SWING YOUR PARTNER DO SI DO: SQUARE DANCING NOT FOR SISSIES

Elvira and Jim Hendrickson took a break from the square dancing. Jim Hendrickson started out 40 years ago as a caller and cuer for dances in St. Louis.

Jim Dodd of Huntsville, Mo., called the dance.

Jim Dodd is a powerful man.

With a single "Couples, circulate!" or "Right and left grand!" Dodd can send a roomful of dancers spinning and swirling.

Dodd, a corrections supervisor from Huntsville, calls square dances throughout Missouri and in surrounding states.

Western square dancing is made up of a series of basic steps and maneuvers, and it is the caller's job to put those maneuvers together into an organized dance, Dodd said.

"You can mix the moves up any way you want to, but you have to know where the moves start and where they stop," he said.

Stopping and starting points are important. Promenade when you're supposed to be forming a grand star and someone could get hurt.

Square dancing isn't for sissies.

Dodd and his wife, Patricia, were recently in Cape Girardeau calling a dance hosted by the Roll Aways, a local square dancing club.

The Dodds have been square dancing for 18 years, and Jim Dodd has been calling for 17.

The hardest part, he said, "is keeping up with all of the new moves that keep coming up."

The Dodds, like many of the couples at the dance, were decked out in matching duds. Jim Dodd wore a red gingham shirt and Patricia sported a red gingham dress, complete with a flounced skirt and bows.

Many square dance clubs have their official "uniforms," and it is easy to tell at a glance how many clubs are represented at a dance.

Loretta and Orville Fluegge of Jackson, members of the Roll Aways, have been square dancing for about 15 years, since their son introduced them to it.

"I thoroughly love the music. I like the dancing. I like the fellowship that goes with it," Loretta Fluegge said. "You make a lot of new friends."

Like many square dancing couples, the Fluegges took to square dancing as a way to spend more time together.

"We generally go dancing maybe once or twice a month plus the state meetings," said Betty Osbourne. She and her husband, Dean, residents of Cape Girardeau, started square dancing in 1978.

Since there are dozens of steps and maneuvers, it's hard to become proficient overnight.

"I won't say it's hard to learn, but you do have to have a lot of lessons," Loretta Fluegge said. "There are a lot of steps to it."

But you don't have to worry about making a faux pas should the urge to square dance strike while you're vacationing overseas, Jim Dodd said.

"Once you learn the moves, you can go to Japan or Sweden or anywhere in the world and square dance," he said.

The Roll Aways will be offering lessons starting Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau.

In October, Cape Girardeau will host the state convention of the Missouri Federation of Square and Round Dances, Betty Osbourne said.

About 1,000 dancers are expected to attend, and the highlight of the convention will the "Doin's Dance," when clubs from throughout the state will get out and strut their stuff.

There's no competition, though, she said. "It's just a gathering of the state people once a year."

Square dancing is Missouri's official state dance, something Walt Henk of Marble Hill was glad to see happen.

"We tried to get it through about four or five times," he said.

Henk and his wife, Lora, have only been dancing since 1989, he said.

"I'm a newcomer," he joked. "Somebody told me it was fun, and we decided to try it."

The federation has about 8,000 members from clubs around Missouri, and there are six square dance clubs in the federation's Southeast Missouri district.

Square dancing and its cousin, contra dancing, developed from old European folk dances.

Contra dancing -- which includes the Virginia Reel and other old-time favorites -- involves standing opposite your partner in a long line of dancers, said Judy Bradley, a Cape Girardeau resident and contra aficionado. Bradley is a member of Friends of Old Time Music and Dance, a group which organizes contra dances.

Settlers from England, Scotland, Ireland and France brought their folk dances with them, and the barn dances they held were often the highlight of life on the frontier.

"They didn't have much entertainment then, so the dances were a big deal," Bradley said.

Contra dancing has two advantages over square dancing, she said: It is easier to learn, and you don't have to be part of a couple.

"The dances are taught right there, and they're simple. They're the same basic moves that are just repeated over and over," Bradley said. "The Western-style square dance that's developed now, they'll call one dance and you'll do 40 million different things and unless you know those 40 million different things, you can't dance."

For the fitness-oriented, both offer good workouts. A night of square dancing is the equivalent of walking about five miles, said Patricia Dodd, and it's easy to work up a sweat during a contra dance, too, Bradley said.