welcome to the frederick county promenaders
website
Website last updated monday july 7, 2025 at 5:40am by FCP Webmaster Donald Barber
Club membership drive for 2025-2026
The 2025-2026 Club Membership drive has started. The new 18 dance club year begins on Sunday September 7th at 2:00pm at the Mount Pleasant Ruritan Club with our Country Western Dance featuring Guest Caller Ett McAtee. If you were a member last year I will be sending you in an email your 2024-2025 membership form with instructions how to RENEW your membership. New members can pick up a 2025-2026 Club Membership Form at any club event or can request one to be emailed by sending an email to [email protected]. To date, 4 new members have submitted forms and 1 member from last year has submitted a form for renewal.
Next 2 club dance events
|
|
summer Workshops and sizzler dance events
|
|
upcoming special events
July 17-19 Star Bangled Festival
most recent club events
july 6 - stars & Stripes summer sizzler dance
|
|
It was the "Perfect Storm" of conditions for our first Summer Sizzler Dance event of the 2025-2026 Club year.
It was a perfect July 4th weekend Sunday, and a perfect Guest Caller Dean Singleton (a former Club Caller), and perfect Cuers Butch Bloxom and Roberta Harris. As a result, thirty-four Promenaders (Including 8 recently graduated students welcomed 25 Guest Visitors to this special event. Many faces we had not seen in some time returned to help us celebrate the 4th of July. |
june 20 - Weird Socks summer sizzler dance
|
|
Forty-one dancers formed 5 squares at the Weird Socks & Shoes Dance on June Friday 20th. There were 4 door prizes awarded, a 50/50 raffle prize, and a Webmaster's award to Ray, Linda, and Lois for their entry from the recent Legos Creations Dance. A picture of their creation can be found below in the June 1 item. Caller Mike McIntyre supplied the calling for the evening.
|
june 18 - summer wednesday workshop
|
|
Eighteen Promenaders including 7 recently graduated students welcomed 2 guest visitors to the 1st of 7 Summer Wednesday Workshops during June and July. According to "The Maestro" Dan Grimes, 29 calls were practiced by the dancers. After all, as the saying goes, "Practice Makes Perfect".
|
june 14 - frederick keys baseball game
|
|
|
In what has become an annual tradition, 17 Promenaders and 1 Guest enjoyed the camaraderie, food, drinks, and fireworks at the Keys game on June 14th. Your Webmaster awarded 6 "Seat Prizes" consisting of 3 gift cards and 3 Keys T-Shirts to the lucky ones who were Bonnie and Jerry, Yuki, Barb, Dan, and Andrew. For those of you who did not attend this event you will have another chance at a game in early August. Oh by the way, the Keys lost the game.
june 11 - final 2024-2025 dance class
|
|
|
It was all "Pomp & Circumstance" at the final Dance Class of the 2024-2025 FCP Square Dance Class Program. A processional march from the kitchen of the dance hall of 10 of the 13 graduating students was led by Deputy Class Coordinater Ray Everett.
The students lined up in front of the Instructors table then Class Coordinator Andrea Smith performed the ceremonial graduation rite. After the students were presented their graduation certificates there was one more presentation by your Webmaster. He awarded PLUS Class Attendance awards to students Yoshiko Tucker (Perfect PLUS Class Attendance Winner), Peter Brown (Outstanding PLUS Class Attendance Winner), and Barb Ellis (Outstanding PLUS Class Attendance Winner). Following the "tear producing" ceremony everyone had refreshments. The only thing missing was a rendition of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance classical symphonic masterpiece. |
Click on the left arrow of the link below to listen to the classical masterpiece.
|
june 8 - mdsdf appreciation dance
|
On Sunday June 8th, 17 Promenaders traveled I-70 East to the Promenader hosted MDSDF Appreciation Dance in Catonsville, MD. From what I heard from our Club President, there were 7 squares of dancers. The caller was the Gad-Abouts own Art LaVigne.
|
june 1 - mismatched clothes dance
|
|
|
|
Twenty Promenaders welcomed 6 club students and 9 guest visitors to the first Summer Sizzler Dance of 2025.
The Guest Caller was Terry Headlee and the Guest Cuers were Butch Bloxom and Roberta Harris. Of note in attendance were newly elected WASCA executives Steve Cunnion and Pat Marks who were previously the WASCA 2025 Festival Directors. The delayed "Coveted Webmasters Legos Creations Award" went to Ray and Linda Everett, and Lois Roney for their masterpiece of a four-square dance layout that even included your Webmaster sitting at the registration desk. |
square dancing tidbits
DANCER ETIQUETTE BROCHUREThis brochure provides the basic Code of Ethics and Codes of Conduct expected from square dancers at the various square dancing functions and events. To go to the brochure click on the following link: Brochure |
Dance lessons videosDo you need to refresh your Mainstream and Plus calls? Do you need to reinforce your recently learned calls? Then the following link is for you. Click on it to see excellent training videos for the calls. SquareDanceLessonVideos |
where's the dance?
If your upcoming plans include travel or you just want to visit other dance clubs near your home club, then the "Where's The Dance" web site is for you. This web site shows all of the Square Dances within a specific radius of where you are. There are many other options to even further narrow down or expand the dance selections for you. To visit this valuable square dance web site click on the following link: WheresTheDance
Square Dancing: A Swinging History
Swing your partner and do-si-do—November 29 is Square Dance Day in the United States. Didn’t know this folksy form of entertainment had a holiday all its own? Then it’s probably time you learned a few things about square dancing, a tradition that blossomed in the United States but has roots that stretch back to 15th-century Europe.
