Calling All Square-Dancers

For square-dancers, it’s the ultimate call: The entire country do-si-do-ing into their own backyard.

Each year, the National Square Dance Convention attracts thousands of dancers and who-knows-how-many miles of ruffles and lace. This weekend, San Antonio is in the spotlight.

But, for hundreds of Californians, this year’s Texas get-together is merely a staging area for a bigger, grander convention five years down the road in their city of choice: Anaheim.

Traveling by plane and in a caravan of nearly 70 motor homes and autos--which made dance stops in several cities along the way--300 Orange County square-dancers joined more than 1,000 other California twirlers in San Antonio.

There, today, they are making the case to bring the 50th National Square Dance Convention to the Golden State in the year 2001.

They will use a video, booklets bulging with information and their show of numbers in a grand costumed entrance to help seal the deal. The truth is, there’s little doubt that the effort to bring the national convention to Anaheim in 2001 will be successful.

But who’s taking chances?

The California dancers have spent eight years planning this and are prepared--no, make that counting on--spending the next five making it happen. The Democrats and Republicans have got nothing on these guys when it comes to staging a convention show.

“The more people you have there from the bidding state, the better your chances,” says Kirk Pielow of Huntington Beach, who dances with the Lariats, one of about 40 organized square-dance clubs in Orange County. (In Southern California, there are more than 200 clubs.)

When the California dancers make their bid presentation today, they will be decked out in the black and gold custom outfits--many stitched by Ruthe Johnston of Mission Viejo--that they expect to become the uniform of the 50th anniversary show.

“Each state wears a special matching outfit during the grand march of every convention,” says Johnston, 70, who--except for breaking to dance every Tuesday night with the Casta Twirlers of Mission Viejo--has been working on them nonstop for months.

One after another, she’s been sewing up the blouses of black and gold ruffles and skirts of black lace over gold panels trimmed in gold braid and finished with a rolled hem of gold thread.

“This outfit is exceptional in that it will be worn not only to this year’s convention but again in 2001,” says Johnston, who has created thousands of square-dance outfits over the past 45 years.

“The national convention is by far the most exciting event of the year,” says Lariat dancer, Del Crane of Fountain Valley. “You can meet people from all over the world and reconnect with friends you’ve made at other dances in various places over the years. It’s four days of dancing and enjoying after-dance parties, dinners, fashion shows, contests and tours of the area.”

Crane and his wife, Connie, direct 22 clubs that make up the Orange County district of the Associated Square Dancers, an umbrella organization representing a large group of independent clubs throughout Southern California.

Not only is the dance socially engaging, they tell you, but it is also mentally stimulating. And it’s excellent exercise. In a recent fitness study, the American Medical Journal came up with these facts: Square-dancers travel about five miles in the course of an evening’s dance, burning about 1,200 calories. In fact, the activity surpasses aerobics in terms of its fitness and health-related benefits.

*

Square-dancing--or “friendship set to music” as it has been described--has enjoyed an enduring popularity.

“Nobody can really explain how much fun it is,” says Jane Hadley, a Laguna Beach square-dancer belonging to the B-Sharps of America, the largest private square-dance club in the United States (its headquarters are in Van Nuys, with chapters nationwide).

“Square-dancing is really a whole lifestyle very few people know anything about,” Hadley says. “Even if you’re a beginner, you can expand and contract as you go along and find your niche.”

Square-dancing at its most basic is choreographed instructions designed to bring the four couples in a square simultaneously through complex patterns and, ultimately, back to their starting positions, where the caller asks, “Are you home?”

“It’s a game between the caller and the dancers,” says Bronc Wise, a caller from the Sacramento area. “The caller is the only one who knows what’s going to happen ahead of time, while the dancers have to figure it out as they go along.”

Larry Ward, founder and director of the B-Sharps of America, contends that square-dancing can and should be as graceful as ballroom dancing. “The dance has come out of the barn and moved into the ballroom,” says Ward, who is considered one of the top callers in the world. He is known for his approach to the dance, in which he emphasizes smoothness and styling.

Club dancers come from all parts of the United States and overseas to participate in events organized by Ward, such as the Catalina Caper held each February and featuring a gala dance in the grand ballroom of the Catalina Casino.

The dancers say that no matter where they go, whether they know anyone or not, there is a bond of friendship. Many meet through square-dancing, date through square-dancing and even marry.

There are singles clubs, couples clubs, gay clubs, black clubs. And clubs for all levels of expertise. There are state, national and international organizations, events and conventions. An estimated 375,000 people belong to modern western square-dancing clubs in the United States.

“This is really an interesting subculture,” says Gerry Lancaster, who dances with wife Deborah in the Glendale area. “It’s not the bar scene. . . . In fact, no alcohol is allowed, because you cannot be impaired when you square-dance, and, as a group, we don’t like rowdy behavior.

“Square-dancing is appealing to a more sophisticated and younger crowd today,” says Lancaster, “and I’d say it’s going from hick to hip. The baby boomers are getting older, and it’s drawing them in and causing a transition from tradition. But the dance remains a very time-honored activity and serves participants as a great social adhesive.”

*

Although winning the rights to host the national convention is usually a highly competitive process, the California bid for the 50th convention is unchallenged.

“Everyone wants the golden anniversary in the Golden State,” says Bob Byram of Signal Hill, who represents California as the bid committee chairman. A formal decision on the site is expected later this weekend.

Byram, along with wife Rita and about 40 additional volunteers drawn from Southern California square-dance clubs, have been planning 2001: A Square Dance Odyssey for years.

“We made the decision to bid on the 50th right after hosting the ’88 convention in Anaheim,” says Byram, who served then as assistant convention chair. “We actually put a reservation on the convention center at that time.”

It doesn’t hurt that Anaheim is popular with dancers, who have come in record numbers in the past. While the average attendance at national square-dance conventions is about 17,000, in Anaheim in 1976, nearly 40,000 dancers came; in 1988, more than 30,000. It’s projected that an Anaheim convention in 2001 would draw 50,000 dancers and bring in a hefty bit of business and tax revenue to the state.

“This year’s bid process is unique with California uncontested,” Byram says, “because there always are four and five cities bidding against one another.” Still, Byram and his committee elected to produce a bid presentation that simply could not be refused.

While ideas began percolating nearly a decade ago, hard work on a daily basis began about 18 months ago. Byram estimates that more than 10,000 hours of volunteer labor, hundreds of meetings and thousands of phone calls have gone into creating the 2-inch thick booklets and 13-minute video designed to persuade the convention’s National Executive Committee to select Anaheim.

Joining the Anaheim site committee in making its presentation will be representatives from the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau, the Anaheim Marriott, the Anaheim Hilton and Towers and Disneyland.

The video that committee members will see starts out with theme music known from the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and shows a space shuttle getting clearance for landing on Earth. The craft then touches down at the Anaheim Convention Center, where Bob and Rita Byram are waiting to walk the viewer through the facility.

“The video has all the information we need to present,” Byram says. “Hotel accommodations, distances to attractions, RV parks, restaurants, weather, things to see and do, square footage available for dance and literally every phase of activity planned for the convention itself.”

“This convention is right up there as one of our best pieces of business,” says John McClure of the Visitor and Convention Bureau. “We generally have two or three conventions a year that bring in these kinds of numbers.”

But the event is of value beyond the financial benefits it would bring, McClure says.

“This is an event that brings to us an important slice of American tradition. We tend to think of square-dancing as a thing of the past, but it’s not at all,” he says. “It’s still very much with us today.”

And at least until the year 2001.