Wild Frontier at Barmera and Berri

                        Square Dancing Photos - Click to Enlarge

The Wild Frontier weekend at Barmera and Berri was a great success. Most square dancers stayed at the Lake Bonney Caravan Park at Barmera and travelled 14kms to the Berri Town Hall for dancing. The weather was very pleasant and contributed to the success of the well planned weekend away, as did the dinner at the Berri Club.

There were several dancers from Renmark and Naracoorte who took adavantage of the closeness to join in the dancing and renew acquaintances, and several Adelaide Clubs also supported the weekend.

Dancing was held over three days at The Berri Town Hall with the main activity being  the Saturday night dance. The acoustics of the hall weren’t the greatest but it didn’t stop everyone from enjoying themselves, with the hall full to capacity most of the time. The square dance workshop on Sunday morning was well attended and enjoyed by all.

Thank you to Jeff Seidel, Wild Frontier, and Kannella Squares for a wonderful weekend of Square Dancing.

Photos provided by Roger Marchant.

Kannella Squares Diary for 2008

Kannella Squares: Dates for 2008

January 14th & 14th Resume Dancing.

March Saturday 8th. PLUS

April 4th – 6th Weekend Away Berri

May 7th Wednesday – May Dinner

May 10th Saturday PLUS

June 4th – 9th National Brisbane

July 12th Saturday PLUS

August 16th Saturday C1 dance

August 29th – 31st  State Convention.

October 25th  Saturday - Kannella Squares 33rd Birthday

November 1st & 2nd. Mt Gambier’s 25th Birthday

December Saturday 20th Christmas Break-Up PLUS

New Years Eve Dance Wednesday 31st.

Wild Frontier Diary for 2008

List of activities for Wild Frontier Square Dance Club for 2008

 Friday Jan 11th –                 re open
 
Friday Jan 25th –                 Aussie night
 
Saturday Feb 16th -             35th Birthday (with Philip Aslanidis)
 
Saturday Mar 22nd -            Easter dance
 
April 4th – 6th -                       Weekend away at Barmera
 
Wednesday May 7th -         Mid Year dinner
 
June 5th – 9th -                      National Convention in Brisbane
 
Friday July 25th -                 Christmas in July
 
Saturday Aug 2nd -              Charity night
 
August 29th – 31st -             State Convention
 
Friday Sept 19th -                Favourite record night
 
Saturday Oct 11th -             Free 40’s Party night  (My 60th)
 
Friday Oct 17th -                   AGM
 
Friday Nov 7th -                    Strawberry & Crepe’ night
 
Tuesday Nov 25th -             Christmas Dinner
 
Friday Dec 19th -                  Christmas Break-up
 
Wednesday Dec 31st -       New Years Eve dance

LEARNING TO SQUARE DANCE

This is an extract of correspondence I received from Jim Pead in the USA.  It appears that his comments’ regarding learners applies to South Australian clubs and I suspect many other parts of the world.  Just how do we expand our diminishing numbers?  

“As 1 said last month, leading a square dance club is more work than we expected and imagined. Fortunately, Betsy is absolutely excellent at detail work and is keeping track of schedules, events, callers, and almost everything else.  

She has me do the announcements at club! That is really no small thing for there are a myriad of people to thank and recognize for their efforts. Truly our club members are all dedicated and make great efforts on behalf of the Lake Livingston Levis and Lace.

Our fall class is off to a good start. If you recall “the lady in the white pickup,” her name is Freda and she has come several times. It is difficult to impress on the newer dancers the importance of regular attendance. They see it as a new and fun activity, in which they partake, but do not see the importance of being there each and every week to hone their skills and ability to dance. That is when square dancing gets to be really fun, when you can accurately follow the calls.  

One of the most fun couples we have are Ty and Brenda Martindale. Brenda is the activities director at Escapees and keeps a busy schedule herself When we first approached them about learning to dance, she was reluctant. Then it developed that Ty, in a prior life, had been a square dancer! She is determined to learn to dance and “catch up” with Ty.  

We are trying to develop incentives for the newer students to really bond with the club. We include the students in all activities, not just the dancing. For instance, we will be having a major dance in November, our annual Thanksgiving dance. It has always been successful before, drawing good numbers of people.  This is our major fund-raiser for the year, so it is important to draw a good crowd. The club members are all asked to either cook turkeys or a ham, and bring two side dishes per couple. A little further down the road we will have a “Toys for Tots” dance, and a Christmas dance. Frankly it is a lot to keep track of and Betsy is doing a super job.” 

