- April 22, 2024
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Despite wide declines in the artform, the Granada Squares square-dancing club, which meets weekly at the senior center, is entering its 38th year.
BY PAULA BUCK | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
John Saunders struck up the band, and the Granada Squares swung into action.
Every Tuesday, 40-plus members of the club shake their stuff on the hardwood floor of the Ormond Beach Senior Center, at 351 Andrews St. In perfect synchronicity, they execute moves in square, round and line dances. But don’t call it corny.
“Many people think square dancing is hokey and don’t realize that a whole culture is involved,” Kris Winegar, the club’s secretary, asserted.
The energetic dancers — with their twirls, bows, curtsies and smiles — have mastered dozens of steps and figures, member Jess Baker explained. They also have a whole dictionary of dance vocabulary — such as acey-deucy, waves, chains and star family.
Callers lead the dances, in which four couples follow vocal and musical tips. Cuers lead round dances, in which any number of couples move in a circle.
“You just know what to do,” Baker said. “It just becomes a part of you.”
While they make it all look easy, members have taken classes, offered each year by regional clubs, Winegar explained.
The Granada Squares is part of a much larger network. There are five associations, each with several clubs, in the Central Region of the Florida Federation of Square Dancing. The clubs annually in Lakeland.
There is also a National Square Dance Association, which met last year in Oklahoma City. But the numbers are dwindling.
“There were only 4,000 in attendance,” Baker asserted. “Twenty years ago, there would have been 20,000.”
The diminishing popularity of this genre, which has roots in 15th-century Europe, is of real concern, he added. With so much competition from other forms of entertainment, square dance “needs and deserves more exposure,” Baker said.
Though the members of The Granada Squares do not enter competitions, they do offer demonstrations for various civic groups in an effort to raise awareness of the form.
Baker admitted that some of the more advanced moves are “awful hard and formal,” but they don’t worry about them too much in the club. The Granada Squares is a “strictly social” group, he said.
“It’s great!” Sheila Boyle, a member of the visiting Dixie Squares Club, said, plugging the “very aerobic” nature of the dance.
Partner Chuck Nichols agreed: “We cover five miles per night.”
“This place keeps us movin’!” said Norm and Fay Cohn, who have been club members the past 28 years.
According to Club President Sally Bond, the Granada Squares are currently nearing the end of its 37th season.
“We have such a good time,” she said, “and (we) exercise in the process.”
The club also holds themed dances, which are always open to the public.
Do-si-do the right thing
The Granada Squares meet 7:30-9:30 p.m. every Tuesday. Visit www.granadasquares.com.
