Fun Square Dancing at the 65th Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Festival
2014 – This is a really fun square dancing festival and it is is shown to call out to a lot of enthusiastic and competitive hard-practicing bunch of young square dancers stepping it out to some great square dance calling!
The dance music is a singing call classic “Mountain Music” and the song is filled with a great high energy square dance calling, as it is danced in a unique styling all of it’s own.
Teen and Adult Dancers from the United States and Canada competed earlier in the day at the 65th annual dance festival. This is crucial to this activity – youth – they are the very future of square dancing. To all the British Columbia competitors in the upcoming festival in 2015 we look forward to seeing some of the great good spirted dancing to some of the best, compete in good spirit, and remember that, in the end, square dancing is just plain fun! For the competitors, it’s preparation and practice time for the Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Festival that makes watching the square dance event so great.
Practice is taken very seriously for this competition. Dancing is practiced to a weekly modern western square dance caller. Typically,for the first part of the evening the pre-teens and teens practice their squares. The caller selects the dancers for each square and those squares each have a more experienced dancer as a coach. What happens then is the squares out on the dance floor each practice independently with their respective more experienced dancing partner “coaches.”
This festival is known to foster a unique styling in its competitors. For instance, in a promenade, the girls are taught to continually flare the outside of their dresses with their right hands while all of the boys keep their left hands neatly positioned behind in the small of the girls’ backs. Posture becomes a very important part of the judging in these competitions. Those good dance practices and good styling tips will carry through for these younger square dancers into their adult dance years. There are great lifelong benefits to square dancing!
Practice is taken very seriously. For the first part of the evening the pre-teens practice their squares. The caller selects the dancers for each square and those squares each have a more experienced dancer as a coach. Oh, and by the way, calling to teens is a real fun experience! They have so much excitement and energy and enthusiasm calling to youth square dancers is absolutely top notch! Beyond that, all the dancers concentrate on the modern square dance choreography in the exhibition dance routines.
Costuming is a big factor in preparation for the festival if the dancers are competing. The whole club or exhibition square dance group will be clothed in matching outfits! This usually requires costume-making, particularly the girls’ dress oufits and the boys’ shirts.
Then comes the costume dress rehearsal! The routines must be tested in at least one square dance attire rehearsal and this takes place just before the actual square dance caller and dancer event. This is televised on a local cable station. The hall is decorated for the festivities, the dancers show their routines before the many watchful eyes, and trophies are awarded to the dancers in categories such as “best sportsmanship.”
Youth square dancing is a vital part of the activity. There is a lot happening with square dancing locally and square dancing nationally, so contact your local square dance council to find square dancing classes for such a fun and different experience!
August Records
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Square Dance Caller Shaun Werkele August Records 