Hip to be square

Barn-style dancing thrives despite fewer participants

Friday, Sept. 8, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel Charles Stauffer of Lusby and Mary Ann Rymer of Lexington Park kick up their heels Aug. 30 at a dance night of the Aqua Squares Square Dance Club at the Southern Community Center in Lusby. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel From left, Bill Redfield of Lusby, Shirley Wilson of Prince Frederick and Janet Allyn of Prince Frederick dance at an Aug. 30 dance night for the Aqua Squares Square Dance Club at the Southern Community Center in Lusby. Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Darwin Weigel Square dancers swirl around the dance floor at the dance night.   If you want to go The Aqua Squares will hold an open house on Friday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Community Center on Appeal Lane in Lusby. Refreshments, demonstrations, and beginner instructions will be available. The Aqua Squares’ two-day accelerated square dance class will be offered Friday, Sept. 22, from 7 to 10 p.m., and on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the center. There is a fee. For more information call Bernie and Mary Ridgell at 301-863-8054, Charlie and Barbara at 410-326-4581, or Bill and Mary Ann Rymer at 301-863-0064.

But square dancing has been around ever since the colonial era, and the Aqua Squares Square Dance Club intends to keep it around — in Southern Maryland at least.

‘‘Try it, you’ll like it,” said Jackie Bond, a square dance veteran who has been dancing with the Aqua Squares for almost 20 years. ‘‘It’s a wonderful time.”

Bond, who is diabetic, got into square dancing because of her health. She needed exercise but couldn’t find a sport or activity that she enjoyed. She tried square dancing and found it was a good fit. Now she dons colorful dresses and old-fashioned dance shoes every Friday evening, when the Aqua Squares meet.

Although the Aqua Squares are a Lusby group, about half of its members are from St. Mary’s County, the other half from Calvert County. And the group is interested in attracting more people from Charles County also.

Some square dancers are becoming too old or new dancers won’t take the time to learn a new dance, said Bond. And ‘‘if you don’t have any classes, then you don’t have any new blood coming in.”

To attract some of that ‘‘new blood” the Aqua Squares are hosting a special event this month.

The club is offering an accelerated square dance class Sept. 22 and 23 at the Southern Community Center in Lusby to teach square dance basics in one weekend. A normally eight-month long series of lessons to learn how to square dance has been scaled down to one weekend so that newcomers can quickly pick up the hobby.

The weekend class will quickly determine whether or not ‘‘they have a knack for square dancing, or do they have two left feet,” Bond said. ‘‘It has to click.”

The Aqua Squares caller, Virgil Forbes, is the person that hollers out the movements during each dance. He has been with the group for the better part of a decade. Forbes is a retired master chief in the U.S. Navy. During classes he will demonstrate moves and explain how each is done so that the dancers can feel comfortable when trying them.

Bond noted that the men like Forbes seem to enjoy square dancing just as much as the women. Many times the women will drag their husbands to the dance lessons, she said, but when the women are tired and ready to go, the husbands just want to keep dancing, she said.

Square dancing is really not that difficult, according to Mary Ridgell, who has been square dancing since 1972. ‘‘You just walk to the music.” Ridgell has been with the Aqua Squares for two years. ‘‘This dance club is a great group of people,” she said.

The beauty about the square dancing classes is that it’s all in good fun, members said. Many times the square, which is a group of eight dancers, will be learning a dance and begin to mess up to the point where everyone just stops dancing and laughs at mistakes.

Aqua Squares members have high hopes for the upcoming accelerated class. They are convinced that once people try square dancing, they will like it.

Participants are reminded that they may want to bring an extra pair of shoes, just in case their feet get tired of wearing one pair. Lunch and dinner will be provided on Sept. 23.

Community is a very important part to square dancing and to the people at Aqua Squares. And, according to Ridgell, ‘‘They are wonderful people.”