Square dance aficionados trace the activity back to several European ancestors. In England around 1600, teams of six trained performers—all male, for propriety’s sake, and wearing bells for extra oomph—began presenting choreographed sequences known as the morris dance. This fad is thought to have inspired English country dance, in which couples lined up on village greens to practice weaving, circling and swinging moves reminiscent of modern-day square dancing. Over on the continent, meanwhile, 18th-century French couples were arranging themselves in squares for social dances such as the quadrille and the cotillion. Folk dances in Scotland, Scandinavia and Spain are also thought to have influenced square dancing.
When Europeans began settling England’s 13 North American colonies, they brought both folk and popular dance traditions with them. French dancing styles in particular came into favor in the years following the American Revolution, when many former colonists snubbed all things British. A number of the terms used in modern square dancing come from France, including “promenade,” “allemande” and the indispensable “do-si-do”—a corruption of “dos-à-dos,” meaning “back-to-back.”
As the United States grew and diversified, new generations stopped practicing the social dances their grandparents had enjoyed across the Atlantic. This was not the case in every region, however. Similar to English country dance and the quadrille, the “running set” caught on in 19th-century Appalachia. But instead of memorizing each and every step, participants began relying on callers to provide cues—and, as square dance calling became an art form in its own right, humor and entertainment. During the early years of square dance in the United States, live music was often played by African-American musicians. Blacks also worked as callers and contributed their own steps and songs to the tradition.
By the late 19th century, waltzes and polkas, which allowed couples to get close without raising too many eyebrows, had supplanted group-based dances in urban ballrooms. Even in the country, square dancing was beginning to seem dated, particularly when the jazz and swing eras dawned. In the 1920s automaker Henry Ford resolved to revive the tradition, which he considered an excellent form of exercise and a way to acquire genteel manners. He hired dancing master Benjamin Lovett to develop a national program, required his factory workers to attend classes, opened ballrooms and produced instructive radio broadcasts for schools throughout the country. Lloyd Shaw, a folk dance teacher, took up the cause in the 1930s, writing books about the rescued art of square dancing and holding seminars for a new generation of square dance callers.
In the 1950s callers began developing standards for square dancing across the United States, allowing dancers to learn interchangeable routines and patterns. Microphones and records made the activity even more accessible to the general public, since a highly trained caller with a booming voice no longer had to be physically present. Along with standardized—or “Western”—square dancing, unregulated regional styles, known collectively as “traditional” square dancing, continue to thrive in certain parts of the country. Generally speaking, however, enthusiasm for all forms of this European-American hybrid has floundered in recent decades, according to the United Square Dancers of America.
Square dance aficionados trace the activity back to several European ancestors. In England around 1600, teams of six trained performers—all male, for propriety’s sake, and wearing bells for extra oomph—began presenting choreographed sequences known as the morris dance. This fad is thought to have inspired English country dance, in which couples lined up on village greens to practice weaving, circling and swinging moves reminiscent of modern-day square dancing. Over on the continent, meanwhile, 18th-century French couples were arranging themselves in squares for social dances such as the quadrille and the cotillion. Folk dances in Scotland, Scandinavia and Spain are also thought to have influenced square dancing.
When Europeans began settling England’s 13 North American colonies, they brought both folk and popular dance traditions with them. French dancing styles in particular came into favor in the years following the American Revolution, when many former colonists snubbed all things British. A number of the terms used in modern square dancing come from France, including “promenade,” “allemande” and the indispensable “do-si-do”—a corruption of “dos-à-dos,” meaning “back-to-back.”
As the United States grew and diversified, new generations stopped practicing the social dances their grandparents had enjoyed across the Atlantic. This was not the case in every region, however. Similar to English country dance and the quadrille, the “running set” caught on in 19th-century Appalachia. But instead of memorizing each and every step, participants began relying on callers to provide cues—and, as square dance calling became an art form in its own right, humor and entertainment. During the early years of square dance in the United States, live music was often played by African-American musicians. Blacks also worked as callers and contributed their own steps and songs to the tradition.
By the late 19th century, waltzes and polkas, which allowed couples to get close without raising too many eyebrows, had supplanted group-based dances in urban ballrooms. Even in the country, square dancing was beginning to seem dated, particularly when the jazz and swing eras dawned. In the 1920s automaker Henry Ford resolved to revive the tradition, which he considered an excellent form of exercise and a way to acquire genteel manners. He hired dancing master Benjamin Lovett to develop a national program, required his factory workers to attend classes, opened ballrooms and produced instructive radio broadcasts for schools throughout the country. Lloyd Shaw, a folk dance teacher, took up the cause in the 1930s, writing books about the rescued art of square dancing and holding seminars for a new generation of square dance callers.
In the 1950s callers began developing standards for square dancing across the United States, allowing dancers to learn interchangeable routines and patterns. Microphones and records made the activity even more accessible to the general public, since a highly trained caller with a booming voice no longer had to be physically present. Along with standardized—or “Western”—square dancing, unregulated regional styles, known collectively as “traditional” square dancing, continue to thrive in certain parts of the country. Generally speaking, however, enthusiasm for all forms of this European-American hybrid has floundered in recent decades, according to the United Square Dancers of America.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO TOP OF HOME PAGE