Quadra Dangle Square Dance Club
When a friend brought up the idea of square dance lessons back in her hometown of Milliken, Colo., Sennin Thompson was less than enthusiastic.
“I said, ‘I don’t think so. It’s square dancing,’” Thompson said.
Fortunately her friend persuaded Thompson to give it a try.
“I went, fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since,” she said.
Her favorite part is twirling until she’s dizzy.
“I’ve always kind of liked to dance, but I suck. I’m not a good dancer at all, so having a structured dance with twirls is great. Getting dizzy is also fun,” she said.
For square dancing enthusiasts like Thompson, there may not be a better place to live than Laramie, which is home to the Quadra Dangle Society, a square dance club that meets at the historic Gray’s Gable Building and offers lessons for beginners and veterans alike.
“It’s social, it’s fun, it gives you exercise and it’s not just about dancing,” Quadra Dangle member Janie Van Oss said. “It’s about connecting with other people, and the club really tries to accommodate everyone.”
Accommodated and included is exactly how Thompson, who attends the University of Wyoming, has felt while taking lessons offered by the club every Thursday night.
“I thought I’d be really nervous and that I’d come in and go stand in the corner and feel left out, but they always include you,” Thompson said. “These are the nicest people I know… and you always get amazing food (at the community dances), which is really good for a college student.”
But it wasn’t that long ago the future of the Quadra Dangle’s home was less than certain. In 2008, a tornado wreaked severe damage upon the building. Dave Van Oss said the storm acted as a call to arms for club members and others around the country who appreciate the historic structure.
Since then, the Quadra Dangle has not only repaired the storm damage, but they’ve gone even further with facility improvements, building and grading a gravel road for visitors to use during the club’s big dances, installing a sidewalk and renovating the women’s restroom.
“They feel the lack of decorum more than the men,” Bill Wright said.
Wright, who serves on the club’s building and grounds committee with other members, said the improvements have only been possible due to the generosity of a multitude of individuals and communities. Gesturing toward a wall that lists the individuals who have donated money to the club since the storm, Wright said many possess a deep current of respect and appreciation for the building.
“The dancer communities, the Laramie community, Greeley, Loveland, Cheyenne, people out of state who danced here once or twice, they’ve all contributed. They get a feeling for the historic nature of the building,” Wright said.
Dancers provide more than just financial support. Wright explained that club members and owners invest much of their own time into building maintenance and other projects.
“This is unique in that the club actually owns the building,” Wright said. “They have to donate time, effort, labor … The benefit is we schedule ourselves when we want and we don’t have to work around somebody else’s schedule. And it does give us more of a sense of being together. People get concerned when things need to be done.”
Given the size and age of the building, maintenance is an ongoing process, Wright said, but everyone who uses the building understands upkeep is a necessary and important task.
Janie Van Oss said the Quadra Dangle club is creating more opportunities for people to get introduced to the building, and square-dancing, by offering a variety of start dates for introductory and more advanced lessons throughout the year.
“When the club started out, it had juniors, high school age kids and then the senior dancers. We used to have 700 members, so we’re trying to rebuild some of that involvement,” Janie Van Oss said. “We want to make people feel welcome, and crossing a new threshold is hard for people sometimes, but we just want people to feel comfortable enough to stop by. If they don’t want to dance, they can come in and just look at the building. When we’re dancing here Thursday nights, there are people who can show them around.”
Those interested in signing up for dance lessons can attend classes Thursday by calling Lewis G. Lyon at 307 760 1994 or email to quadradangle@gmail.com.
Hey-see-do-see huh?
Cut the interlocked diamond. Break the wave. Now allemande left, then do sa do and see what happens.
Those unfamiliar with the above terms may feel lost. Those familiar with the above terms may have been square danced into a corner.
Good square dance callers like Dave Guille, who calls at the Quadra Dangle and around the world, make sure that doesn’t happen. With Guille calling, dancers will finish with their original partners back where they started. But where the dancers go between start and finish relies upon a multitude of elements such as athleticism, comprehension, memorization and mathematics coming together in fluid expression.
