Cane Country Squares

Well we are done for the year. Enjoy your Christmas and New Year break and we will see you back again in the first week of February, when we hope the temperature in the hall has cooled down a little. The 10th of December was our final dance for 2021 and included our learner class as their first Friday night dance event. It was a great turn out and didn't rain despite the forecast. At one point it would have been possible to have three squares on the floor.  The hall was decorated and most dressed up in Christmas theme outfits. Thankyou to those who came early to set up.  Jo L organized some extra goodies for supper with fancy cupcakes, rum balls and chocolates. Jo K and George handled the raffle for the night with four hampers, lucky door and lucky spot prize. Jo R got plenty of new video footage which will be added to the video library in the next few days. In the mean time, check out the photo gallery .  Sandy recited a very funny poem, written by a Bundaberg local, about a Chri

On Friday 26th of November we danced to some of the remaining songs from our request night. One of my selections came up, which was the Galaxy Song ( from Monty Python's The meaning of Life). This one is certainly a challenge for callers with so many words in the song.  It was a good turn out with two squares on the floor for Mainstream, including Scott, visiting the club. Being the last Friday of the month it was our member draw. The prize had not gone to anyone for many months, encouraging those that would normally leave at supper to stay till after the draw. Congratulations Pam. Announcements were short since we are close to the end of the year. Our Christmas theme, break up dance is on the 10th of December. Our Tuesday night learners are invited as their first dance event. The plan is to put marquees near the front door to accommodate for the extra seating and still comply with current Covid safe rules. Adding to the announcements, Jo L told us her story of her day out at Ellio

We went old school on the 12th of November 2021 embracing the era of vinyl records.  In place of Matt's laptop, was his turntable and about half his collection of vinyl records. Some dancers also came dressed to suit the retro theme. This was a novelty for all of us. It has been a long since Matt had no repeat, fade in / fade out function or the ability to search for songs and play from a list. After choosing a record from the pile he had to read them to check which side was the instrumental version. Not all the latest songs were available but we got to enjoy some old ones that were new to us.  Matt told us a little of the history of square dance music production. Maintaining the equipment to make vinyl records was costly and small specialists shut down over time. A minimum press from remaining big record producers became larger than the number of callers buying them and square dance music moved into the digital age. We all enjoyed the night with a really good turn out, even gettin

We had two squares on the floor for our request night on the 22nd of October.  In the previous weeks members chose their favourite songs for Matt to call. This gave Matt a bit of time to go through some songs he had not called in a long time.  We had a great collection to choose from and many of us wrote down more than one song. The result was more selections than Matt could use in one night.  Our final song for the night was the most requested song. Three people chose ‘King of the road’ but no one that stayed till the end admitted to being one of them. It is an old one, but fun to dance to, with the change of pace going back and forth between quite slow and very fast.  This video is of one of the earlier songs called 'Hey little devil'  Follow the link to our video gallery to see more of the night, including 'One call away', 'Put another log on the fire' and 'King of the road'. This coming Friday will be part 2 of the requests, where Matt could be call

Friday 17th of September was our fun Caller Challenge night. Members wrote a movement or two on a piece of paper and pegged it to the line. For each challenge, Matt selected someone to pick one or two papers from the line. Matt then had to quickly figure our how to call the set without those movements. Some tricky movements came up with Matt unable to call combinations like 'promenade' and 'pass through', no 'allemande left' or 'spin chain through' and 'trade the wave'. The most challenging was often the singing call when the most common movements used were not allowed to be called. A lot of fun was had on the night with dancers listening to see if Matt would make a mistake. Sandy started to write a score on the white board but Matt did extremely well at adapting to the challenge. Sandy also recited a humorous poem and Nifty was given a set of glasses with fake eyes on them as a joke about him sleeping between dances.

Our Graduation dance on Friday 27th of August was well attended with two squares on the floor for much of the night. Since the QLD State Convention in Hervey Bay had been cancelled, we added the Floral Fiesta theme to this special night.   Some had made outfits specially for their first QLD convention but didn’t get the opportunity to wear them and experience a large scale dance. We know the Hervey Bay club would have put on an awesome event so this was also a small tribute to them.   Members looked fantastic dressed in their floral themed convention best. Our club banner was displayed, and the hall decorated with fresh, dried, and artificial flowers.    We all enjoyed Matt’s calling for SSD, Mainstream and Plus levels. Completion certificates were presented, and Sandy entertained us with a humous poem.   Cutting the cake was our graduating Mainstream dancers, Barb and Fran with Karen, Jan Marie and Rick graduating the SSD level. Follow the link to see more photos from the nig

Our graduating learners have now finished their last Tuesday class and will join us on Fridays. Their last few nights have been used for revision and a bit of fun with 6 couple rectangles and a 5th seated couple called to swap with couple 1 to 4 throughout a dance. A special graduation dance will be held on the 27th of August.  This will be our local event to wear our convention best after the QLD State Convention had to be cancelled. Our brand new learner classes will start on Tuesday 31st August. The first three nights are open to 'come and try' before we move forward with the 12 week program. The first class is still free to new dancers but this time you will need to pre book. Hall Capacity and Covid Safe Rules apply. Phone Matthew on 0418 479 814 to book your spot.

Friday night, 16th of July 2021.  The hall looked the part with Australian flags and green and gold. Thanks to those who arrived early to decorate.  Matt did a great job of calling to a large range of songs with Aussie themes or by Australian artists. Our night saw a good attendance with sixteen dancers. It was an enjoyable night, being able to get together, dressing for the theme and dance. Sandy recited a poem about an Aussie outback town with a humorous ending which inspired Chris to tell us a joke along a similar theme.

As promised in our first newsletter for the year,  we have a new page on our website to display pre loved square dance clothing, donated to Cane Country Squares.  Clothing and accessories will be supplied to members for a donation to the club. If you are interested in viewing any of these items in person please let us know when you sign in on a dance night. The items can be made available on a following week. The link to the pre loved photo page is here.  The link is also available from the Resources Page . More photos will be added or removed as they are available.

Our first theme night of 2021, since coming back to dance under Covid safe rules, was our annual Heart Dance on the 7th of May.  The hall was decorated and members dressed in red for the heart theme. For this special night we had two raffles to raise funds for a heart health treatment or support group. We also introduced a simple supper for the night. Kitchen attendants made tea or coffee in disposable cups and supplied pre packed single portion biscuits. Tuesday learners group numbers are still fairly low, but this meant everyone got to come to the special Friday night dance, and stay within the maximum number allowed in our hall. We had 16 dancers, 2 spectators and our caller, Matt.  One square danced most of the night with two squares on the floor for a basic level dance. 

AusDance with QLD Health have addressed the issue of social dancing with a new category which our activity falls under, Recreational structured partner dancing.  Under our Covid Safe Plan : Those feeling unwell to stay home. Hand sanitiser to be used regularly. Seats to be spaced 1.5mtr between dancers, unless you are living in the same house hold. Dancers to clean their chairs down and put them away at the end of the night. No shared supper for a while. Dancers to bring their own drink containers. If you are not fond of touching money, bring correct change. Limited dancer number of 22 in our hall.