It’s hip to be square: Provo square dancing club promoting ‘friendship set to music’
Once upon a time, people in the same social network actually saw and spoke with each other in person, face to face. That’s what Provo resident Kathy Racine enjoys about square dancing. “So many of our social things right now are just pseudo-interacting,” Racine said. “This is actual hands-on getting together.”
Racine, 61, is a retired schoolteacher and square dance caller. She’s been square dancing for about four decades, but it’s not the actual dancing that keeps her involved — it’s meeting people and making friends. At its most basic, Racine said, that’s what square dancing is: “It’s friendship set to music.”
Utah Valley residents who like the sound of that don’t need to look far and wide for an opportunity to try it out. Mavericks Square Dance Club has a dance every Saturday at the Eldred Senior Center in Provo. They’re looking for dancers of all ages (including children age 9 or 10 and older), and they just started up a weekly class that runs through April.
Each class session is $5 per person or $10 per couple. “That’s cheaper than a movie,” said club president Cheryl Thurgood, who lives in Salem.
Thurgood, 45, and her husband, Russell (also a club president and also 45), moved to Utah Valley from Cache Valley 10 years ago and have been dancing with the Mavericks club since 2005. The Thurgoods have been square dancing since their college days, but they’re Johnny Come Latelies to the Utah Valley square dance scene — the folks at Mavericks have been swinging their partners (do-si-do!) since 1986.
A square dance involves four couples who form a square and follow a series of dance steps signaled by a caller. It’s complicated — Racine, who calls dances for Mavericks, said it takes most people about a year to learn. “That’s one of the drawbacks of our activity,” she said.
Once you know the steps, though, it’s hard to stop. “I told my husband when we got married that that was the one thing I would never give up,” Thurgood said.
Fit for life
One thing that almost all square dancers enjoy about their pastime is its exercise benefits. “If you go to a regular dance, we usually go for two or three hours,” Racine said. “That’s 3 or 4 miles if you do every dance.”
Russell Thurgood played sports all through high school and played baseball for 13 years after high school. Even an old high school sports star, he said, will get a workout: “It works your legs; you’re usually sweating when the night’s over. It’s good, healthy exercise.”
There’s even competitive square dancing. Racine and her husband, Dave, recently participated with a team of dancers at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George. “We didn’t do very well,” she said, “but we competed.”
Louise Thalman, an 80-year-old widow and retiree who lives in Sigurd, Utah, near Richfield, started square dancing just two years ago, but now she can hardly stop doing it. “It changed my whole life,” she said. Thalman drives to Provo every Saturday to dance with the Mavericks club, but that barely scratches the surface of her excitement about square dancing.
“I danced last night in Salt Lake City,” she said. “I belong to three different clubs.”
Thalman said she’s always been active — prior to taking up square dancing, she had a 20-year run of clogging — and has good joints. “I’ve never had trouble with my ankles, my knees or my hips,” she said. If she keeps up her square dancing, she might just live forever. “I can dance for three straight hours and come home and not feel a thing,” she said.
You don’t have to wait until you’re a senior citizen to begin dancing, of course. Thurgood first learned to square dance when she was in college at Utah State University, and Racine said that it’s a wonderful pastime for families. “Children from about 10 years and up can learn the dance and have a good time doing it,” she said.
Ozzy meets cowboy boots
Thurgood said that interest in square dancing hit a peak in the ’80s and ’90s. Since then, there’s generally been less enthusiasm. Less, but not none at all. Even in 2010, Thurgood said, there are probably 12-15 square dance clubs in Utah (there’s another local club in American Fork).
Racine said that she and her husband travel several times a year so that she can call dances for groups in surrounding states.
And though many people probably think of fiddles and bluegrass music when square dancing is mentioned, Racine said that it’s actually highly adaptable. “Most songs are done in beats of 8,” she said, which is perfect for square dancing. The caller usually sings along to an instrumental track and mixes lyrics from the song with dance calls.
“We’ve square danced to Ozzy Osbourne,” said Russell Thurgood. “My wife was laughing so hard I didn’t know whether she’d be able to dance.”
Racine said that country music is especially popular for square dancing. One of her favorite songs to call is the Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
Despite the fact that you may get a serious workout from all of the whirling and twirling, you don’t just go to a square dance in sweatpants or a track suit. “I think that half the fun of dancing is the big, pretty dresses,” Thurgood said. She makes dresses for herself and matching shirts for her husband. Russell Thurgood said that the costumes for men are pretty basic. Along with whatever shirt his wife has made him, he wears blue or black denim jeans and cowboy boots and hat.
Mavericks Square Dance Club has about 40 members and Thurgood said that there are usually at least 16 at Saturday dances, but she’d like to see a lot more people involved.
Thalman would probably enjoy that, too. She’s been a widow for 13 years and said she doesn’t plan to change that: “I’m too ornery and stubborn to find another man, because I have so much fun dancing with all of them.”
When: 8:30-10 p.m. every Saturday
Classes: All classes on Saturday eveningsbefore regular dance; beginning round dance at 6:30, beginningsquare dance at 7, intermediate round dance at 7:30
Where: Eldred Senior Center, 270 W. 500 North,Provo
Cost: $5 per person or $10 per couple foradults; $2 per youth
Info: utsquaredance.org, (801) 423-4115