“It all has to mesh. In other words, the dancers cannot go at their own speed. That’s what the music is for; it gives them that beat and that time as to complete that formation. The caller’s job is to put them into position so they can do it, but it’s also his job to get them out of that figure and get them to their original spot and original partner,” Guille said. “It’s their job to do it, and it’s my job to try and get them there.”
Dancing is often thought of as random and unstructured, depending on the style and individual, but American Square Dancing has been structured so the moves associated with the language are consistent the world over, Guille said.
“They’ve been accepted internationally through what we call a caller lab, which is the international association of callers around the world.
“If you do American Square Dancing in this country you can go any place in the world and square dance. It’s all done in English and the moves are all agreed upon,” Guille said. “It’s an international language as far as dancing is concerned.”
Names and moves have developed at different points in time, some going back to the first pioneers.
“There have been figures that have gone back to the early pioneers like promenade and allemande left,” Guille said. “But there’s a lot of different dips and dives they had years ago that are not used anymore. They’ve kind of done away with some of the old mechanisms and have modernized it.”
Not to imply that everything’s been done when it comes to square dancing. Callers and dancers continue to evolve square dancing through new combinations of moves, Guille said.
“I’ve been calling 42 years, but there’s always something to learn. As a matter of fact, I’m a terrible person for dancing because I’ll hear a caller come up with a sequence of how he gets (the dancers) in and out and I’ll say to myself, ‘Hey, that’s great,’ but by the time I think that I’m out of the sequence,” he said.
“I’m thinking about the engineering and the concepts. It becomes a mathematical equation.”
While callers and dancers bring their own styles to square dancing, one thing has remained constant in the form the world over, Guille said.
“I enjoy the people. I like the camaraderie of new friends you make all the time. Square dancing has taken us all over the world. We’ve called in Scotland, England, Alaska, Hawaii, so it’s been very, very good to us,” he said. “People from all walks of life — physicians, attorneys, plumbers, electricians — whatever their forte is, they’re all equal and feel a bond when they’re together to square dance.”
“I said, ‘I don’t think so. It’s square dancing,’” Thompson said.
Fortunately her friend persuaded Thompson to give it a try.
“I went, fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since,” she said.
Her favorite part is twirling until she’s dizzy.
“I’ve always kind of liked to dance, but I suck. I’m not a good dancer at all, so having a structured dance with twirls is great. Getting dizzy is also fun,” she said.
For square dancing enthusiasts like Thompson, there may not be a better place to live than Laramie, which is home to the Quadra Dangle Society, a square dance club that meets at the historic Gray’s Gable Building and offers lessons for beginners and veterans alike.
“It’s social, it’s fun, it gives you exercise and it’s not just about dancing,” Quadra Dangle member Janie Van Oss said. “It’s about connecting with other people, and the club really tries to accommodate everyone.”
Accommodated and included is exactly how Thompson, who attends the University of Wyoming, has felt while taking lessons offered by the club every Thursday night.
“I thought I’d be really nervous and that I’d come in and go stand in the corner and feel left out, but they always include you,” Thompson said. “These are the nicest people I know… and you always get amazing food (at the community dances), which is really good for a college student.”
But it wasn’t that long ago the future of the Quadra Dangle’s home was less than certain. In 2008, a tornado wreaked severe damage upon the building. Dave Van Oss said the storm acted as a call to arms for club members and others around the country who appreciate the historic structure.
Since then, the Quadra Dangle has not only repaired the storm damage, but they’ve gone even further with facility improvements, building and grading a gravel road for visitors to use during the club’s big dances, installing a sidewalk and renovating the women’s restroom.
“They feel the lack of decorum more than the men,” Bill Wright said.
Wright, who serves on the club’s building and grounds committee with other members, said the improvements have only been possible due to the generosity of a multitude of individuals and communities. Gesturing toward a wall that lists the individuals who have donated money to the club since the storm, Wright said many possess a deep current of respect and appreciation for the building.
