We are sad to report that Frank Newstead has passed away.  Frank was introduced to square dancing at Jaybee Square Wheelers in Melbourne and became a staunch supporter of Square Dancing, and Jaybee’s.

Frank who had built a large website to support his specialist “Success Centre Bookshop”, expanded his horizons to include squaredancing.com.au, a comprehensive website containing information and links to Australian and New Zealand square dance, round and clogging clubs plus details of callers, cuers and affiliated merchandise such as CD’s.

Franks dedication to square dancing deserved our accolades.  Friend, we will miss your enthusiastic support.

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 On Tuesday April 13 2010 I sadly attended the funeral service held for Anita, Ellis Kemp, beloved wife of Barry and mother to Vanessa & Stephen.  Anita born 12/10/44 passed away on 7/4/10.  She was a valued committee member of the Adelaide Outlaws Square Dance Club. 

During her eulogy Barry read a letter Anita had penned especially for the service, in which she requested a square dance be performed in her memory.  Her wishes were granted when a square formed up in the Heysen Chapel Centennial Park and danced to her favourite call, “Light the Candles”.  Thank you James Read for calling the square and to the assembled dancers for fulfilling Anita’s wish.  Rest in peace; Anita, you will be greatly missed

Left:   Anita & Barry
             (Brisbane National Convention)

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The Barn on the right Des's home on the left.

Having spent a pleasant weekend, dancing with Wild Frontier Square Dance Club in Berri SA (see http://wildfrontiersquaredanceclubinc.com/blog/?p=729) on Wednesday 31^st March, we left Berri caravan park early and headed off to Speewa via Mildura and the Murray Valley Highway for the traditional Speewa Easter dance.  We arrived, caravan in tow at Des Devereaux’s abode, Speewa Punt Road, at around 3.00 PM to be welcomed by Des and his early arrivals.

                     Des on his beloved Fergie

“The Barn” on Des’s property has been used as a square dance venue since 1968 making this Easter dance number 42.  The following is an extract of a newspaper cutting pinned to a notice board in “The Barn”.

“25 YEARS AT SPEEWA
For those who remember the early years.  ‘The Barn’ was just that!  Creaking floors, draughty walls, leaky roof, lots of dust and anything else that associated country to the city dwellers.

From humble beginnings the Barn at Speewa today serves as an example of what a small group of dedicated dancers can achieve by putting fun and friendship above perfection.  Whilst the amenities have improved, the wonderful country atmosphere that puts a smile on everyone’s face is as strong, if not stronger today than it has ever been.  Just another reason why so many of us return year after year.

And as many thousands of dancers, be it local, interstate or overseas can testify, Speewa Easters are a must on the Square Dance calendar.  Like all other times, the dance is for everyone, no matter what level you dance.

For many of us, going to Speewa is like going ‘home ‘ and the people and personalities are like an extended family.  The atmosphere has to be experienced to be appreciated.  The birthday night itself was no exception.  It saw about 150 dancers get together and have fun, renew old friendships or just enjoy the social occasion.”

These days, the barn is used but once a year for the traditional Easter dance, requiring a dedicated few to spend a lot of time cleaning up the dust that has settled over the intervening year.  Whilst  the Barn and its facilities cannot reflect their peak of yesteryear, the tradition,  friendly country atmosphere, and Des’s enthusiasm make up for any deficiencies in this regard.

                                       
                            Des's rural  property

Now for those of you that have never been to Des’s and danced in his Barn, the paddock where he parks the caravans also contains many trees, stumps and other obstructions.  Entry to the paddock is also fairly narrow.  And so with many onlookers, Des proceeded to direct us into our spot.  Left hand down, easy as you go, hard right, keep coming, as you are, whoa; forward a bit, straighten up, back up, hard right, hard left and so the instructions flowed.  Amazing, we actually parked with our caravan intact, with no dents on it or the car.

