welcome to the frederick county promenaders
website
Website last updated on thursday april 9, 2026 at 4:15am by FCP Webmaster Donald Barber
!!! NOTICE !!!
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APRIL 10 DANCE
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BALLENGER COMMUNITY CENTER
5460 Jefferson Pike (Route 180), Frederick, MD 21703
The April 10th Easter Spring Dance is once again at the Ballenger Community Center |
upcoming special events
april 10 - losers fifty/fifty raffle drawing
On April 10th, at the Easter/Spring Club Dance, your Webmaster will reach into the Losing Ticket Bucket to draw out a losing raffle ticket from the previous 4 club dances. So, you previous losers, bring your losing 50/50 Raffle Tickets to the April 10th event and maybe you will be a winner like Lois R who won the initial 50/50 Losers Ticket drawing.
frederick keys baseball game - Saturday may 9th
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Join your Webmaster and Club President at another Frederick Keys minor league game on Saturday May 9th. The Keys are once again affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles. There were some exciting renovations recently made to Harry Grove Stadium. There will be a sign-up sheet for this event at future club events. The sign-up deadline is May 6th.
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next two CLUB dance events
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most recent club events
april 8 dance class
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PLUS class #9 is in the books with 6 remaining in the 2025-2026 PLUS Session. Twenty Angels supported the 5 students in reviewing and practicing of all of the Mainstream and PLUS calls learned so far.
As a reminder, the next Club Dance on April 10th is once again at the Ballenger Community Center from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. The Caller is Art LaVigne and the Cuers are Butch Bloxom and Roberta Harris. Also, your Webmaster, will be selecting the winner from the bucket of previous losing 50/50 raffle tickets collected from the last 4 club dances. |
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.
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