Anaheim, Dancers Square Off Over Use of Senior Center

“So, you came to check out our little subculture, huh?” says a smiling Buzz Coller as we stand inside the Anaheim Senior Citizens Center.

On this night, as it often is, the center’s main room is being used as a dance hall. Out on the floor, 32 novice square-dancers are going through paces gently ordered by caller Bruce Jackson, who stands on a stage with a microphone and asks for such maneuvers as “Pass the Ocean” and “Chain Down the Line.”

A subculture, to be sure, but one inhabited by thousands of people in Orange County and surrounding communities. The California Square Dancer Blue Book lists 26 Orange County clubs, and members say most clubs average 100 to 150 members.

But as much fun as everyone seems to be having out there on the floor, these aren’t the best of times for square-dancers. As entertainment options expand, Coller says, club memberships are declining. The ongoing fear is that newer, hipper generations will see square-dancing as . . . square.

And now, just when square-dancers could use some sugar, the city of Anaheim throws salt on their wounds.

The issue is what happens when the senior center is demolished later this spring. Representatives of a few clubs who regularly dance there say Anaheim officials told them throughout last year that they’d simply relocate a block away in the city’s new community center.

Now, the clubs have been told they aren’t guaranteed any nights at the new center. That is ominous for a pastime that books callers years in advance and has a vast network of printed schedules and group events. It’s hard to do that if you don’t know where you’ll be in six months.

“We’re scrambling around, looking to find halls to dance in,” Jackson tells me before he begins Wednesday night’s programs. A few minutes later, his wife, Dottie, says, “It’s very difficult to go out there and find a place, with the amount of money we have to spend. Some places want four, five, six hundred dollars a night and we can’t afford that.”

Perhaps square-dancing soothes the soul, because I can’t say the Jacksons and other club representatives I spoke to this week are outraged. Miffed is more like it.

“It seems like they were telling us one thing, and behind our backs they were planning to do something else,” says William Betz, past president of Rustlers, one of the county’s largest clubs at just under 200 members. “I talked to them [senior center officials] many times last year when we found out they were building a new center, and I knew we were going to be moving. At the time, we were told, ‘No problem,’ that we’d be grandfathered into the new center and we’d be able to dance.”

Dave McHaffie, who does advertising for the Buttons & Bows club, says, “Halls are very hard to find, and some that are available would put you out of business in one evening because they’re so expensive.”

The Guns N’ Garters club, which has danced at the senior center for five years, also was told it would be “grandfathered” in, says past president Bob Fraitag.

“The problem is to find a facility that has a dance floor large enough to accommodate 200 people on a Saturday night or whenever,” he says. “Once you have a night established, you hire callers. You book them years ahead. You have to get a good caller, because they’re in demand in Southern California and nationally. You lock them up two years to three to four years. You sign a contract with them. You can’t rotate a night.”

What galls club members was the perceived lack of respect from the city.

“We’re kind of irritated, but we have to be able to swing with this,” says Lutz Moeckel, a Guns N’ Garters member since 1990. Lamenting that square-dance clubs haven’t exercised enough clout, Moeckel says, “We shoot ourselves in the foot by not advertising more. The first week in February, you could have found 6,000 square-dancers in Del Mar, in March 10,000 in Bakersfield, in April you could find 6,000 in Palm Springs for the state convention. In all honesty, we don’t do a good job of promoting the culture. We stretch across from the lowly guy who cleans toilets and puts rivets in airplanes to doctors, lawyers and what-have-you.”

The club members say the city still hasn’t formally notified they don’t have a spot in the new center. Word-of-mouth has served as their official notice.

I sense their problem. I phoned the Anaheim city official with whom Fraitag dealt, and although her message machine said she would be in the office all day, she didn’t return my call.

So, let’s close with this instead:

A couple years ago, a contingent from some Orange County clubs went to San Antonio to make a pitch for the 50th National Square Dance Convention.

They succeeded. So, for three days in June of 2001, an expected 40,000 or more square-dancers from around the country will descend on and spend their money in . . . Anaheim.

It’s the kind of irony that makes a guy want to stomp on his hat.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com