We then joined the audience and watched Des guide Tony and Heather Smith into their parking spot.  Their van is 26 foot long and weighs two and a half ton. I might add that whilst Des is yelling out instructions there is a lot of interjection from the bystanders like stop; stop; stop, or no way it wont fit, but Des  (as is his way) just ignores them and continues on. Very entertaining to watch; again, no scratches or dents, mind you we had to trim a few boughs off the adjacent tree so they could open their roof vents.

Happy campers enjoy happy hour (or two or three)

Thursday saw the arrival of more caravans and camper vans.  Happy hour which was more like happy 4 hours started at about 2.00PM  South Australia had a large TAWS contingency Chris & Allan,  Heather & Tony, Rosa & Howard, Sheila & Tom,Fay & Barry , Helen & Roger, Joyce & Aubrey and later that day, Pauline & Mick , a total of 8 caravans.

That evening Des put on a special meal as a fund raiser for Beyond Blue, which is the charity he supports.  By that time we had around 30 residents on Des’s propert, also many other dancers arrived from Hilltop Resort Motel (a fancy name for an up market motel / caravan park).

On a humorous note, I found that the toilet flush was leaking all over the floor in the toilet /shower room.  Fed up with mopping the floor and unimpressed by the ice cream container catching some of the leak, I decided to fix the problem with a new rubber seal I picked up in Swan Hill.

Unfortunately the simple replacement job was thwarted because I could not undo a seized plastic thread, so I stated to undo the water supply pipe to remove the toilet cistern when Bob (another newcomer) asked: “What are you doing?”  He had in his hand another rubber seal.  He also tried to free the seized plastic thread to no avail.  In essence what should have taken us 10 minutes to fix took us both an hour and a half.  We ended up with everything dismantled except for the toilet bowl (we joked if we had a sledge hammer we could have removed that too).  Des poked his head in but disappeared (likely in disbelief).  Eventually we got the job done and once again I mopped the muddy floor – in fact all we seemed to do was mop the floor (the water from the shower came out in big lumps which splashed around the room).

Friday saw the arrival of more vans bringing the final total up to 17 vans one tent and one couple bravely staying in one of the “heritage” on site cabins as they “always have done” (likely for the past 20 years or more).  That night, the dining room was packed out for dinner –  good country fair – steamed fish vegetables and a variety of desserts including  bread and butter pudding my favourite.

Friday's evening meal

Peter Humphries kicked off the night with 9 or 10 squares up on the floor.  We danced until around 10.30 PM and then crashed.

Saturday Des’s happy campers all assembled in the dining room for breakfast, a light repast of bacon eggs tomatoes coffee, and toast with lashings of butter.  Thus fortified many happy campers went off to do some shopping in Swan Hill (our beverage cupboard was getting a bit low) or went further on to the markets about 50 km past Swan hill.  The campsite was deserted by midday.

That evening 50 or 60 dancers assembled at 5.30PM outside the pioneer village in Swan hill to be ushered onto a paddle steamer where Peter Humphries had set up his speakers fore and aft on the bow and stern decks (that was for you nautical types for us city slickers he had speakers on the sharp and blunt end of the boat).

We all set off for a 1 hour cruise dancing on the decks as we paddled accompanied to a nice splash splash splash sound along the river.  We had two squares on the fore deck and two squares on the aft deck with continual calling by Peter.  Dancers dropped out of the squares for a rest and a relax whilst other dancers filled in the vacant spots.  It was a most pleasant way to square dance, mind you the boat was not always level and it took some time to adjust to a moving dance floor.  Peter chose some appropriate river songs and we danced past the Swan hill Caravan Park with many onlookers on the river banks to the strains of Big Wheel Turning – I just hope some of the caravaners there could see what fun we were having and enquire more about our activity (I’m always on the lookout for new dancers).

We then drove back to the Speewa ferry where lights, a marquee, servery tables and a large bonfire had been set up.  There were many, many more people at this venue than were on the boat, it looked like more than 100 people had brought along their own tables and chairs to sit down for the evening meal. 

