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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Needham is home to so many local events that it’s nearly impossible to attend all of them.
But the saying “be there or be square” doesn’t exactly apply to the Great Plain Squares’ “Fun Night” event.
On September 13, the club hosted its annual “Fun Night” for prospective square dancers to try it out and meet other square dancers in the community. As the evening attracted even those with two left feet, the Great Plain Square dancers proved that square dancing can be enjoyable and entertaining way to socialize.
The beginner square dancers hit the floor and mastered a few popular calls at the Great Plain Squares’ annual event.
As the new dancers made squares of eight in the ballroom of Needham’s Carter Methodist Church, Bob Butler taught the beginners a handful of definitions and calls, like do-si-do and promenade. Butler played a variety of music, too, showing that square dancing can even be done to songs ranging from Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance” to the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” to Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk.”
The Great Plain Squares ‘Fun Night’ event, brought beginner and experienced square dancers to do-si-do, promenade, and allemande all night.
“It used to be more popular,” said Noreen King, the class coordinator, who first learned how to square dance in elementary school. “This generation is kind of missing out, you know? They would teach it in school and you’d be afraid you’d get matched up with the dorkiest boy in school or they’d match you up by the first letter of your name. But it’s really fun,” she said.
As the new dancers got the hang of their newly-learned moves, Butler began calling more and at a faster rate, but still at a speed the beginners could keep up with. Once they took a break, one new square dancer, Ellen, noted that it was a good form of exercise, too. “They make the directions so easy and you just follow along,” she added.
Two partners promenade at Great Plain Squares’ annual ‘Fun Night.’
The classes run every Wednesday until May, where the (now) beginners will learn over one hundred calls and celebrate an informal square dancing “graduation.”
To the club members, it’s important, though, for the beginners to have fun. “The things that kept me back from square dancing was my elementary school experience, so I was very hesitant to come here,” admitted Jeff Hutton, a longtime square dancer, whose wife encouraged to join him when she took an interest in it. “It just has a really amazing energy and culture. I think the culture of it is a little stigmatized because you look around the room and well, it’s not really something young people are interested in.”
The event did bring in some younger adults, who the club hopes to see again in the coming weeks. Ruth Orenstein, another highly experienced square dancer, agreed that the class delivers an amazing energy: “It just invigorates you,” she said. “Even if you show up tired, you feel better afterwards.”
But one of the most reassuring aspects of the class is that it is so casual and the experienced dancers are not there to judge the beginners. “And here, it’s not a big deal if you mess up,” said King.
“Granted, we like to try and do it right, but if you miss a step, it’s okay.”
