welcome to the frederick county promenaders
website
Website last updated Wednesday March 26th, 2025 at 1:50am by FCP Webmaster Donald Barber
WASCA 2025 quack! quack!
The Frederick County Promenaders Square Dance Club, consisting of Club Members, Students, Caller Mike, and Guest Visitors, were among the 800+ attendees at the WASCA 2025 Duck & Dive festival from Thursday March 20th through Saturday March 22nd.
Ball Rooms 1-3 nicknamed "The Pond" for this weekend was asplash with square dancing "Ducks" at the Saturday night session.
Notice: The Ending Time for the 3 remaining Friday Club Dances has been changed from 9:45pm to 9:30pm. The dances are on March 28th, April 18th, and May 16th.
March 2025 club dance event
Friday 3/28 - March Madness Dance
april 2025 club dance events
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Back By Popular Demand - Cuers Butch and Roberta
Sunday 4/6 - Spring Colors Dance
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Friday 4/18 - Stripes Dance
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upcoming special events
Saturday June 14 - frederick keys game
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Join the Webmaster and your Club President at the Frederick Keys baseball game on Saturday June 14th at 6:00pm. It is a Fireworks game. The Fireworks are after the game. There will be several door prizes awarded by the Webmaster sometime during the game. Tickets are $9 for reserved seats behind home plate. A sign-up sheet will be available at each club event.
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most recent club events
march 19 - dance Class
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PLUS dance class #3 had 11 students supported by 13 Club Angels. In addition to the introduction of 2 new PLUS calls, the students that are attending this Saturday's WASCA afternoon session were given a comprehensive reinforcment of previously learned Mainstream calls by Club Instructor Dan "The Maestro" Grimes. Class #4 is Wednesday March 26th.
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march 2 - lucky Leprechaun dance
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Thirty-one Club Members along with 6 Club Students welcomed 9 Guest Visitors at the FCP Lucky Leprechaun Dance on Sunday afternoon March 2nd at the Ruritan Club. The Guest Caller was Terry Headlee and the Guest Cuers were Butch Bloxom and Roberta Harris.
march 1 - road trip to village swingers
Good Morning FCP Club President.
About a month ago the Village Swingers Square Dance Club stole your club banner and were last seen hightailing it down I-270 South to their headquarters.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to retrieve your club banner and make it back to Frederick.
Well, your Club President accepted the mission and successfully retrieved the FCP banner.
The photo shows the assembled FCP “Mission Impossible” team at the Village Swingers club during the heist.
Ethan Hunt was proud of your successfull mission impossible.
About a month ago the Village Swingers Square Dance Club stole your club banner and were last seen hightailing it down I-270 South to their headquarters.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to retrieve your club banner and make it back to Frederick.
Well, your Club President accepted the mission and successfully retrieved the FCP banner.
The photo shows the assembled FCP “Mission Impossible” team at the Village Swingers club during the heist.
Ethan Hunt was proud of your successfull mission impossible.
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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