We camped next to the River Murray at the Speewa Punt

Fergie taxies

The area was parked out and three people had arrived on tractors, there were also many families with children, the atmosphere was wonderful, a fairyland of light and sound, a truly nostalgic farm country atmosphere.  Des’s crew did a magnificent job serving up roast beef and vegetables.

Your roast dinner is served!

Peter had some appropriate music playing on his sound system and the wine (and beer) flowed like water. After many servings of pancakes and toppings, Peter played some music for the younger generation (Birdie dance, Nut-bush city limits etc) and they even did a bit of line dancing.

Tucking in

The pancake queue

The pancake crew

Birdie dance

Reluctantly we broke camp at around 10.00PM.  I noticed that many cars leaving the ferry area went on past “The Barn”, likely back to Hilltop caravan park. Wimps!  They had had enough for the night; but not us stalwarts; we assembled in the barn for some serious mainstream square dancing. 

Saturday night's marathon dance

These dancers are the stalwarts!

Now the tradition here at the Speewa Easter dance is that the first tip has 3 singing calls, the next tip has 4 calls etc.  We started off with about 5 squares, but, by about 12.30 AM when we struggled up for an eight call tip, we could not fill two squares, so we proceeded to dance a single hexagon.  We finished that tip at about 1.30 AM and Peter was quite happy we were not fit enough for another one.  We retired to our beds knowing we had crashed in style that night.

Sunday breakfast was a strange affair, not the usual rush.  Dancers straggled in from about 8.00AM with the last few just making it just after 9.00 AM when the kitchen volunteers were cleaning up.  Breakfast of sausages eggs & tomatoes went down well and helped with the revival process.

2.00 PM on Easter Sunday and we were all back into more dancing with Peter putting on a workshop.  How many positions can you Wheel & Deal from?  Most were from legal positions but some were less legal such as lines of three.  It was a comprehensive study of the move.  We also had fun learning Dip n Dive then doing an old time square dance (like they did in the 1950’s) which incorporated that call. Peter then looked at the complexities of all the circulate paths, including facing lines and other positions where dancers circulated in opposite direction including half circulate.  It was a fun workshop thoroughly enjoyed by the participants.  Those that missed out missed a great afternoon; for the many children present, Des and Peter’s partner Sandra went out scattering chocolate Easter eggs around the caravan site and they all participated in an Easter egg hunt.

 We all went home to our caravans for a long 2 hour rest before tackling the splendid dinner provided prior to the evening dance.  This evening The Barn was packed with square dancers.  The dining hall was filled to capacity and extra tables were set up on the adjoining dance floor to cope with the large numbers. 

 Peter did an excellent job catering for everyone’s taste, mainstream, plus, rounds and some modern dance  moves for the kids (and those young at heart).  What a fantastic finale to a fantastic weekend

On Monday, we regrouped early in the morning for one last breakfast.  Those that were leaving that day said their fond fair well’s whilst other dancers departing at a later date went about packing up whilst they reflected on a wonderful weekend which epitomized the true character of the wonderful square dance fraternity of which we are all a part.

Peter Humphries Speewas Regular Easter Caller

Just when I thought it was all over, Des arrived to tell us that “road kill” was on that night, his way of saying that those remaining were invited to finish off any leftovers.  Heather and Helen rounded up any spare fruit the SA fraternity could not take back over the border and made a magnificent fruit salad.  We all enjoyed our last supper (until next year) and then watched a slide show of Des’s passion: Ferguson tractors.

The last supper

Heather Des and Helen (our fresh fruit salad makers)

Yes! The dishes still had to be done before Des would let us go.

