Entertaining The Public With
Square Dancing
by
Every year
(usually in the fall and spring) I get a number of calls from church groups and
civic organizations to come and entertain them with Square Dance. Themes of these events range from “Hoe Down”,
“Barn Dance”, “Rodeo Days”, etc…
Over the years,
I have developed a philosophy/formula that has
served
me well. I measure success by
enthusiastic participation and smiles on the faces of the dancers. Without exception, these events are tremendously
successful.
If you are
already doing successful “fun night/one night stand” events,
I would
not advocate that you change what is working for you. I don’t claim to be an expert. The ideas that I am presenting below share a
perspective and offer some ideas that work very well for me.
Here are
the guidelines that constitute my formula for success:
1. Don’t focus on any particular dance
or formation. Instead, choose dances
that are easy to teach and fun to do. If
it takes more than about 30 seconds to teach a dance or a step, I simply don’t
use it in my program.
2. Quickly get the folks into the
desired formation. Don’t spend a lot of
time describing the “proper” way to do the steps on a particular figure. Get them moving. That will come if they ever choose to take
lessons. on’t harp on the “proper” way to do a particular
dance step. Let them do it however works
for them. If they want to do a Do Sa Do passing left shoulders first, what’s the harm.
3. Use a variety of dances. By the end of one of these events, I have
usually done a big circle “square dance”, some traditional square dance, one or
more mixers (which are often categorized as round dance), a contra (I use
Virginia Reel without the arm turns… I got this idea
from Jack Murtha’s six couple Virginia Reel on the
Dance Time label), and a line dance or two.
I consider all of these dances as companion activities to Square
Dancing. The folks don’t care what
dances they do; they just want to have fun.
However, the more variety you can offer, the less likely they are to get
bored with any particular dance you are offering.
4. Use good, lively music. Good music gives people “happy feet” and
makes them feel like dancing. I use
hoedowns that have a good lively beat (I just started using Red Boot Grass #2
and I just love it). Other hoedowns that
I like include “Thunder” and “Hand Picked”.
For line dance, I use “Achey Breakey Heart”. This
is a popular country western song and I teach an easy line dance that takes no
more than 30 seconds or so to teach and is fun to do. I always use “Jiffy Mixer” because the dance
is easy and the music is excellent.
5. Use material (music and dances) that
you are familiar and comfortable with.
If you get too far outside your “comfort zone”, you will not be as
successful as if you use material that you know and enjoy. This doesn’t mean that you should stop
introducing new material into your routine.
I am always on the lookout for new material, music and dances. However, nothing goes into my program unless
it meets my criteria and until I have mastered it and am
comfortable with it. Since there is only
so much material that you can use in an evening, new music or a new dance rountine has to be really good in order to make it into my
program.
I hope you
find something useful here. Please feel
free to e-mail me at GarlandSmith@sqdrd.com
or call me at (218) 633-0774 if you have any comments or questions or simply
want to discuss something about this activity that we cherish.
I’d like
to offer my thinks to Wayne Morvent, who has encouraged me to jot down some of my
ideas and whom I consider to be a good friend and mentor.
This
article can be accessed online at the following URL: http://www.sqdrd.com/articles/EntertainingThePublicWithSquareDancing.htm.
If you
would like to do so, please feel free to add this link to your web page.
Happy
Dancing,
e-mail: GarlandSmith@sqdrd.com
Web
Site: www.sqdrd.com
Phone: (281) 633-0774
Copyright
2004:
Permission
granted to reprint or use this article in its entirety
as long as credit is given to the author.