Group shines new light on traditional square dancing
Swinging Stars have room on the floor for new members seeking fun, friendship
A year after the passing of the Swinging Stars Modern Square Dancing Club's co-founder, and as people begin to take tentative steps toward more socializing, the members of this Dollard-des- Ormeauxbased group are inviting potential new members to discover the fun of modern square dancing.
“I didn't know anything about square dancing ... I play ping pong and one of my partners square dances and she asked me if I wanted to try,” recalled 75-year-old Dollard resident Luis Chien.
That was in September 2018. He is now president of the group.
The Swinging Stars Modern Square Dancing Club was founded in 1991 by Bert Lajoie, along with his wife Shirley. Over the years Bert's love of square dancing led him to becoming a caller, the person who vocally leads the dancers through their paces. In March 2020, Bert had just come back from a medical leave. He called the dances on the club's last evening before they went on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was his last call. He died at the age of 83 on March 12, 2021.
As the membership dwindled due to COVID-19 hesitancy, several of the dancers kept the dream alive, and from now until the end of June potential new members can join the Beginners Level classes on Tuesday evenings. The regular season begins in mid-september.
Bert and Shirley's guiding principle for the club was “fun and friendship.”
“I'm not generally a good dancer but I went ... and I liked it and since then I haven't stopped,” said Chien.
Square dancing grew out of a mixture of Scottish, Irish and French dances brought to the United States by white colonists. As the colonists developed ever-increasingly complex dance forms which they learned from dance masters, they were accompanied by black fiddlers and musicians who called out dance figures to help each other while playing, because they didn't have actual dance training. Eventually this call and response pattern that resembled the drum traditions of their own cultures, evolved into the slaves “calling ” out to white dancers, and eventually eliminating the need for a dance instructor.
In addition to these early colonial roots square dancing also had a chapter in its later history that reinforced the idea that it was a “white” dance form. Present-day dance historians recognize that ironically those who sought to promote square dancing as a way to suppress the rise of jazz music in the late twenties, did not understand the essential contribution that black culture played in the development of a hybrid dance form that is now enjoyed all over the world.
“In modern square dancing the moves have been standardized and people in Japan, Germany, France, England and even China understand the same calls,” Chien noted. “It's fun, the music is good, and if we make mistakes we laugh a lot. It's a very human group.”
At the memorial for Bert this spring, his family reminded people to “spend time with family, spread love, enjoy fruit pies, share stories of the past, smile often, work hard, have a hearty breakfast, work in your garden, dance, listen to music, never grow up, and raise a glass or two on his behalf ”.
As they heed these words, Chien and the other Swinging Stars continue to celebrate Bert's legacy each week with dance, fun and friendship.
Swinging Stars Modern Square Dancing Club offers beginner, mainstream, and A1 and A2 levels of square dancing and instruction. The group meets four nights a week at Westwood Park Chalet, 45 Thornton St. in Dollard. Each two-hour session costs $5.
For more information, email swinging.stars.ddo@gmail.com or call 514-260-2184.