If you have never been to Speewa before, you have one more  chance to attend.  Next year (2011) will be Des’s 80th year and he wants to hold one more Easter dance.  If you are local to Victoria, from interstate or overseas and would like to experience true blue Australian hospitality and friendship “country style” then you must not miss this last event.  Des does not have a computer or a web site so, for more information or to register your interest in attending, you can contact us from this site, or go to Peter Humphries website at http://members.optusnet.com.au/~ozicaller/ or the ContactUs page of http://WildFrontierSA.com/ and your mail will be forwarded on to the right person.  Accommodation on Des’s property is limited essentially to a few caravans, however, Hilltop Resort (about 5 kilometres from The Barn) features modern unit accommodation plus a caravan park with cabins and ensuite caravan or tent sites (see www.hilltopresort.com.au) – but you must book early because Easter weekends will fill the place to capacity.

We hope to see you there next Easter.

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His diary is too BIG to print in Squuare Dance Magazine, BUT, if you click on the link below, it will take you to a page on the National Square Dance Society Website where by a simple click you can download a .PDF copy of his diary.

http://squaredance.org.au/Associations/TAWS/National-Diary-of-Events

Beware those of you on dial up this is a large (593 Kb) 19 Page long document, so click on download, then go and make yourself a three course meal which includes a roast turkey and veggies.

Once downloaded make sure you have a couple of trees in your printer and go find your magnifying glass to read the small print.  This tome contains a lot of information and is a most useful document to carry in your caravan.

Well done Mal

             This is Mal Parrington

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            Jeff Seidel with Jack Murphy at his 90th

A Brief History of the A.C.F is given below:

 The A.C.F. was officially created in Adelaide on the 23rd September 1979. Going back a little further in time, a trio of callers, Wally Cook, Jack Murphy & Jeff Seidel were touring in North Queensland. Over the odd meat pie and occasional beer, they discussed the topics of caller programming and how things could be improved for the betterment of square dancing (for both dancers and callers) in Australia.

 A list of callers was drawn up, noting their calling quality and what they had achieved for square dancing in their state and Australia as a whole.  A short list of two callers from each state was chosen, except for Victoria, which at that time had two factions. Both factions had to be considered, in an effort to bring together all the callers of that State; consequently five callers were selected from Victoria.

 Subsequently on 23rd September 1979, Jeff Seidel (also convenor of the upcoming 21st National Square Dance Convention) took the opportunity to send out invitations (in the same way Callerlab was formed) to the selected group of Australian callers to join this new body. The founding callers were as follows:

President: Jeff Seidel     S.A

Vice-President: Tom McGrath     N.S.W.

Secretary/Treasurer: Don Muldowney* S.A. (not part of the board)

Ron Jones N.S.W

Eric Wendell* & Graham Rigby: QLD.

Les Johnson* & Steve Turner: W.A.

Fred Burn* & Graeme Whiteley: TAS

David Hooper; Ron Whyte*; Ron Mennie; Jack Murphy & Wally Cook*: VIC

Allan Frost*: S.A.

(*member now deceased)

All original members were made “Life Members”.         The name “Australian Callers Federation”, known as the A.C.F. was the suggestion of Ron Jones N.S.W.

The group decided that the 1980, 21st National Convention held in Adelaide South Australia, would be an opportune time to present to callers and dancers alike this newly formed callers body.

In its early years meetings were held twice a year, one at the National Convention and one about half way between. At the second meeting a fundraiser dance was also held. The A.C.F. also started its own newsletter / note service, then called “News & Notes”, later being renamed “Caller Link”.  Steve Turner was the first editor of this service. The Australian Callers Federation is now 25 years old, and Jeff Seidel has been a board member since its inception.

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                        Cadell Street

 Cadell Street, the main thoroughfare was closed between Goolwa Terrace and Moore Street allowing 10, 000 or so visitors to spill onto it; song and dance were rife, and traders exhibited their best produce.  Traditionally, Goolwa Alive kicks of the tourism season and it certainly did just that.  Tanya Mitchell, tourism coordinator for the Alexandrina Council said “It’s lovely to see such a sea of people having a good time”.

