Background

The Century Squares Square Dance Club is a mainstream square dance club in Rochester, Minnesota dedicated to fostering and increasing the practice of square dancing which we view as friendship and fun set to music. We square dance because it is a terrific way to unwind after a tough day. It is a wonderful stress reliever because you can't fret about your day and also keep up with the square dance caller. It is also good exercise which helps your body tone without being so stressful that a person in reasonable health can't do it.

Many couple activities of the past (including dances of all types, dinner parties and much more) have been adversely impacted because younger couples with families have gotten involved with so many organized family activities. However, we have seen a resurgence of interest in square dancing lately as people find out anew how much fun THEY can have doing this. We would encourage everyone to investigate square dancing by coming to watch a dance, or better, to participate in a newcomer dance, and then to start square dance lessons.

Mainstream square dancing is the beginning level of square dancing and includes roughly 65 unique types of moves. Century Squares is a mainstream square dance club and you can stay at this level for the rest of your dancing if you wish. Or you can go on to also learn plus square dancing which includes mainstream and has roughly 25 more unique moves. There are square dance clubs that special in plus and many that do both plus and mainstream. After that, if you want to, you can go much further in square dancing with ever increasing levels of difficulty. Most people stay with mainstream, but some go on to plus or higher levels of dancing. Many of the members of Century Squares dance plus at other clubs and at State or National Square Dance Conventions where all levels of square dancing are done.

Classes

Square dancing is taught in a series of weekly classes for beginners, taking several months to learn all of the unique moves of mainstream. Repetition is used make it easy to become very comfortable with all of the calls. Lessons start in the fall at the same time as dances start, and end with graduation around Valentine's Day.

Here are some fun photos from our 2009-2010 new dancer class graduation. As you can see, everyone had a lot of fun at the graduation ceremonies.

Tip For Getting Started

We find that women are usually more interested in trying square dancing than men are, but that both sexes really enjoy square dancing once the initial reticence is overcome. In other words, ladies, if you get your man to come out once then you are likely to be able to get him to keep coming. That worked with me! No one has to be a great ballroom dancer to become a great square dancer. All that you need is to be able to follow directions as the callers give them to you. You might want to print out the following discussion of reasons for dancing to help convince your spouse.

Dance Schedule

We dance the second and fourth Saturdays of the month during the school year. Many of our members participate in camping too, so attendance would be way down in the summer if we tried to hold dances then. The dances are at People's Cooperative Power on Highway 14 about 1 mile east of the Rochester University Complex from 7:30 to 9:30 PM.

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The entrance fee is $5 per person. Here is a detailed dance schedule for 2010.

Members

The attached list gives contact information for Century Squares.

Constitution and Bylaws

The attached document is our constitution and bylaws.

Possible New Teaching Approaches

The attached document discusses a number of possible variations to the traditional 20-25-30 week teaching process, with the possibility that some of these alternatives may help recruit new square dancers.

Officer Contacts

Contact president Dan Schiefert or co-president Jay Greentree for more information.

Useful Web Links

For information about Minnesota Square Dancing see this website.