resist. It diverts the student’s attention from the teacher and one of the most important things for a new dancer to learn is to listen to the teacher/caller. Sometimes you can clarify a simple point for students between tips; this is fine, but not while the caller is at the microphone.

Another difficult point is just how much help you should give in getting dancers into the right place. Dancers, after all, must learn to do the moves on their own. To gently guide someone through a maneuver, if they have a momentary lapse of memory, might be okay and sometimes one can help by indicating nonverbally where a person should go. Just remember that we accomplish little by pushing or pulling a dancer through an action when he or she doesn’t know what was supposed to have been done.

It is better to let a square break down rather than to use force getting people into the right place. A broken down square is an indication to the instructor that dancers are having problems. Be sure the teacher is aware of problems. Raise your hand if necessary and ask the teacher to explain something if your square is having trouble.

But be careful not to embarrass any dancer by the way you ask for help. It is much better to say that “the square is not getting a certain move” rather than saying “Steve is not getting a certain move.”

Encourage students. Let them know that all new dancers make mistakes and that things get better with practice. Also, “angels” make mistakes too. It is good to admit to them cheerfully, as it makes the students less tense about their own mistakes.

Club Styling

Club styling is always a major source of contention. It is important new dancers learn the calls with standard CALLERLAB styling; that is, without the added flourishes that are done in certain areas. The teacher will introduce these regional differences at appropriate times after the calls are mastered. “Angels” must use only the styling which has been taught to the class.

This is not always easy. How many remember to Swing Your Partner without a Twirl at the end? It is really very important not to introduce more confusion into a new dancer’s learning experience. Some students are going to want you to teach them how it’s done before they have mastered the call, but you should resist the temptation.

Some Random Additional Advice

Square Up With Everyone, not just a few friends. Seek out the new dancer who is having difficulty and ask them to dance with you. Make sure than new dancers are not sitting out because “angels” are dancing.

End Conversations Promptly when the teacher begins a tip. If you are not dancing, keep your conversations far away from the dance area.

Cheerfully Lend A Hand if you are asked to help set up or clean up, help with refreshments, or take attendance.

Watch For security problems, accidents and dangerous situations like spills or debris on the floor.

NotifyThe Instructor if there are problems with the sound.

Don’t Complain about the hall, the floor, the caller or anyone attending the class.

Don’t Criticize students or other “angels.”

Remember:

Your name badge.

You are an example to the new dancers and an ambassador for your club.

Have fun! “Angels” are a key part of whether a new dancer joins your club.

(For American Squaredance subscription information, send email to: AmericanSquareDance@gmail.com)