Flutterby™! : At Square Dance Caller School in 2015-08-15 01:30:03.356239+00

At Square Dance Caller School in

2015-08-15 01:30:03.356239+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

At Square Dance Caller School in Sunnyvale. I can feel my rhythm improving every time I get behind the mic.

#Comment Re: At Square Dance Caller School in made: 2015-08-17 03:29:06.762842+00 by: Rash

My parents met at a square dance at the University of Kansas in the late 1940s. More recently, I've learned my father was a caller at that dance. And for the time being, I live in Sunnyvale.

#Comment Re: At Square Dance Caller School in made: 2015-08-17 07:47:38.591895+00 by: Dan Lyke

Cool! If you enjoy brain puzzles mixed with physical activity, you might try seeing when the Stanford Quads are doing their next class. If you need puzzles mere mortals can doo at 126BPM, there are plenty of other clubs down there too...

#Comment Re: At Square Dance Caller School in made: 2015-08-17 11:46:00.916714+00 by: meuon

"I can feel" = That's an important thing, I like the "gestalt" that happens when everyone is feeling the rhythm. Side note: Rhythm is a very strange word.

#Comment Re: At Square Dance Caller School in made: 2015-08-17 18:07:23.116713+00 by: Dan Lyke

We had two 12-13 year olds in the calling school. One of them is brilliant, dancing full Advanced after a year or so, but still working on her social presence. So she was totally wigged out on the mic in front of 8 squares, and calling super fast.

And a couple of us, her fellow students, were down in the front square flourishing the hell out of our dancing, and keeping some less competent dancers on track. Fairly simple Mainstream calling, but holy crap it got the blood flowing.

And then 4 of us who are newer callers stepped off to the side (so that we wouldn't distract the people calling), and got goofy (especially for a group that wasn't narrow, but had a large contingent from the "straight" side of square dancing): Okay, let's switch genders every time we get home. For the second to last tip we had 9 people, with the spare person randomly tagging in. We had a few other dancers who weren't as good but were willing to play along (and were mid way between "oh crap, we can't be the ones to break the square" and "wow, these people are totally having fun goofing with convention").