Brown County square dance club carries on tradition

The square-dancing "Bucks and Does" of Nashville, Ind. perk up their ears, and raise their tails when they hear the sound of the music they love. The music starts at 7 p.m. every Wednesday night when Joe De Wees' feet trot around the linoleum floor of the Brown County Historical Society. He and his wife Amelia De Wees are dancing, along with 50 other people, in tandem, with a caller shouting instructions to him and the rest of the dance floor. As he glides across the tile, his black, thick soled shoes have the ease and limberness of Fred Astaire. You can see his 35-plus years of experience clearly.\nBrown County resident Phyllis Ping is the club historian. She said the club was first formed in 1970 and since then, its mission has been to get area residents involved in square dancing. The lessons start in October, and each cycle includes 24 to 26 lessons until May when the new students graduate and become full members of the Bucks and Does club.\nThe older couple usually teaches the new dancers how to square dance, which can be comical for the vets. Joe De Wees said he and Amelia De Wees were there when the current presidents of the square dancing club, Ed and Romelle Schoff, first joined in 1997 after Ed Schoff retired as a science teacher from Lafayette-Jefferson School District. \n"We made fun of how slowly they learned, and then all of a sudden, they took off like a house on fire," said Joe De Wees said. \nHe said picking up square dancing happens pretty fast and a dancer's experience level is not a factor in picking up the moves.\nPicking up a new language is the same as learning a new dance. Learning this language is something that each club member practices each week.\nThat's where George Wiseman enters the conversation by getting everyone on the same page. Wiseman is the club's instructor and he's been driving down to dance every week for more than 25 years. It's his job to teach the students a language they can all use.\nThe phonetics of square dancing consist of where dancers and their partners should stand, or what a Do-Si-Do is, or how to Left Allemande followed by "Load the Boat -- Sink or Float." Sometimes for kicks and giggles at the sight of the already floundering students, Wiseman will make participants dance with sacks on their feet, or wear blindfolds. Though learning the dance is a process, the students who have gone through it before, now called Angels, tutor new students as they begin to master a new form of dance. \n"I've seen practically crippled people do this," Joe De Wees said speaking of Angels and students who Do-Si-Do with false hips and knees.\nThough the Schoffs were a little rusty when they started out, square dancing has been a longtime love for the couple.\n"We originally belonged to a square dance club when (Ed) was a student at Purdue in the 1950's," Romelle Schoff said. "When we retired and moved to Brown County we seen in the paper they were giving square dancing lessons and we fell in love with it again."\nShe is passionate about square dancing and goes to the lessons wearing classic square dancing attire. \n"We wear the typical square dancing outfits," Romelle Schoff said. "A lot of girls have gone to wearing the prairie skirt, but we like to emphasize that this should not keep anybody away in case they don't want to wear the typical square dancing outfit."\nRomelle Schoff said she enjoys the people she meets square dancing, but also likes other aspects of her hobby. \n"I like it, because it is good exercise, it is good cardiovascular exercise," she said.\nWhile the De Weeses enjoy dancing largely for its ability to keep them young, another reason why the Schoffs like it is the sense of community it brings on the international scale, they say. Square dancing has increased the number of people Ed Schoff knows inside and outside of the United States by 100-fold, he said. One reason the Schoffs have met so many people is through going to national square dancing conventions every year -- Portland, Ore. is slated to play host in 2005.\nThe sites are chosen in a manner similar to that of the Olympics or political conventions. Between 20,000 to 40,000 from all over the world attend. But while square dancing is an international hobby, its dictionary is written in English. \n"All square dancing in every foreign country is taught in English," Romelle Schoff said. "It is an American dance; no matter what country they are in, they all call in English. So know matter what country I go to I know it will be called in English." \nBetty Richards is a Smithville resident who's been taking the Wednesday night lessons since 1990. She takes the almost hour-long journey down state Route 46 because she likes the quality and the character of people she meets through square dancing, she said. She feels she can trust her fellow square dancing afficionados, and that is what draws her to the activity.\nThe quality of people is something that Joe and Amelia De Wees came to rely on a few years ago when they lost a son. Amelia De Wees said it was a heartbreaking experience, but the couple credits square-dancing friends with helping the De Weeses to get through the situation.\n"We're like a family. If one hurts, we all hurt," she said. "That's the way our square dancing group is."\n-- Contact staff writer Brandon S Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.