[Squaredancing] The 57th NSDC is now history

[Jimbetsy at aol.com]

Hi Ken, 
 
You might be interested in what I wrote Trost.  He is a nattering  nabob, 
entirely too negative for me. He love square dancing, but is not  interested in 
improving it, just tearing it down.  He needs an attitude  transplant.  
 
 
   
Hello Heinz, 
 
We were at the 57th and saw several people in non-traditional attire.   One 
lady danced in levis--she mostly danced the boy's part.  I met her  several 
year ago when she was asked to leave a national convention as she  refused to 
wear traditional attire  . I thought it was bullshit then and  still do. 
 
Of course some people want to push the limits just to see how far they can  
go. In today's world in which torn levis, tattoos, and body piercing seem to be 
 the norm, maybe we are a last bastion of good taste. 
 
On the other hand, square dancing is a party and we usually get dressed up  
to go to a party. On some occasions, only a tuxedo will do. The NEC is free to  
demand whatever attire they deem appropriate, but have eased up a lot. Maybe  
we can come to a happy medium. At clubs, special festivals, and so on, we  
can have "casual" attire.  I like the long sleeved shirts for men and some  sort 
of skirt for women. At larger events, we might go to     'proper' or 
traditional attire. Proper would probably mean no levis or shorts,  just dressy 
slacks, while retaining the long sleeved shirt for men. No tie,  bolo, and so on 
required. I think most people will see the beauty of some  of the outfits and go 
to them. 
 
Betsy only wears the long prairie skirts, no petticoats, no crinolines, and  
she looks just fine! She always looks nicely turned out--clean, well dressed,  
AND comfortable. 
 
On choice of venue for a national convention. When we have 6,000 people  come 
to Wichita, which has no natural draw, and know that they represent only  the 
tip of the iceberg of square dancers, we know we are doing something right.  
There may be 60,000 or 600,000 dancers in the USA. They all have fun. Sure, 
some  of them are older and have been dancing a long time.  Did you see the 
large  contingent of young dancers in Wichita?  They were having a ball too.   Of 
course when they danced in a square with other young people, they were pretty  
energetic, but they danced with older dancers too and seemed to enjoy it.  

One last point.  Square Dancing is not going to "DIE" It is too  much fun. It 
will certainly change to meet changing conditions. I know that  I for one, 
will dance for the rest of my life, as long as I am physically  capable. 
 
Jim Pead Livingston, Texas
"Your Rovin' Corner

 
In a message dated 6/29/2008 12:21:37 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
kenrbnsn at rbnsn.com writes:

At 12:09  AM 6/29/2008, Heinz D. Trost wrote:
>Ken et al,
>
>thank you  for the data.
>
> >The 57th National Square Dance Convention is  now history. The final
> >total attendance number that I saw was  6,025. :-(  They had projected 
7,000.
> >
> >
>  >
>well, square dancing is still dying and so the Nationals is,  too.
>Maybe the 58th next year will raise up the attendance a bit,  because
>Long Beach, CA is better connected to the world and more  attractive than
>Wichita, KS, was.
>But as long as the NEC still  forces "proper" attire, but means
>"Traditional" in the definition of  Legacy, Callerlab, ECTA and EAASDC,
>instead of  "casual" or at  least "proper" in the definition of Legacy,
>etc.,- and as long as there  still are too many people in the hobby who
>won't see the hard reality  and block any major changes to adjust the
>hobby to the needs of the  actually and younger customers, square dancing
>won't stop  extincting.

Looking around the dance floors I noticed that the dress  code wasn't 
being enforced. There were plenty of guys in short sleeved  shirts and 
women in slacks dancing.  I don't know the numbers of  young dancers 
at the convention as a percentage of total dancers, but it  seemed to 
me, there were more younger dancers there this year than I  remember 
in previous years. And not all were from exhibition groups. In  fact, 
there was one major exhibition group missing this year -- The  
Maycroft Square Tappers.

It would be interesting to see the  percentage of youth dancers at the 
last few  conventions.

Ken



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