Amongst those having a good time were the Goolwa Paddle Steamers Square Dance Club.  Assisted by a few dancers from Kanella Squares and Wild Frontier Square Dance clubs, they put on a square dance demonstration in the main street.

                              Square Dancing In Cadell Street

Square Dance Magazine wishes the Paddle Steamer all the future success they deserve.  Their caller Milton McKenzie travels each week down from Adelaide and Zaree the club secretary has certainly done a great job getting this new small club up and running.  The club was recently invited to do another demonstration dance at Sea Change Village, which went off very well, their learners are also doing very well now.

                            Paddle Steamers

          Milton (2^nd on left) and Zaree (far right)

Well done Paddle Steamers, we need to bring square dancing to the attention of the general public most of who are totally unaware that it exists.

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In May 2009, Jeff Seidel had the privilege to present Graeme Whiteley with his well deserved golden microphone award (a golden badge and a framed certificate) from the Australian Callers Federation (ACF) in recognition of his 50 years of contribution to Australian square dancing. 

On the left is a photo of Graeme Whiteley on the night of the presentation (please click to enlarge)

Graeme & Jeff were founding members of the ACF established in 1979, and are both well known in square dancing circles.  Graeme holds the record for the longest time anyone in Australia has called for the same club in the same hall, he opened his club the Tassie Twirlers at Kindred, Tasmania in 1967 and has been there ever since.

Fifty years of calling is a great milestone, well done Graeme

For the full storey go to: http://wildfrontiersquaredanceclubinc.com/blog/?p=495

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Graham Elliott in Hippie Costume Calling

Graham and Dawn

Country Cousins

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The Traveling Hoedowners have a well deserved reputation for the high quality Square Dance training videos they have produced in the past. Their latest production is a 4 disc DVD/CD combo set designed to provide music for square dance parties.

Once again, as with their previous productions, "Square Dance Party!" has been professionally filmed and produced to a very high standard, with Paul Place and Gene McCullough as the Callers. Sadly Paul Place died just after the videoing and taping was completed. There is both a Mainstream DVD/CD and a Plus DVD/CD so there's something for everybody. The DVD contains music, calls and video while the CD is only music with calls.

The advantage of having both CD's and DVD's in the set is that it shouldn't be a problem finding the right equipment to play them - most bases are covered. It doesn't matter whether you have a PC or Hi-Fi equipment, one of the discs will work. I tested both types of discs on my laptop using Real Player (free PC software) without any problems and also on my Hi-Fi system.

The DVD's have an easy to use menu system for selecting a dance and the CD's use standard retail track listings. There is a mixture of singing calls and patters, with 16 Mainstream and 14 Plus dances. Most users will probably only be interested in the music and calling but the DVD's also include video, so if you have a large screen tv or digital projector you can certainly liven up the party with videos.

If you're looking for some Mainstream or Plus square dance music then put "Square Dance Party!" at the top of your list. You won't be disappointed by this very professional production! The Traveling Hoedowners set a standard that is almost impossible for anyone else to exceed, such is the quality of their productions.

Samples from The Traveling Hoedowners Square Dance DVDs can be viewed here.

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The presentation explained behind the scenes aspects of square dance calling.  The audience expectations were diverse ranging from those just interested to find out more about what goes on behind the microphone to those who have aspirations to become callers and novice callers already dabbling in the art

Graham opened the workshop by asking the audience to explain why they were there, were they intending to call and did they have any particular questions they would like answered?  Questions were wide ranging including music copyright issues and a general interest in learning more about hoedowns and choreography.

Jeff continued the workshop in his role as the Caller Association's education officer.  He discussed the cost of equipment, the need for insurance and a licence to legally play copyright music.  He also emphasised that callers have a commitment; they cannot stay at home on cold nights and must always consider their role as teachers whilst remembering that the aim of the game is for dancers to enjoy themselves.

