BETWEEN TIPS
"BETWEEN TIPS" is the official bulletin of the
SQUARE & ROUND DANCE FEDERATION OF NOVA SCOTIA
Alex Ritchie, Editor, 58 Oakdale Crescent, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2L8
phone (902) 469-1492 email: alexandgaylan@email.msn.com
SEPTEMBER 2000
(Back Issues) (Return to Home Index)
Compiled by: Bob & Inge Ruohoniemi, Vice-Presidents, SRDFNS
AGM 2000
Readers are reminded that the Annual General Meeting of the Federation will be held on Saturday 23September, 2000. Delegates should register at 12:30 pm at the Bloomfield Centre, Halifax. All Regional &Club Representatives are expected to attend this once-per-year meeting, to discuss & decide issues ofimportance to Square & Round Dancing in the Province. If your Club members are interested in the future ofour activity they should be represented. Individual dancers are always welcome to attend.
Performance/Entertainment/Demonstration (PED) Show
Plans have been finalized for the PED Show on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 6pm at the Bedford Junior HighSchool, Rocky Lake Drive. This show is designed to provide both information & entertainment for NovaScotia Square & Round Dancers. Display Booths will be set up by various agencies, dance-relatedorganizations, & commercial businesses. Refreshments will be provided during the exhibit period & variousraffles/draws will be held. Live entertainment by Young Dancers, Barbershop Singers, & others will bepresented. The public is invited to visit, so bring along a friend or relative to the show and the following dance!
ANSSRDT/SRDFNS Dance
Saturday Sept. 23, 8 to 10:30pm, at the Bedford Junior High School, Rocky Lake Drive. All availableANSSRDT Callers & Cuers will be performing. Door prizes, Banner Displays, and Special Awards will bemade. Federation contacts are: Bob & Inge Ruohoniemi 902-757-3884, E-mail; bobruoho@ns.sympatico.ca.
Recent Activities
Our Federation Representatives to the Canadian Square & Round Dance Society, Lawrence & AliceHarrison have exchanged positions with our Publicity Chairs, Ralph & Barb MacDonald. Both couples deservethanks for the work they have done for the dancers in Nova Scotia, & for agreeing to continue to volunteer formore!
The Long Term Service Award certificate has been designed for presentation once the Committee hasfinalized the award guidelines. Clubs are asked to inform their Federation Regional Reps wheneverClubs/Callers/Cuers achieve significant 20-year or more, milestones in their dancing careers.
The Federation project at the 50 Plus Expo was very successful with participation by dancers fromseveral different parts of the province. Hopefully, the priceless publicity from the TV appearance will remindthe public that Square & Round Dancing is alive and well in Nova Scotia!
CLUB REGISTRATION & INSURANCE
Club Callers/Cuers/Executive Committees are reminded that they should bring their FederationRegistration and Insurance monies to the Annual General Meeting on 23 September.
DRESS CODE SURVEY
The results of the Dress Code survey carried out in this province have been compiled and the results of alarge survey done in Quebec are also shown below. In both places the majority indicated they do not want achange.
DRESS CODE SURVEY INFORMATION:
| in NS 94% | in QUE 6% | answered YES |
FEDERATION PROMOTION.
Readers are invited to pass along the above information to other dancers and to also encourage them tosubscribe to this "official bulletin" & the Calendar of our Nova Scotia Federation. Subscription requests with $15should be sent to: Treasurer, SRDFNS, Douglas & Audrie Hill, RR3, Lunenburgh, NS B0J 2C0
Internet members should note that all the latest changes to the Fed. Calendar are entered on the Federation Web-page "when received". For the latest & greatest check it out at: www.chebucto.ns.ca/Culture/SRDFNS/
PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGES:
The "Lake City Swingers" and the "Coordinators" will have a new regular dance hall location.
The Days & Times remain the same but their regular dance hall is:
North Woodside Community Centre
Pleasant Street, Dartmouth.
Also the "Lake City Swingers Swing Into Fall Dance" is change to Saturday, October 21 at this new location.
The "Scotia Dancers Square Dance Club" have a new regular dance hall location.
The Day & Time remains the same but their new regular dance hall is:
Sackville Heights Junior High School
Lower Sackville, (off Sackville Drive)
New Zealand Visitors
On Friday, August 4th Rag Rounds and Dancing Shadows hosted a well attended special RoundDance at St. James United Church Hall in Dartmouth. This dance successfully gave a great bigNova Scotian welcome to two visiting Cuers from New Zealand, namely Shirley Fisher and PatCorcoran. Days later they continued to express their delight with Nova Scotian hospitality.
a very popular Square Dance caller and teacher
recipient of
The John Essex Award for Excellence in Teaching Dance
This award was created three years ago in honour of Nova Scotian Square DanceCaller and teacher, John Essex, to be presented annually to a Nova Scotian danceteacher who best exemplifies the qualities of dedication to students, community andto dance.
Pat Alguire is the third recipient of this veryspecial award. The presentation was made byDianne Milligan, Executive Director of DANS on June 3rd, 2000 at theCobequid Twirlers' Lobster Jamboree in Truro. The picture on the left showsDianne Milligan with John Essex holding the award as Pat Alguire thankedthe assembled dancers. Pat has been a long time member of Dance NovaScotia and a worthy recipient of this award.
Pat has been very busy this Summer with dance activities. She recentlycalled for square dancers on the Natal Day float, called for dancers at theBedford Waterfront Park, guest caller on July 8th Summerside, PEI, called forthe Summer Dance sessions held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and ison staff with the NS Dance Federation's Dance Camp held in August. We arevery proud of Pat's many achievements!
