I went to a square dance meetup thing in our neighbor state to the south, Thüringen, on Saturday evening. I’m not clear what area it covered (probably middle Germany or something), but there seemed to be about six or seven clubs there. It was fun, at least once it got later in the evening and we got some good callers. Until about 8 or 9pm, I don’t think I danced a single tip where our square didn’t get messed up. Basic tips got up to eight squares, and Mainstream had more like three or four.
I think it must be popular among callers to call very random formations for the first dance of a tip. I thought they were supposed to be sort of first tries for the singing call, except you stay with your partner for the whole thing, and it’s not exactly the same. Also, have I said how much I appreciate the average age being something like 55 instead of 75? This means though, that I have to learn to let the guy swing me, instead of taking care of it myself.
Grand Square is an incredibly popular move here. I think at least three quarters of the tips involved it. It used to be my favorite move… :( I was pleased that we did a “guys face the girls” dance-by-definition version of it that I executed successfully. It was kind of weird (but cool) to hear a German square dance song, and they played a couple of songs I like, which is always cool. Evidently our caller is one of the best two in the area, because they saved him and a guy with an American/Australian accent for last.
By the time we got back to Dessau about midnight, I was pretty much asleep on my rather pained feet, but it was a good time.
