Last weekend Nia and I drove two and a half hours north to Albany, Oregon for our very first square-dancing festival. Yes, that is a real thing, and yes, it’s exactly as delightful and niche as it sounds. A square-dancing festival is essentially a three-day gathering of dancers from all over Oregon (and a few neighboring states) who come together to… dance. Constantly. School commitments meant we could only attend two of the three days, but we still logged a solid 4–6 hours of dancing each day, which felt both ambitious and exhilarating.
The festival was held at the Linn County Convention Center, which for the weekend transformed into a small, dance-obsessed village. Many out-of-town dancers stayed on site in motorhomes or in the two adjacent hotels, making it feel like summer camp for people who know their calls. There were six different dance halls running simultaneously, each devoted to a different style or level. Three were for square dancing: Mainstream (our current world), Plus (the next level up), and Advanced (for people whose brains clearly work faster than mine).
Round dancing had its own hall as well. These are partnered dances like the two-step, rumba, and waltz, danced in a large circle moving clockwise around the room—hence the name. We don’t know any round dances yet, but Nia has already declared her intention to learn them. Here’s what round dancing looks like:
The other two halls featured dance types we’d never seen before—clogging and English country dancing. Clogging looked a lot like cued tap-dancing to me, but tell me your thoughts after watching this short clip.
English country dancing, on the other hand, felt familiar—very reminiscent of contra—but with its own distinct flavor. Nia fell hard for it and spent most of her second day dancing there with a group of other teens. And speaking of teens: apparently Oregon has competitive teen square-dancing teams. Who knew? They were astonishingly good. Our home club skews heavily toward the retiree demographic, so Nia absolutely loved dancing with people her own age—especially ones who were such skilled, confident dancers.
Our club showed up in force, with around 40 members attending. Organizers estimated close to 800 dancers over the three days. I’d guess 60–70% were over 60, with the rest spanning ages 10 and up. Some families had three generations dancing together in the same squares, which was absolutely adorable.
We’d been practicing hard all fall to master the 80 calls we’ve learned so far, but I was still nervous heading into the weekend. In square dancing, when you make a mistake, you don’t just mess up yourself—you often derail the other seven people in your square. While our home club has been endlessly gracious about mistakes, I wasn’t sure how strangers would react. Thankfully, our club completely had our backs. They made sure we always had partners, placed us in squares with patient dancers, and constantly checked in to make sure we knew where we were going and—most importantly—were having fun. Being so thoroughly looked after felt incredibly special. We are deeply grateful for the elders in our lives who watch over us so lovingly. It’s something we’ll always remember about our two years in Bend.
All in all, it was a marvelous weekend. I took a nasty fall Saturday morning and tore up my knee and elbow while on a geo-caching adventure (because of course Nia needed to try geocaching there as well…). But the dancing must go on, so I took some Advil, bandaged up my scrapes and pulled my nylons on!
Which brings me to the clothes—an entire joy unto themselves. Square dancers go all out. A typical women’s outfit includes a blouse and skirt or dress, a belt, a crinoline (the poofy slip), and sissy pants (essentially bloomers, for moments when spinning reveals more than intended). There was a large used clothing sale at the festival, and both Nia and I happily expanded our collections. We are now the proud owners of 4 crinolines, 4 pairs of sissy pants, 5 belts, 3 dresses, and 10 skirt/dress combinations. We both agree that we need to stop collecting for the moment though because we’ve filled a whole closet and it’s begun spilling into other areas.
Now we’re debating if we want to get in one more this spring before heading to Germany. And good news on that front too—looks like there are five square dancing clubs in Berlin! Fingers crossed the cues are in English because my brain barely has time to register the cue and move, let alone add translating to the mix… 😊
