From: asente@adobe.com (A Usenet Pal)
Subject: Re: Lesbian/Gay Square Dancing (great idea!!) :)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 07:19:10 GMT

Some information on gay and lesbian square dancing:  There are about 40
gay and lesbian square dance clubs in the US and Canada.  They belong to
an umbrella organization, the International Association of Gay Square Dance
Clubs (IAGSDC), which holds an annual convention.  This year's convention
was in Albuquerque, and attracted over 1100 people.  It's estimated that
the total membership in IAGSDC clubs is between 3 and 4 thousand people.

Most people have a couple of mental images of square dancing:  either
being forced into doing it in junior high, or of people in funny clothes
stomping around and do-si-doing in a barn while some old geezer saws away
at a fiddle and spouts off incomprehensible nonsense about shucking clams.

There are really two different dance forms around that go by the name
"square dancing."  The older is traditional square dancing; this is
probably what you learned (and probably hated) when you were in school.
Traditional square dancing has a rather limited vocabulary of steps.
Usually each dance is choreographed in advance, and is taught just before
doing it.  A complete novice can come to a traditional square dance and
participate fully.  Most traditional square dancing is done to traditional
folk tunes, usually played by a fiddle band.  It is often combined with
contra dancing (a New England folk dance done in lines) at an evening.
A caller is present to call out what steps to do, but the steps are
predictable from what was taught at the beginning.

Modern square dancing, also called western square dancing for reasons
that are completely unknown to me, grew out of traditional square dancing
about 30 years ago.  It features a large vocabulary of steps, from 50 on
upwards.  Dances are not taught and, though they may be pre-choreographed
by the caller, are not predictable to the dancer--dancers listen to the
caller and do what he or she tells them to.  It takes a course of lessons
to learn; just how long depends upon which level you want to dance at.
Basic square dancing, with about 50 calls, takes about 10-12 weeks to learn.
Mainstream square dancing adds about 25 more calls and takes about 10 more
weeks, and Plus square dancing adds about 25 more calls and takes another
10 weeks.  Most gay square dance clubs dance at the Mainstream or Plus level.
Dancing is done to a very wide variety of music; some of it is
country/western, but you hear everything from traditional folk tunes to
Aretha Franklin to the Pointer Sisters.  Dancing can be quite easy to
extremely challenging depending upon what the caller is doing and the
skill of the dancers on the floor.  Some clubs do what is called advanced
or challenge square dancing; this takes years to learn, involves knowing
hundreds of calls, and can be closer to interactive group puzzle solving than
dancing per se.  Some people love it; some people hate it.

Clubs in the IAGSDC do modern square dancing.  There is one club in
the Boston area that is affiliated with the IAGSDC but not a member; it
does traditional square dancing.

At an IAGSDC dance, you won't find any fiddles, you won't find any ducking
for the oyster or chickens in the breadpan, and you won't find funny clothes
(well, maybe on an occasional drag queen).  What you will find is
enthusiastic people having fun, getting some exercise, and socializing.

If you tune in to rec.folk-dancing, you will eventually encounter some
arguments over the relative merits of traditional and modern square dancing.
Really they bear very little in common other than their names and some
overlap in step vocabulary.  My personal opinion is that traditional square
dancing is kind of tedious and boring.  I've been doing modern square
dancing for a little over 3 years now, usually a couple of times a week, and
it still entertains me.

I have listings of clubs all through the US and Canada.  If you're interested
in finding out if there is a club near you, drop me a line and I'll check it
out for you.

      -paul asente
	   asente@adobe.com   ...decwrl!adobe!asente   moo-bear@cs.stanford.edu

During the light buffet supper Louie did a dance with a boa.