Pat and her husband Jim began calling for the Scotia Dancers in early 1978. Each year they ran a class, with Jimand Pat sharing the instructional duties each week. The class members always appreciated Pat's arrival in theclassroom, particularly after a difficult training session with Jim! Her pleasant singing and gentle teachingtechnique was much appreciated.
After Jim's untimely death, Pat returned to Scotia Dancers to become the club caller the following year. Sheshowed great dedication to the activity and performed her duties with skill and enthusiasm. Over the last two years,Pat has become an avid recruiter of new Square Dancers, by volunteering to conduct special beginner classeswhenever sufficient numbers were available. This has meant a great deal to the club in both acquiring newmembers but also in creating a new dynamic among the dancers.
Pat Alguire often demonstrates her exceptional teaching skills during regular dances when she is able to instructclub members in new movements as well as traditional steps long forgotten by others. Recently she has beenteaching a higher level of Square Dancing to club members. Their competence amply demonstrates both herleadership and teaching skills.
The Scotia Dancers are indeed fortunate to enjoy the services of Pat Alguire both as theclub caller and as a class instructor. After 25 years of calling and teaching, Patcontinues to be an enthusiastic member of the Square and Round Dance family.
Congratulations to Doris and Adolphe Comeau
On June 23 at the Bluenose Twirlers' NB-NS Exchange Trail In Dance Doris and Adolphe Comeau were presentedwith a certificate for their 34 years of square dancing. Doris and Adolphe dance with The Bluenose Twirlers andwith Danseurs Acadien De Clare.
Where am I? What am I doing here? Colourful square formations are meshed over a brown wooden board. Colours of red, blue, green, pink, purple, and orange begin to move into a conglomeration of bright hues. Wheredid the square formations go? It must be a kaleidoscope with all its' diverse movements of circles, boxes, anglesand colours.
Bright lights emphasize all the colourful movements, and I hear some sort of familiar, low music. Red, blue,green, and purple shapes of the intriguing kaleidoscope move round and round until the music stops. Theconglomeration of colours scatter to happy squares, and then disappear to other points on the brown board.
Why am I up here where the lights are dim, high above the colourful happiness when the kaleidoscopeappears? What's going on down there? Where am I?
The music begins again. Oh boy! I'll get to enjoy the magnificent colours and movements again. I was a partof all this happiness and colours, and not so long ago. I just can't figure it out! The colourful, vivant kaleidoscopedisappears.
I hear a familiar voice. My grand daughter, Tracy, kisses me, and releases me from my deep trance. "Grandma, look down there. Mama and Daddy are waving to us from the dance floor. Don't you love Mama'ssexy royal blue dress, matching petticoat and silver dance shoes? And, look at Daddy how distinguished in his greyWestern Suit and his bola neckwear you brought him from New Mexico."
"It's so beautiful here, Tracy. But, I'm still not sure where I am or what's happening. I'm glad I came,though. Why are your Mama and Daddy down there; not up here with us?"
"Grandma, Mama and Daddy are square dancing. This is the Annual Square Dance Festival at theauditorium."
"Oh, that's it! I square danced for many years until I got arthritis, and I couldn't hear too good. I talked yourMama and Daddy into square dancing."
"You were a pro. I remember the pretty dresses you made, and all the colourful, fluffy petticoats stacked oneon top of the other in the corner of your bedroom; some hung from an amazing ceiling chain every colourimaginable, red, green blue, yel low, pink, even purple. They looked like colourful flowers."
"I have on my favourite fashion show dress I modelled at my last festival, and I saved my silver and golddance shoes. I want to dance again!"
"You look pretty in that dress, Grandma, I know you'll dance again."
The music began when the square dance caller, dressed in a Western Suit, appeared. Cheerful dancers,adorned in their colourful attire in every colour imaginable, appeared on the dance floor and hastily moved intocolourful square formations; some hugged and shook hands. "Hi, how ya doin'?" The caller began his musicaldance routine.
It seems like yesterday when I took my beginner lessons many years ago. The dance room was jam-packedfrom wall to wall with happy single dancers. I had a horrendous time to stay in the same square in which I began. Sometimes, I didn't! The caller said go left, and I went right. I saw the colourful formations of the kaleidoscopeeven then; reds, blues, greens, purples moved until the caller completed his musical dance routine.
I was a terrible dancer, but I never gave up. I didn't know where I was or where I should be; just like now. Iknow what my problem is, I'm senile!
I was a square dance caller; the only female caller in the city. The male callers named me, the drill sergeant. I was determined to teach the beginners to be excellent dancers. The colourful moving kaleidoscope was especiallyvisible to me while I taught. The sight was incredible, with all the conglomerations of colours, angles, circles andsquares like the one I see now.
Tracy touched my arm. Once again, I was released from my trance. "Where are my daughter and herhusband? They're somewhere down there. I want to go where I can dance!"
"Grandma, let's go to the auditorium floor by the happy dancers. I'll help you down. How's about a frostedglass of Coke and some of that delicious smelling popcorn?" Tracy took her arm. "Daddy's so proud you're hereand wants to dance with you and show you off.
"Oh yes. help me down to the dance floor. I have my silver dance shoes on. I want to dance again, to be apart of the festival tonight. Let me revel in the happiness where the beautiful colours are vivant and moving. Takeme down to the happy kaleidoscope.