THE NEW SQUARE

It’s an evening filled with all styles of music, moving to “flutterwheel” and “star left,” exercising while laughing, and talking with adults from ages 23 to 91: It’s square dancing!

“It’s not a hokey barn dance anymore,” joked Bernadette McNeil, L & M Squares club “cuer,” and square dance enthusiast. “Today’s square dance club will include dancers with both traditional dress and casual street clothes — it’s the dancer’s choice.” The music played during the evening might also surprise: it includes jazz, rock and roll, a little rap, ballads, plus the traditional country that’s usually associated with square dancing.

McNeil and her husband, Roger, took square dance lessons in the mid’70s and danced for about three years before life with kids got busy and they dropped out. They restarted their square dancing in 2000, and by 2001, Roger had started calling. (In square dancing, a caller “calls” the moves that the dancers are to perform, keeping everyone synchronized in time to the music.)

“It’s great aerobic exercise,” McNeil said, “since we walk about five miles during a dance. It’s also a great mental break. Even when you’ve had a bad day, by the time you focus on the music and the calls in the dance, that bad day disappears! Plus we’ve gotten to know people we would never have met without square dancing.”

Four square dance clubs in Fargo-Moorhead make up the Fargo-Moorhead Square Dancers Association. McNeil and her husband helped start the L & M Squares along with Rita and Jim Lizakowski. It’s a “mainstream” club, which means that they use a basic set of 66 moves in all their dance calls. They meet on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings in the Cash Wise community room, and have about 40 members. The first dance of every month has a special theme, which ranges from black light dances and casino nights to breast cancer awareness and holiday themes.

“We wear name tags, so people can get acquainted,” she explained. “It’s a great social time, as well as an opportunity to dance.” A typical dance includes a “tip” or two songs, with the moves called by Jim or Roger. Then Bernadette will provide the cues for the next two round dances, which are really cued ballroom dances, including waltz, two-step and foxtrot. The pattern of two songs and two round dances are repeated throughout the evening.

To help new dancers learn the moves, Roger and Jim teach a class on the first Monday of the month, with new classes beginning in September and January each year. “It takes about 15 weeks to learn all the moves,” Roger noted, “but in about the first 10 minutes of any class, you’ll learn about eight to 10 of the basic moves. You “graduate” when you learn all the moves. But rather than a diploma you hang on the wall, it’s an opportunity to practice, and to continue dancing.”

Classes are also taught for those who want to learn the additional 30 moves for “plus” dances. For those who would like to learn the steps for round dancing, Bernadette has a class.

It takes eight people or four couples to make a “square.” There are heads and sides to each square, and the caller provides direction throughout a song for all the dance moves. “Men really like square dancing,” Roger laughed. “Usually their wives drag them there the first night, and then the men bring the wives back for the second night. They can walk to the music, and just move their hands and arms in the pattern we give them — it’s a much easier way to learn to dance.” For those who do not have a dance partner, the club has several solo dancers, both male and female.

As a border community the club is active in both the North Dakota and Minnesota associations, which helped earn them the “Most Active Club” award from Minnesota last year. Each year, they do promotional dances at Streets Alive, the Red River Valley Fair, Pioneer Days, and the Steam Threshers Reunion at Rollag, MN, in

“It’s great aerobic exercise,” McNeil said, “since we walk about five miles during a dance. It’s also a great mental break. Even when you’ve had a bad day, by the time you focus on the music and the calls in the dance, that bad day disappears! Plus we’ve gotten to know people we would never have met without square dancing.” addition to entertaining at nursing homes and other events. They’ve even been involved in square dances with lawnmowers and horses — there’s no limit to the creativity of square dancing!

Bernadette works as an accountant during the day for the YMCA, but most nights of the week, you’ll find her teaching, cueing a round dance, or making arrangements with her husband to go to a square dance somewhere in the tri-state area. The calendar’s full, but full of fun, new friends, and the chance to wear one of her 25 frilly petticoats and dancing shoes. [AWM]

For more information about square dancing, visit fmsquaredancers.org or contact the L & M Squares: Clayton or Gloria Brennan at 701-282-8806, Roger McNeil at 701-293-6620 or rmcneil@ ideaone.net, Jim Lizakowski 218-2336212 jimlizakowski@hotmail.com.

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