Whatever happened to …

… square dancing? The topic came back to mind this past Wednesday when Stephen Hurley and I were talking about Physical Education on our This Week in Ontario Edublogs voicEd Radio show. The discussion was about the difference between “gym” and “Physical Education” and was inspired by a blog post from Andrea Haefele “Behind Gym’s Doors“.  One of my memories was a two week unit in Phys Ed dealing with square dancing.  It was the only time that our classes were co-ed and we were taught the basics.  I thought it might have been a unique Huron County thing but Stephen recalled learning it as well. Small world. Of course, we had been exposed to square dancing on television with Don Messer’s Jubilee which was broadcast on the Wingham CKNX station. Can you picture me dressed like that?  I can’t either; it wasn’t a dress up event for us.  And, we would never, ever have been allowed to use those types of shoes on the gym floor. When we learned that we would be doing square dancing, I recall the rolling eyes and groans.  Were they trying to make us go back in time? It turned out to be one of the more fun times.  We did learn the basics and did things like spinning, bowing, alemande lefting and alemande righting, and promenading the lady home.  So popular was this unit that the teachers left the music and caller playing in the gym during lunchtime and we took advantage of it.  It still is an issue that my wife brings up from time to time because I danced with another girl in my class.  Whatever happened to her? I’m sure that we were marked on our dancing abilities! Once I was out of high school, it became a fond memory.  I’m sure that I never thought about it at university and I don’t recall it being an activity at my high school.  But, a couple of years ago, we were bored and decided to see if it was available anywhere locally for adults.  Naturally, we ended up at a country bar.  They did have a mechanical bull – we never had one at school – that would have been fun.  But, alas, no square dancing. Square dancing is quickly becoming a memory everywhere as this CBC story attests.  There are no local clubs listed here. For a Sunday morning, your thoughts?

• did you ever square dance – at school or elsewhere?
• does your school do a unit on square dancing at all these days?
• if you were inclined to try square dancing, where would you turn in your community?
• have you ever ridden a mechanical bull?
• is there an element of our heritage that has done missing by not making square dancing available?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below. This post is part of a regular Sunday series.  You can visit them all here. If you’ve got an idea for a post, I’d like to hear about it.  You can add it to the Padlet designed just for this purpose.