Square Dance on Ganymede

[davidlevine]

This is for my friends who are both square dancers and science fiction fans (I know there are several!).

One of the items on the convention program for the upcoming Worldcon in Denver is a "Square Dance on Ganymede." I asked if there was any more information about this event and got the following back from memelaina:

The Square Dance On Ganymede will be in Tower Court D on Thursday evening from 8:30pm to 11:30 pm. We have an excellent local caller, Chris Kermiet, and live music.

Who knows if SF fans will show up at all, but there you have it. It will almost certainly be a "first-nighter," possibly with some SF-related lyrics thrown in. It might also be traditional rather than modern western squares. I'm planning to go anyway!

Comments

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

I used to square dance, but it was around 24 years ago...

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

It's most assuredly tradional style dancing!

http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/teachers/kermiet_c.htm

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

There's going to be a lot of Heinlein programming; his centennial was last year, but he was GoH at the first Denver Worldcon, two years(!) after publishing his first story.

There he gave a pretty good speech, extolling the virtues of SF readers, peering into the future, and recommending a bunch of books to read.

Connie Willis will be reading this speech on Wednesday the 6th.

I will be giving my talk on Heinlein and space suits. Or corner me at a party for the short version, sans Powerpoint.

Neither K nor I have done any square dancing in years. I wonder whether I could persuade her to attend this. Before she met me, she dated a caller.

Anyway, this will probably not be the strangest square dance you have attended.

[davidlevine]

I expect that this square dance will be extremely introductory. If you can walk and follow directions, you should be able to do it.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit more experienced than that, but then, if it's been more than a decade, maybe it's just as well that it will be introductory.

I'm sure an older, heavier me, a mile above sea level, will have less endurance. But I still love to dance.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Many, many years ago I called a square dance in SF at some SciFi convention. We had about 2 squares of challenge dancers, if I remember correctly. Definitely not intro night!

[davidlevine]

We'll have exactly four IAGSDC dancers at the 3000-person World SF Convention in Denver, so that density of Challenge dancers is unusual for an SF convention. I'd lay odds those two squares were from the Stanford Quads.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

There were a few people there from Boston, too.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

What Bill said. Chris Kermiet is a name I recognize from the "trad-callers" Yahoo group I belong to, where callers of traditional squares and contras trade ideas and compare styles and techniques. So there will be old-timey things going on of a one-night-stand nature. I should think!