As James Read (James who?) said– square dancing is great socially and provides excellent cardio vascular exercise. How can we attract new dancers?  Should we go into competition with fitness centres?  What do our readers think? 

Shooting Stars 35th Birthday

Early Warning

Shooting Stars Square Dance Club 35th Birthday Celebrations

to be held

14th and 15th March 2008

Woodville Town Hall, South Australia

Guest caller - Brian Hotchkies

Program to feature Mainstream, Plus and Rounds and some of S.A.’s great callers

Adelaide Outlaws Christmas Dances

Adelaide Outlaws Square Dance Club will be holding Christmas dances for both mainstream and plus. See below.

Mainstream Party - Monday December 17th, 8pm

Macedonian Hall,  148 Crittenden Rd, Findon, South Australia

Basket Supper please!

Plus Party and break up

Wednesday December 19th 8pm

Kilburn Hall,  Le Hunte St, Kilburn, South Australia

Kannella Squares Plus Dance

Kannella Squares will be holding their last Saturday Plus dance for 2007 on Saturday 15th December.

Venue: Kensington Park Uniting Church Hall, 286 Kensington Rd, Leabrook, South Australia

Advanced: 7:30pm Start, Plus: 8pm Start

Bring a Christmassy basket supper please

All Plus and Advanced dancers welcome for a night of square dancing

DO WE NEED MORE SQUARE DANCERS?

Strewth! I thought our mob needed more dancers?  Aren’t our numbers down because many of our older cobbers have either carked it, or are becoming as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike? At the South Australian Square Dance Society (SADS) Xmas dance, on 17 November 2007, there wasn’t much cheer for the proposed Darwin Convention Committee (DCC).  After some Galah from the 48^th National Square Dance Convention Committee gave a longwinded explanation of what they’d done and how much moolah was left over, a public meeting of SA square dancers knocked back a poultry $3,500.00 earmarked to kick-start a convention in Darwin (likely with a potential spin-off of a new club in those parts). Fair suck of a sav, all but one geezer voted to put the dough back into SA and loan it, rather than give it to the DCC.  The DCC must be spewin’!  Bloody loan it!  Who do the ratbags think they are, Aussie Home Loans?  That spare dough was earned through the hard graft of our fair dinkum SASDS committee and paid into the pot by our true blue cobbers from many parts of this sunburnt land. Get me straight like, I’m not saying just give it away, I’m not barracking for the other side no strings attached, they cant just p*ss it up against the wall.  But I reckon the DCC should be able to draw down to a limit of $3,500.00 if the SASDS give the thumbs up for each claim made. Fair dinkum, two SA clubs between them spent the same amount of money advertising to get new learners.  I reckon up in the Territory, wot with nothing on offer right now, there’s a ripper of a chance to attract new dancers.  More possible there than in SA; so the money would have been well spent. Perhaps the DCC should go to the NT Government, you know the phrase “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you”.  They’ve got less chance of being shafted by them drongos than they have from those tight bastards in SA! Am I unhappy?  Too right I am, it’s about time some joker threw a wobbly.

Square Dance Society Christmas Dance

The South Australian Square Dance Society held its annual Christmas Dance on Saturday Night at the RSB Hall, Gilles Plains and was well supported with six squares on the floor most of the night.

The night started with half an hour of round dancing cued by Les Tulloch and Thelma McCue followed by several hours of mainstream square dancing with one Plus bracket, along with a couple more round dances. Jeff Seidel, Graham Elliott, Les Tulloch and Collin Hudson shared the square dance calling.

During a break in dancing, dancers were asked to vote on dispersal of leftover funds remaining after the State organization hosted the annual national square dance convention in June. Funds were allocated to various state square dance interests including $10,000 being put into a trust fund for seed financing for the next Adelaide national convention, plus an additional $3500 in the same trust to be used as a loan to any future committe setting up a national  convention in Darwin.

An enjoyable supper and a great night of dancing was had by all. Thank you to the state committee for organizing and running another successful night of round and square dancing, and for the subsidized $2 entry fee.

New Years Eve Dance 2007

Wild Frontier’s New Years Eve Dance.

Venue: Kensington Park Uniting Church Hall, 286 Kensington Road, Leabrook

$5 Admission

All Levels Programmed

Time: 9pm - 1am New Years Eve

Bring your own drinks and nibbles. All welcome

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