AMERICAN frl SQUAREDANCE
May 30 Lest We Forget: Memorial Day 2005 HRIMCIRST'S TePE Er RECORD SERVICE
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American Square Dance, May 2005 3 On The Record — Rounds 34 From The Mail Room 5 Joe and Rosa Griffith of Strathmore 38 Editorial 7 Cue Tips 39 Peek Into a Cuer's Record Case 8 All Things Considered 41 Peek Into a Caller's Record Case 9 Moore On Contra 42 Square-Up 10 Club Celebrates 60 Years 46 On The Record — Squares 11 The Country Line 47 American Callers' Assoc. Callerlab Viewpoints 50 14 Viewpoints Jubilee Returns To How Do You Keep 'Em, San Jose Fairgrounds 52 Once You Get 'Em? 16 54th National Square Easy Level 20 Dance Convention® 53 Ask Arts 23 Round Dance Pulse Poll 56 Creative Choreography 25 Point Of Order 58 The Koreo Korner 28 Daddy Calls My Song 60 Fourscorey 29 What's Ahead 61 Rovin' Corner 30 Classifieds 66 Notes In A Nutshell 32 Advertiser Index 69
Volume 60 AMERICAN (7 Number 5 SQUAREDANCE may2005 "The International Magazine of Square Dancing" Publishers/Editors Cartoonist William and Randy Boyd Corben Geis
4 American Square Dance, May 2005 F OM TEE MAIL ROOM
Editor, Your March and April editions had a lot on what is needed in square dancing. It was very good, but I see a need to respond to Square-up in the March issue. It is said that we have returned to where we were 15 to 20 years ago. We have been dancing regularly since 1977 and although we stopped dancing between 1967 and 1977, we were dancing with clubs from 1963. So we have seen the whole period. In the mid to late 1980s, the Delaware Valley Convention had 1500 to 2000 dancers attend. The current level is about 400. This is a definite drop from 15 to 20 years ago. I do not have the figures readily available, but I believe the National has seen a similar drop. In the mid to late 1960s, there were four or five clubs in lower Bucks County. Now there are none. Square Dancing is definitely worse off than 15 to 20 years ago in our area. How did we get involved in Club Square Dancing? We square danced in open dancing at church youth dances, at church summer camps, and at Jones Beach State Park (Long Island, New York). We did this in our late teens and early 20s. As a result, when we heard about the classes, we joined. What is different about today? The open dances are almost nonexistent. In our area, there is very little dancing available below the plus level. We are asking people to commit themselves to learning through the plus level or they have no place to dance. We need to get back to basics and establish familiarity and fun for people without the commitment so that we lay a foundation for future recruitment to classes. Unfortu- nately, I do not know how this can be done. I do know that one of the problems is callers that think they have to be advanced or challenge callers to be successful. Bob Williams, Pennsylvania
Hello Bill, Henry Ford had built a splendid hall for "oldfashioned dancing" and named it in honor of his dancing master "Lovett Hall". This hall still exists at the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan. For more than 20 years there were monthly contra dances to fill this hall with Henry Ford's legacy. But last November this was suddenly cancelled. If you now want to use this hall, you must pay a rent of $600.00, and consume catered food and drink of $4,000.00. The Henry Ford Museum blatantly violates its own mission statement; but who cares? It is a matter of money. Karen Misssavage has put up an excellent website about this matter and the (hopefully not) last contra dance at Lovett Hall: http://home.earthlink.net/ —karencontracaller/lovett.htm I think, this is a matter which affects MWS Dancers too. Yours squarely, Heiner Fischle, Hannover, Germany http://www.heinerfischle.de
American Square Dance, May 2005 5 Silver Sounds
SSR — 238 "MAY YOU ALWAYS"
By: Jack O'Leary
(Caricature by Corben Geis)
Silver Sounds Records, P.O. Box 1196, RIDGEFIELD, CT 06877; (203) 894-1865 Distributed Exclusively by Hanhurst's Tape & Record Service / Astec Record Distributors.
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