OT: one of my other "passions"

I think that I have mentioned in this group that one of my non-COBOL "passio
ns"
is square dancing.  The following information is going around the Chicago ar
ea
(and may or may not help people in CLC see why "COBOL" - especially Standard
s -
and square dancing are not ALL that different)
***
The link to a related video and to this article is:

[url]http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-squaredance_dec10,0,5982348.story[/ur
l]




chicagotribune.com
New generation of square dancers intrigued by its math concepts
While many are drawn by the camaraderie, others are intrigued by the underly
ing
mathematical concepts
By Alexa Aguilar
Tribune staff reporter
December 10, 2007

Allie Hays' friends had a good laugh when they heard about the class she had
signed up for at North Central College in Naperville: Mathematics of Square
Dancing.

Hays thought it was pretty funny herself at first.

"I said, 'Are you kidding me? That's a reach,'" said the senior math major.

But after spending three hours a day for two ws memorizing almost 100 dan
ce
"calls," then weaving in and out of complicated formations on cue, she has
changed her mind. Amid constant movement, she has had to visualize and use m
ath
concepts like shapes and patterns, group theory, fractions and permutations.

"It's math in motion -- you're walking through mathematics and would have no
idea you're working with concepts that most college math majors don't study
until their fourth year," says math professor David Schmitz, describing squa
re
dancing as "solving a Rubik's Cube."

Saundra Bryant, a Chicago caller -- the person who stands and sings or speak
s
rapid-fire calls, or dance cues -- tested students' knowledge with a simulat
ed
dance Thursday. Disregarding traditional square-dance tunes, she typically s
ets
her calls to everything from disco to Frank Sinatra to hip-hop.

As she crooned the lyrics of Van Morrison's "Moondance," she laid out the se
ries
of calls. Concentrating, the eight students stepped through the moves.
Occasionally, Bryant stopped them to see if they could identify which dancer
s
were the apex of a triangle or how many diamond shapes were in one formation
.

It's all a far cry from the days of reluctantly clutching a partner's sweaty
hand in a junior high gym class as you swing her 'round.

Over the last 50 years, square dancing has evolved from the early American b
arn
dances that most people associate with the term into a worldwide subculture 
with
fanatic followers who join clubs, memorize hundreds of calls, and are just a
s
likely to be wearing jeans and sneakers as starched petticoats and cowboy ha
ts.

About 1 million people worldwide perform some form of modern square dancing.
They have organized themselves into distinct "levels" that require lessons a
nd
study, developed a standardized database of calls, and plan dances and
conventions in cities across the globe.

In the U.S., devotees come from every walk of life, and clubs exist in small
rural towns and the largest cities. Many gay communities in urban areas also
have clubs, such as Chicago's Chi-Town Squares.

At its highest and most complicated levels, puzzle lovers, engineers, comput
er
programmers and math teachers dominate the ranks. Square-dance clubs at Stan
ford
University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are thriving, and North
Central has a fledgling club, the Square Roots.

"It's a constant battle" to fight the stereotype, said Clark Baker, a comput
er
programmer who has been dancing with MIT's Tech Squares since 1974. "People
think of a jug of moonshine and hay bales, and that it might be a nice activ
ity
... for your grandparents."

Baker also is a caller. The dancers, organized in a square of eight, begin i
n a
home position but have no idea which calls are coming. One call doesn't
necessarily flow into any other, so the caller has to work to keep the squar
e
working in precision. After several sequences, the final call must bring the
dancers back to their original position.

"It's like puzzle-solving in real time," Baker said.

Most modern square dancers stick to a set of about 70 calls, wear the
traditional get-up and dance regularly with a club. But a small fraction are
challenge dancers, who know up to 1,000 calls and 100 "concepts" and add
imaginary dancers to increase the complexity.

North Central's Schmitz, a dancer for more than a decade, is of the challeng
e
persuasion. Like many square dancers, he worries about recruiting new fans t
o
fill the ranks.

So he pitched a three-w course to college officials in hopes of exposing
young people to an activity that lured him when he was a graduate student, h
e
said. All those who signed up are math, science or computer majors.

At first glance, the class might not seem relevant to them. But like math,
square dancing depends on dancers performing actions based on definitions,
Schmitz explained.

In class, students laughed and teased one another while learning "Ferris whe
el,"
"centers pass through" and "acey deucey." But they also took breaks to discu
ss
snippets only math lovers could appreciate: the number of permutations possi
ble
in one call or how a rectangle formation could be sheared to create a
parallelogram "concept" of a typical call.

Not everyone views square dancing as a big math problem. Baker said some
devotees disagree about the "best" square-dancing experience.

Some traditionalists contend there needs to be live fiddle music and costume
s,
and that challenge dancers sap the fun out.

But some challenge dancers think dancing only mainstream is boring, he said.

Jerry Reed, executive director of Callerlab, a national organization that
maintains the standardized list of calls, said square dancing's allure
transcends puzzles and petticoats.

"It's bigger than the puzzle solving and it's bigger than the choreography a
nd
the costumes," he said. "It's really about the sociability."

As the debate continues, national membership is slipping, Reed said.

Americans are joining fewer social organizations and clubs as other
entertainment options have exploded, he said, making it harder to find recru
its
willing to invest time in square dancing. In addition, his organization held
focus groups that found many non-dancers still connect square dancing to a
hayseed image or awkward junior high school memories.

But Schmitz is convinced that once exposed to the dance, that notion is
dispelled.

Nathan Pierson, a freshman in math, is one such convert.

After taking the class, he may may North Central's square-dance club, he sai
d.

"This is a much more intellectual experience than my preconception," Pierson
said. "And it was just a lot more fun than I thought too."

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com