Square & Round Dance

Square and Round Dancing

Our Club "Red Eagle Squares" Apeldoorn (The Netherlands)

Every week on Wednesday we have Squares with Rounds in between. Squares and Rounds are always only for fun, and fun is guaranteed! If you are interested or for more information, please contact us

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Squaredance

Squaredance is not really dancing but more like a game. You don't have to do funny steps, you simply shuffle to the beat of the music. You shuffle the different patterns, that you don't have to learn, but that the caller makes up and indicates. These patterns consist of figures that are taught one by one. You have a partner and you face another pair. Between these couples are two other couples also facing each other. This we call a square. If there are four more couples, you can make another square. A full dance hall can be ten squares, and a Jamboree has about 40 squares per hall. Our club has two squares. The music has a good beat to which you can shuffle. The genre is very divers, what counts is the speed. In the early days a lot of country music was used, nowadays we use everything we like that is useful. It's nice and relaxing, because you have to pay attention and react. How much fun you have depends on your own mood, the qualities of the caller, his choice of music and the other dancers. But there's no way you won't have fun!

Round Dance

Round Dance is a kind of Ballroom dancing. You need a partner and together you will dance Waltzes and Cha Cha's like in Ballroom. The difference is that we don't do a standard combination over and over again, we dance choreography! Every piece of music, every song, has its own combination. This way you can use the music better and adjust the dance to the sequence of the music. (Verse - chorus- -verse - chorus - instrumental interlude... or just part A - part B - part A - part B) Nobody can remember all the different choreographies (there's over 5000 dances by now), so there's someone to tell you what figure to do next. This person is the cuer, and he or she has a dance description - a card with the figures and the sequence on it.

Because of the American origin of Round Dance, there is still the Twostep that we do. The Twostep is the easiest level, and can be used to learn other rhythms like Rumba, Cha Cha, Quickstep and Jive. In the easiest level we also have Waltzes, wich can be used to learn Slow-Fox and Viennese Waltz. We also have the non-standard rhythms like Mambo, Salsa, West Coast Swing, Slow-Twostep, Bolero and Merengue that we can learn just as easy as Rumba and Jive.

So Square and Round Dancing are both interactive with the dance leader, which makes it very easy to do. No complicated combinations to remember, you only learn the name of figures and practise them until they come naturally. After that, it's pure enjoyment! We split the figures in levels and you can dance with anyone that learned the same level.

Cuer

The Cuer is the person that leads the Round Dance. He or she picks the dances, plays the music and gives the correct cues in time. The cuer knows what level the dancers can do, or what figures need to be taught. He or she also knows what dances are popular. The cueing couple can demonstrate the new figures, let the dancers practise to hash-cue modules and practise music, and finally put them together in a new dance.

Levels

In Squaredance we have Basic ( 53 figures) Mainstream (another 14 figures) Plus (another 32 figures) A1 (another 46 figures) and A2 (another 38 figures) So when you dance the A2 level you have to remember 183 figures. You see the smallest step is from Basic to Mainstream and the biggest step from Plus to A1. The general level on Special Dances is Mainstream, and you can learn to dance the Mainstream level in one year.

In Round Dance we have 5 levels (phases): Phase II to Phase VI. (Phase I has disappeared) All the figures of a certain rhythm belong to a phase. If you have learned the Phase II figures (that's only twostep and waltz) you can do all the 1500 Twosteps and Waltzes that were written in the Phase II. This is the general level at Special Dances, and you can learn Phase II in one year. Then you go on to Phase III, where all the other rhythms come at the same time, with the same names for a certain figure. Now you don't learn just figures any more you will learn complete new routines! We split the Phases in 3 levels: easy (Phase II), intermediate (Phase III/IV) and high level (Phase V/VI).

Here we are Round Dancing

Mayke is cuer and teacher and choreographer

Try it and you will love it too!

More information can be found on http://www.eaasdc.de