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The Rosetown Ramblers attend a 1986 convention in San Francisco.
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Gay and lesbian square dance club approaches age 25
by Rebecca Ragain
ick Burdon remembers when Portland’s
gay square dancing club, the Rosetown
Ramblers, initiated new members with rit
uals similar to what one might encounter
during a gixxl-natured fraternity hazing.
When rookies graduated from their dance class
and wanted to join the group, they might have
been required to dance with a roller skate on one
foot to prove their worth. •
Or maybe to dance with a pair of pantyhose tied
around their waist so that the legs—which were
weighted with a potato in each foot—dangled
down toward their knees.
“Try to dance and keep that from tangling!”
says Burdon, chuckling anil pointing at a photo
graph of someone trying to do exactly that.
Burdon had just come out of the closet when he
joined the Rosetown Ramblers in 1983, which was
the club’s first year in existence. “I found a lot of sup
port and liberation from being part of it,” ne recalls.
Today, the 76-year-old returns that support by
helping other gays and lesbians learn how to
square dance. And these days, there’s no hazing at
graduation.
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h
Starting each fall, the Rosetown Ramblers hosts
two 10-week square dancing courses for beginners.
(Intermediate dancers are also welcome.) This
year’s classes begin Oct. 10 and take place on
Wednesday evenings through April.
Come to class wearing comfortable clothes,
because—unlike straight square dancing—there is no
•formal dress code for gay and lesbian square dancing.
Rick Hawes, a square dancer since 1984, quips:
"We’ll dance nude or as gussied up as straight folks.
Or even more so, like the 6-f<.K>t-tall drag queen in
roller skates.”
.Classes are open to singles anil couples.
Traditional square dance terminology is maintained
even in gay anil lesbian clubs, so new dancers will
decide whether they want to learn the “hoy” or
“girl” part. (It’s up to you; biology is irrelevant.)
After mastering one position, many gay and
lesbian dancers choose to learn the other.
Square dance has a language of its own. The
announcer is the “caller,” who explains how to do
the different dance formations, or “calls,” which
have names like Dosado and Promenade.
Of course, when it comes to physical activities,
hearing something explained is not necessarily the
same as understanding how to do it.
That’s where Burdon comes in. [Turing class, he
and other experienced square dancers, or “angels,”
join the beginners on the floor to help demonstrate
the calls. Whenever possible, an angel will partner
with a beginner so the new person can truly get the
feel for the move.
“They do better (dancing with an angel) than
two people who don’t know what they’re doing
dancing together,” explains Burdon.
If you do make a mistake, try not to worry about
it. According to Scott Philips, who joined
Rosetown Ramblers 19 years ago, “The more you
do, the easier it gets.”
Wide World of Square Dancing
Classes are just the beginning of the fun. The
Rosetown Ramblers also offer a club night on the
third Wednesday of every month and a dance every
first Saturday.
And then there’s the traveling.
It might start with a day trip to Eugene to
dance with the local club Spin Cycle Squares. Or
maybe attending a full-weekend “fly-in" (a mini
convention) in Seattle or Vancouver, British
Columbia, sounds intriguing.
Just be prepared to return to work on Monday
thoroughly exhausted.
“When you’re first learning, you dance till you
drop,” says Burdon. “You don’t think you can miss
a single dance.”
Before long, you might find yourself flying
across the country to attend the annual convention
of the International Association of Gay Square
Dance Clubs (IAGSDC).
Like the Rosetown Ramblers, which was a char
ter club of the international group, the 1AGSDC is
turning 25 in 2008. The association boasts 49
member clubs, plus a few associate and affiliate
organizations.
Every year, approximately 1,000 dancers from
these various clubs converge for a four-day conven
tion filled with socializing, sightseeing and, of
course, dancing.