Graduation Dance 2008! Mark Your Calendar for Saturday May 17!

Lessons are such a big investment of time, talent, and treasure that it's important to make a big splash each time a new class enters the fold. 

To honor the occasion, there's a Gateway Squares tradition (like, three years or something!) of bringing in an out-of-town caller to help usher in a graduating class. 

This year, we've got Andy Shore, who'll be riding his impressive handlebar mustache all the way from South Florida to help ring in the class of 2008! 

So mark your calendars, 'Squares! 

Saturday, May 17th @ Trinity Presbyterian in UCity (map)

Potluck 6:30 ~ Dancing 7:30

The Week After Arch & Dive Thru

It's not easy to believe it's been a week since the last tip of Arch & Dive Thru 2008!

It's also not easy to come up with words to talk about it. A gay fly-in is more than just a bunch of tips strung together into morning-afternoon-evening chunks. 

It's like a family reunion, a convention, a religious revival, a pride festival -- all rolled up and glued together by do-sa-dos.

Cutting Through

Getting any kind of big event off the ground gives everyone plenty of things about which to get cranky. Feelings get thick and strong and difficult to get around. But nothing cuts through all of that like square dancing, does it?

At every fly-in I've been to -- and this was no exception -- there's a m

oment when I sort of wake up and realize where I am. And it hits me with such clarity that I'd start crying if I didn't have to listen for the next call. 

I'm surrounded by friends, people who understand me without having to work at it, who accept me no matter how much I screw up, and people I might not have let myself get close to if I hadn't had the dancing to cut through all my stupid hang-ups.

It's easy to find a word for that. Family. 

Our Big Fat Gay Success Story

From what I've been hearing from the committee members who have had a look at the feedback we got, Arch and Dive Thru 2008 was a big fat gay success story with icing on top -- setting aside our unfortunate brush with grand larceny.

We got especially high marks on our hospitality, and it's hard to make too big a deal of how important that is. The floor time and the callers draw our out-of-town friends, but it's our hospitality and fellowship that will keep them coming back and bringing more dancers with them. 

We owe a big debt of gratitude to the committee members for their huge investment of time, energy, patience, and sheer love-labor. 

Here's looking forward to 2010! 

Arch & Dive Thru 2008: The Event of the Century Is Just Weeks Away

T Minus 22 Days and Counting!

Can you believe the Fly-In is almost upon us? Three weeks from tomorrow!

I remember Arch & Dive Thru 2006 as breakthrough of a kind, where I realized that square dancing was not just a leisure activity but a brush with grace. Magical, in a word.

This time, we're only about the most famous club in the universe, so we're three weeks and one day away from something pretty extraordinary...

With our dozens of fun-loving out-of-towners come lots of volunteer opportunities.

Food is first among them! We're throwing a potluck dinner for about, oh, 100 hungry people on Saturday, March 29th.

What We Need:

• Salads
• Casseroles
• Vegetarian Casseroles
• Desserts
• Vegetables

E-mail or call Cheryl to put your yummy dish on the menu!

The Schedule

Here's a version of our schedule, suitable for insertion into front pockets, back pockets, and bra cups:

Download here or view below:

In Loving Memory

We'll miss you, Colleen...

Memorials can be sent to:
St. Cronan Food Pantry or NaNa's house
PO Box 18656
St. Louis MO 63118

2008 Sweetheart Dance | Sunday, Feb 10, 2-5 pm!

One of the larger St. Louis square dancing community's traditions is the annual Sweetheart Dance, now in its 38th year.

Here's the official page!

And here's the location, Sperreng Middle School at 1211 Tesson Ferry Road.

The Sweetheart Dance has become kind of a rite of passage for the Gateway Squares. It's the first big community dance a lot of us go to as students fresh out of Mainstream.

I remember the Sweetheart Dance as one of the first moments when I felt the CLICK, when I started to say to myself, Yeah. I think I'm getting this.

It was a first encounter with 'the straights,' and as I was dancing the girl's part, I bet it was the first time a lot of the men there had grabbed a gay guy around the waist.

Like a lot of students, I half-thought that the business of going out into the community was a little improbable, bound to end in awkward moments. There's always a little of that, but then the magic of dancing takes over, and most of us end up having too much fun to remember the hang-ups and stereotypes we bring with us.

So let's meet up at the 2008 Sweetheart Dance! Sunday, February 10, from 2 to 5 pm.


Michael

The 2008 Publicity Video: World Premiere!

After months of filming, editing, and splicing, I've finally finished our updated publicity video, now on YouTube for all the world to see!



You Can Help Spread the Word!

• If you're a YouTube regular, log in, give the clip a high rating, and add it to your favorites!
• Send the video to your friends and encourage them to do the same. You can share directly from the YouTube page or by sending this link:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puCj8mMRmPg
  

Enjoy!

With thanks to everyone for the interviews and permissions,
Michael

Updates Updates!

R&R You Ready? Raiding and Retriving: January Dates Coming Your Way!

Raiding and retrieving came up at the first full meeting of the new Board earlier this month, and here's the poop:
The Board is agreed that R&R is really, really important at the same time we realize it's a tough sell sometimes.

It's important as a source of many and varied dancing opportunities. It's important as a vehicle of change, taking us one rather large step towards a world where people see GLBT Americans as equals. It's glue that keeps us in a community that knows a LOT about keeping square dancing clubs going ... and what leads them into decline.

Without raiding and retrieving, we lose friends, we lose perspective, and we lose financial support that our club might one day depend on.

But let's also be honest -- it's more fun when enough of us go in on it together! To that end, Cheryl and I are working on narrowing down January raiding and retrieving opportunities to at most two targets and recruiting a core group to shoot for them! We'll be looking at weekday evenings throughout the month, steering clear of our special dances and the Hotlanta fly-in. Don't be shy about shooting either of us a line to declare yourself R&R-Ready!

Federation Picnic June '08: Sign Up Now! And Don't Throw Any of Those Unwanted Presents Away!

Every year in early June, the St. Louis Federation of Square Dancing Clubs holds a picnic at a park in Overland. Hundreds of people, hundreds of pieces of grilled meat, hours and hours of dancing.

The Gateway Squares were invited to host this time on June 1, 2008, and the outgoing Board accepted. We'll be forming a committee and starting prep work in January, so now's your chance to sign up! Larry, Doug S, and Sandra have already graciously agreed to help out, but we'll eventually need a task force of 10-15. This is your invitation to step forward!

Raffles and bingo games are part of the event, for which we'll need lots of prizes. So please don't throw anything away after all the holiday presents are unwrapped! I'm serious! Keep all the misfit kitchen gadgets, clunky napkin holders, and bizarre glass ornaments. One person's dreck is another person's treasure!