“The dancer communities, the Laramie community, Greeley, Loveland, Cheyenne, people out of state who danced here once or twice, they’ve all contributed. They get a feeling for the historic nature of the building,” Wright said.
Dancers provide more than just financial support. Wright explained that club members and owners invest much of their own time into building maintenance and other projects.
“This is unique in that the club actually owns the building,” Wright said. “They have to donate time, effort, labor … The benefit is we schedule ourselves when we want and we don’t have to work around somebody else’s schedule. And it does give us more of a sense of being together. People get concerned when things need to be done.”
Given the size and age of the building, maintenance is an ongoing process, Wright said, but everyone who uses the building understands upkeep is a necessary and important task.
Janie Van Oss said the Quadra Dangle club is creating more opportunities for people to get introduced to the building, and square-dancing, by offering a variety of start dates for introductory and more advanced lessons throughout the year.
“When the club started out, it had juniors, high school age kids and then the senior dancers. We used to have 700 members, so we’re trying to rebuild some of that involvement,” Janie Van Oss said. “We want to make people feel welcome, and crossing a new threshold is hard for people sometimes, but we just want people to feel comfortable enough to stop by. If they don’t want to dance, they can come in and just look at the building. When we’re dancing here Thursday nights, there are people who can show them around.”
Those interested in signing up for dance lessons can attend classes Thursday by calling Lewis G. Lyon at 307 760 1994 or email to quadradangle@gmail.com.
Hey-see-do-see huh?
Cut the interlocked diamond. Break the wave. Now allemande left, then do sa do and see what happens.
Those unfamiliar with the above terms may feel lost. Those familiar with the above terms may have been square danced into a corner.
Good square dance callers like Dave Guille, who calls at the Quadra Dangle and around the world, make sure that doesn’t happen. With Guille calling, dancers will finish with their original partners back where they started. But where the dancers go between start and finish relies upon a multitude of elements such as athleticism, comprehension, memorization and mathematics coming together in fluid expression.
“It all has to mesh. In other words, the dancers cannot go at their own speed. That’s what the music is for; it gives them that beat and that time as to complete that formation. The caller’s job is to put them into position so they can do it, but it’s also his job to get them out of that figure and get them to their original spot and original partner,” Guille said. “It’s their job to do it, and it’s my job to try and get them there.”
Dancing is often thought of as random and unstructured, depending on the style and individual, but American Square Dancing has been structured so the moves associated with the language are consistent the world over, Guille said.
“They’ve been accepted internationally through what we call a caller lab, which is the international association of callers around the world.
“If you do American Square Dancing in this country you can go any place in the world and square dance. It’s all done in English and the moves are all agreed upon,” Guille said. “It’s an international language as far as dancing is concerned.”
Names and moves have developed at different points in time, some going back to the first pioneers.
“There have been figures that have gone back to the early pioneers like promenade and allemande left,” Guille said. “But there’s a lot of different dips and dives they had years ago that are not used anymore. They’ve kind of done away with some of the old mechanisms and have modernized it.”
Not to imply that everything’s been done when it comes to square dancing. Callers and dancers continue to evolve square dancing through new combinations of moves, Guille said.
“I’ve been calling 42 years, but there’s always something to learn. As a matter of fact, I’m a terrible person for dancing because I’ll hear a caller come up with a sequence of how he gets (the dancers) in and out and I’ll say to myself, ‘Hey, that’s great,’ but by the time I think that I’m out of the sequence,” he said.
“I’m thinking about the engineering and the concepts. It becomes a mathematical equation.”
While callers and dancers bring their own styles to square dancing, one thing has remained constant in the form the world over, Guille said.
“I enjoy the people. I like the camaraderie of new friends you make all the time. Square dancing has taken us all over the world. We’ve called in Scotland, England, Alaska, Hawaii, so it’s been very, very good to us,” he said. “People from all walks of life — physicians, attorneys, plumbers, electricians — whatever their forte is, they’re all equal and feel a bond when they’re together to square dance.”