Essendon Square Dance Club

Regretfully as a result of the election being called on the same day as our August dance and our hall being commandeered as a polling booth, we've had to cancel this dance.

Well, it's now Monday night, and the convention for 2010 is officially over. This year's theme of "Under The Big Top" went down famously, and we had everything from people dressed up in animal costumes, clowns, a whole troupe of mimes, and two teens who are actually training as circus performers themselves to round off the festivities.

Our caller Darren was actually the program manager this year, and looking back over the weekend, we had a first rate group of callers from all over the country (and even some from overseas!) entertaining hundreds of people in true square dance fashion. Whether it be the experienced voice of Peter Humphries dressed in his circus finery, the antics of Paul Long dressed as a mime trying to draw his calls in the air, or even the continual comparisons between Rob Dinte and Santa Claus (brought on because no one was quite sure if the North Pole was colder than Wodonga in the winter!), or any number of others that I don't have enough space to mention, we truly were spoilt for choice, and the sheer variety of calling styles that the dancers were exposed made the weekend all the more entertaining for everyone who turned up.

Essendon also made an appearance in the dress set parade on Saturday night. We've got some photos up in the gallery, and you can see the second dance they did in the video below.

The theme night on Sunday though was definitely the highlight. Never before have I seen such a variety of different costumes on the dance floor! The troupe of mimes was by far the most coordinated effort that I saw (there were at least 15 people that I could see!), but we had a large variety of clowns (complete with trick cameras that shoot water), at least one elephant, quite a few gypsies... and that was just the dancers!

I'll be posting up more video and photos over the next few days from the convention, but as always, if you do have any photos from the convention that you'd like to put up, email them in so we can put them into the gallery!

Finally, after finishing up at the convention, Darren will be away on holiday for the next fortnight, so this Thursday we'll have Frank Kennedy coming in as our guest caller, and Graham Jameson the following week.

Here's hoping you all enjoyed the convention as much as I did, and looking forward to seeing everyone back at the club on Thursday!

Tonight was the inaugural Country and Western Dance at our club. Local group The Dalton Gang were in attendance, and everyone expected a night of good dancing, good music and good company. We weren't disappointed!

There were a lot of new faces at the club; not all square dancers obviously, although someone did say you could tell the square dancers from the regular dancers based on the hats they were wearing! Regardless though, there were plenty of opportunities to catch up with old friends, make new ones, and just generally have a good time!

The Dalton Gang put on an excellent show for us; their music is great to listen (and dance!) to, and they even pulled out a violin towards the end of the evening! (Unfortunately by this point Darren had already called "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", which would have definitely been on the request list. Perhaps we'll need to get them to collaborate next year!)

All in all, the night was definitely a success, and we'll be looking to run it again next year. As usual, if anyone happened to collect any photos from the night, please email them to me and we'll post them up in our photo gallery,

Don't forget next week is pizza night, and that we've got David Brown coming in as a guest caller for the evening!

This year marked the final year for the Campbell's Creek Dance, which has been running for 12 years now. That didn't stop a huge turnout though, and we had representatives from a lot of clubs turn out for an amazing day of good dancing, good food, and good company.

It was the first year I've been able to attend the Campbell's Creek dance, and it's days like this one that make me wish I'd discovered square dancing years ago rather than just months. Des truly knows how to throw a fun event.

Campbell's Creek has first and foremost been a charity event for Beyond Blue, and the support that he's received has truly been heart warming. Des had a few words to say at the end of the evening to thank everyone for the support they've given the event over the last 12 years. (Sorry about the volume level on this video, I'm working on it!)

We also got to see Darren shown up by young Alex. Alex joined Darren on stage at one of our club nights a few weeks ago, and word apparently got out during the dance.

Don't forget to check out the gallery for some photos from the day!

It's been nearly a fortnight since Speewa, but everyone who attended had a blast, and we had a good turnout from Essendon as well!

To those of us who hadn't been to Speewa before, the experience of sailing down the Murray on a steam boat, square dancing as the sun slowly sets to the cheers of onlookers on the shoreline, it's truly a memorable experience. If you've never been to Speewa before, I definitely recommend making the trip at least once!

Square Dance Magazine (an internet based Square Dancing magazine that is currently run by the Wild Frontier club in Adelaide) has posted an article from the event, complete with photos, and quite a few Essendon members made it in!

Read the full Square Dance Magazine article here

Finally, if anyone has any photos from the event, please either bring them to our next club night, or email them to us and we'll put them up in our photo gallery.