Hoedowns are the most difficult calls to make, novice callers need to learn how to sequence the calls bearing in mind the direction and flow of the dancers so that abrupt changes in direction or sequence of hand holds is not interrupted.  Singing calls are easier, they have everything packaged in the call, the timing and choreography is built in, all the caller has to do is learn the call.

Jeff played some examples of music he uses for hoedowns.  The music was actually that used for a singing call, however the caller can use it to sing the hoedown instructions rather than use monotone calls.  Hoedowns can also be used as a tool to focus dancers on specific choreography incorporated in a singing call that follows the hoedown.

Jeff felt that whilst callers must adjust to the capabilities of the dancers on the floor, dancers should also be challenged so that they learn and become more proficient.  Because called must adjust to conditions on the floor, they need to watch what is happening; calling of a written sheet does not work.  Situations have occurred where a caller reading a cue sheet has continued calling whilst looking at the sheet, oblivious to the fact that all squares have broken down.

Callers must be competent dancers at the level they call, able to execute all the moves they call, in fact Caller Lab recommends that callers dance one grade higher than they call, which is not always possible.  It is also a prerequisite that callers teach square dancing.  The rate that calls can be taught will depend on the learners ability to absorb;  one week learners may be able to pick up many calls, the following week they may not be able to execute those calls.  The learning rate will not be constant.

Callers need to visualise their calls in advance, however they tend to visualiser them in their gender.  Therefore a male caller may choreograph moves that work well for a left hand dancer (beau) but are difficult for their partner (belle).  Jeff choreographed some instances where the left hand dancer flowed whilst the right hand dancer was either in a position where it was difficult to execute the next move or the dancer had to use the same hand a second time to execute the second move, thus interrupting the dancers flow.  Jeff gave a number of demonstrations of sight calling where the caller keeps tabs on couples 1 & 4.  Mirror dance formations and others were demonstrated showing different choreography used to bring out of sequence dancers back into sequence so that they could promenade home.

Owing to a limited number of Caller Association members in SA, it was recommended that learner callers work with their own club callers.

My suggestion that learner callers be given a chance with learner classes was not favourably received (I will work more on this issue). I believe learner's classes are ideal places for learner callers to progressively learn hoedown sequences.  Few proficient dancers will patiently perform circle to the left, allemande left, turn your partner by the right and dosado's as first learned by novices.  Only a learner's class progressively introduces additional calls week by week over a long time frame, slowly integrating them to reinforce all the previously learned movements.  In other words only a learner's class slowly introduces the dancers to a hoedown.  I therefore believe this is ideal territory to slowly introduce novice callers to hoedown territory.

I believe novice callers should practice their singing calls at their clubs mainstream dances, be angels at their clubs learner's classes and allowed to give a call there.  In this way learners will benefit hearing another voice and will not worry if they break down, knowing that the caller is also in a similar predicament to them.  Further, the novice caller will be exposed to the learning sequence employed by a proficient caller who can critique / prompt the novice (and the floor at the same time if necessary).

I believe we need more callers, more dancers and an improved dancer proficiency .  Too many dancers at the pervious nights Society Dance had problems dancing to callers other than their own, had problems listening to a new voice, were unfamiliar with left hand movements or appeared not to have been taught all the calls (which may be attributable to intermittent attendance at learner's classes).  In my opinion, the standard of square dancing in SA has declined over the last 3 years (the time I have been square dancing) too many dancers only dance at one club, more cross fertilisation between club dancers in needed, not just the regular few who attend Society dances.  We also have fundamental problems, many of our callers are aging and their retirement is looming; we need a more callers if we are to progress, the younger they are, the more secure our future will be.

Congratulations Jeff, Les and Graham, more workshops please and a bigger audience too - perhaps many fear that if they attend they must become callers (which is not the case).  The workshop was well worth while, we need more of them. 

Square Dance Magazine and I want square dancing to progress, we need to halt the slow downward spiral and all make an effort to expand this worthy activity.  Reader's comments are welcome.

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