Editor’s Page

Welcome to the Fall, 2019 issue of the Promenader—a quarterly publication of the Rochester Area Federation of Round and Square Dance Clubs.

In this issue

Our Club News section contains an article from each RAF member club, describing recent activities and upcoming special events. Browse the Club News page and see what’s going on in Rochester area square and round dancing.

The “Photos & Features” section includes photo articles about recent activities as well as commentary on topics of interest to dancers. In this issue, there’s a recap of the Copy Cats summer fun, and photos from their “Christmas In July” dance. There’s a peek down memory lane at the Triggers SD Club with photos from Brenda Bixby, and a reminder from Jerry Carmen, also from the archives, that we should take time to thank our callers. (There are not too many of them left!) As beginner classes start up this month, we are re-running an important article on being a “Good Angel.”

We also introduce a new “column” in this issue. I’m calling it the “Tip Sheet” because I hope to make it a useful source of aids and advice for new and established dancers and for club leaders. I receive the monthly “American Square Dance” magazine, which often has thoughts worth sharing, so I plan to do so through future Tip Sheets. In this issue, on a recommendation from Mike Callahan, the Tip Sheet carries excerpts from a 2017 opinion article by Kip Garvey. Garvey is a national caller with pointed opinions on how to foster strong dancers and avoid what he sees as the discouragements of the past three decades. (See also “Mainstream Dancing” and “Editorial Comments” below.)

The Tip Sheet this issue includes an accompanying “Dancer Position” diagram that I hope will help with one of the key concepts identified by Garvey.

Mainstream Dancing

The RAF Promotions Committee, headed by Amy and Kris Aeckerle, was busy over the summer. They organized two free area-wide dances especially geared for recent graduates. To continue this success, they are considering ways to provide consistent and reliable opportunities for Mainstream dancing throughout the year. Watch for this committee to organize other events and initiatives aimed at dancer recruitment and retention.

And don’t just watch, participate! If you are an officer of your club, then at your club’s board meetings you should make a point of discussing how this committee might be able to help you meet some of your club’s goals. Put it on the agenda right now.

Another initiative of this committee is aimed at encouraging new dancers and prospects (and even seasoned dancers) to make more use of the RAF website and the Promenader. They have created a Guide to introduce newcomers to the content and structure of the website. They are also considering how we should revise the existing “Welcome Prospective New Dancers” page to make it serve better as a portal for new and prospective recruits.

Fall Friendship Ball

Whether you are a new graduate or a seasoned dancer, you should mark your 2019 calendar for the September 28th Fall Friendship Ball. It will be held in Penfield at the First Baptist Church. This is the RAF’s annual “welcome back” dance.

As in the past the dancing will take place in the afternoon, from 2pm to around 5pm. This year, it will be followed by a pot luck dinner. The dance is free to 2019 graduates, but pricing for other dancers is tailored to encourage them to bring food and/or a recent graduate with them. Take a look at the flyer for details.

RAF Website

Reminder: The RAF website has a “Late Breaking News” feature. Clubs should notify Sidney Marshall (RAF Webmaster—sidneym@frontiernet.net)) of a cancellation or other short-notice announcement. As soon as he sees the email, he will post the announcement on the RAF Home Page (www/squaredancingrochester.org), where it will appear under a banner titled “LATE BREAKING NEWS.”

For maximum distribution of urgent messages, clubs should also use the “SquareDancingRochester” Facebook Group page. Your club’s communications person (or someone else who is a Facebook member) should join this Facebook Group so you can post directly. Click the link above, then look for the “Join” button and click it. The moderator(s) will approve you as soon as they see your request, after which you can post announcements any time. This group currently has 87 members, many of whom will get notifications from it and relay them to their dancer distribution lists, so your message will get out quickly.

In Memoriam

In this issue we say farewell to far too many of our square dancing friends: Alice DeFelice, Marjorie Hamlin, Mary Jackson, Donna McCagg, Patrick O’Shea and Paula Schumacher.

Editorial Comments

I think the most important recent development in square dancing is the increasing amount of specific action being taken to make Mainstream dancing more the norm, or at least to provide a broader and more reliable selection of Mainstream dances for new graduates to choose from. The goal is for a beginner class graduate to be able to find regular dancing opportunities without having to go immediately through the Plus level gauntlet with a weak foundation in the basics.

The “old” mode of “Plus Clubs” scheduling occasional “Class/Club” dances is not working. Graduates from beginner classes need time and practice—at the Mainstream level—to to get comfortable with their dancing and to establish the social ties that will encourage them to join us as dancers for life.

One year of instruction with the expectation of coming out as a Plus dancer is not realistic. Our graduates end up discouraged and feeling like failures … and they bail out to look for a less frustrating and intimidating activity.

New initiatives by individual clubs and by the RAF Promotions Committee are changing that landscape. Last year the Belles ’N’ Beaus, who dance Monday evenings, designated themselves as a Mainstream Club (see article in this issue) and we heard at the annual meeting of club presidents that other clubs are considering doing the same. Over the past summer, the RAF—through its reconstituted Promotions Committee—sponsored two area-wide Mainstream dancess. And discussions are in progress about how to maintain a reliable thread of Mainstream dancing opportunities throughout the coming season.

A consensus is forming among RAF leaders, club leaders and area callers that developments like these are worth supporting and contributing to. An article in this issue, suggested by Mike Callahan, presents some thoughts on this from a national caller’s perspective. (See the Tip Sheet in the Photos & Features page.)

We all have a stake in this. Too many clubs are just hanging onto solvency by their fingernails. Last year’s graduating class of beginners numbered 65 potential new dancers. Keeping even half of them interested, and encouraged enough to keep dancing, would be a big boost to their respective clubs.

But why settle for half? If we lose half of the people who invested nine or ten months of their time and energy in learning to dance, we are doing something seriously wrong. The steps being taken now look like a great start on fixing the problem.

Quarterly Chuckle

Lexophilia is a word used to describe those who have a love for words and enjoy word play, such as “you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish,” or “to write with a broken pencil is pointless.”

Here are a few examples:

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was blown off?

He’s all right now.

The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.

When she noticed her first grey hair, she thought she’d dye.

The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

Fish in schools sometimes take debate.

The short fortune teller who escaped from prison became a small medium at large.

A thief stole a calendar. The judge gave him twelve months.

Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.

We’ll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.

When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.

The math professor went crazy with the blackboard. He did a number on it.

The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.

They gave out dead batteries free of charge.

If you take a laptop computer for a run, you could jog your memory.

A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.

A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.

A will is a dead giveaway.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it’s your vote that counts; in feudalism, it’s your Count that votes.

A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.

If you don’t pay your exorcist you might get repossessed.

Her marriage brought her a new name and a dress.

Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I’ll show you A-flat miner.

When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulting in Linoleum Blownapart.

You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.

Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.

He broke into song, but he couldn’t find the key.

A calendar’s days are numbered.

A lot of money is tainted: ’Taint yours, and ’taint mine.

A boiled egg is hard to beat.

He had a photographic memory, but it was never developed.

A plateau is a high form of flattery.

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

When you’ve seen one shopping center you’ve seen a mall.

If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.

When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.

Acupuncture: a jab well done.

Peter Emmel—promenader@rochester.rr.com