Square dance adventures

Last night I got to call for a local Plus/Advanced club, the El Camino Reelers, and accompany them on my first ever banner raid.

Because the dancers "needed to prepare for Convention" the club was deliberately bringing in a variety of callers to let the newly graduated class hear and respond to different voices. Having me call last night was a part of that. My sight-calling at those levels is, to put it politely, atrophied to the point of uselessness, so I wrote some material. At the last minute rfrench dug my singing call records out of long-term storage, because my contact at the club wouldn't let me weasel out of singing. ;-)

Many of the dancers were brand-new Plus graduates, so there was the expected fumbling and uncertainty. But that didn't stop them from having a good time! Experience will make them stronger and more confident, and they'll get that if they're enjoying themselves. I had forgotten how much enthusiasm several squares of gay dancers can produce on a Weave the Ring! And hey, as a caller I'm always happy when the dancers have fun. That's (part of) my job.

At the end of the evening we went off to the Bows and Beaus to steal the local square dance association's banner from them. I'd never done this before. Technically we needed only a square of dancers (plus a caller) to go crash the other club's dance, but we had about four squares of people show up! To make matters sillier, we were all wearing brightly-colored hats shaped like aliens, echoing the space theme of the upcoming convention. We were a bit rowdier than the Bows and Beaus and showed off the extra frills and turns unique to gay square dance style. We definitely made a splash!

Now my feet are angry with me because during the raid I danced a tip with singing call (bad, bad idea) but I'm all fired up to make my Plus calling/singing better (item one: become a baritone). This enthusiasm will last a couple of weeks days I'm sure. :-)

A week and a half to Convention!