News Archives June 2007 - April 2008

A Great Night At BnB

Jmighell 13:52, 26 April 2008 (PDT)

A great time at Boots 'n' Buckles last night. It was a pleasure to welcome our special guests from the Chinese Church in Christ. Glenn and Carole Wiegand gave us a quick teach of the Electric Slide. Gary Clayton, our DJ for the evening, had the old hall hopping all evening long.

Gary will be the DJ on May 2 at the next Cactus Corner dance at the Grange, and will be one of the instructors on August 9 at the Country Hustler's DJ Junction Workshop.

Evelyn Khinoo & Denny Harris will be our DJs for the upcoming, annual Boots 'n' Buckles Workshop. The registration deadline is May 23 (here's the form). Evelyn & Denny will also DJ the Quicksteppers Black & White Ball on May 3.

Don't forget: there will be no BnB dances for the next two Fridays. But we hope to see everyone at Swiss Park on May 16, with Mike and Joyce Shannon as our DJs. In the meantime, Mike and Joyce have a line dance tonight (April 26) at Hyde Middle School in Cupertino.

Help Wanted

Jmighell 11:35, 19 April 2008 (PDT)

Jennifer Elling, our intrepid Roundup Publisher, has retired. Many, many thanks to her for all the time and effort she put in to producing our monthly newsletter. The club is seeking a replacement publisher/editor/media tycoon, and Glenda Castain has produced a flyer outlining the nature of the position and its requirements. I suspect her statement of the credentials needed for the job may be too stringent, but there it is. Volunteers might not have to wait too long in line.

All the Latest

Jmighell 20:23, 9 April 2008 (PDT)

The club's board has entered into an agreement with Newark Swiss Park, Inc. to rent the hall on two Friday nights in May and two in June, paying on these nights considerably higher rents than were required in the past. To afford these rental payments, the board had no choice but to raise admission prices. Starting with the first dance in May (May 16), admission will be $8 for all members and $10 for all non-members. There will be no discount for seniors. Although the new admission price is significantly higher than in the past, it is comparable to what is charged by other clubs.

The dances scheduled for May and June at Swiss Park will be held on May 16, May 30, June 13 and June 27.

The June 7 Workshop will also be held at Swiss Park, with instructors Evelyn Khinoo, Debbie Kachalkin, Millie Dusha, and Mike & Joyce Shannon. Our theme will be DOTS, dances of the summer. The deadline for registration with dinner reservations is May 23. You can return the Registration Form either by mail or by passing it to a board member at the dance.

Looking for a New Location

Jmighell 08:33, 30 March 2008 (PDT)

Boots 'n' Buckles Dance Club has lost its lease at Swiss Park. Newark Swiss Park, Inc. (the organization that owns the building and facilities at Swiss Park) is now asking for rental payments that are far more than the club can afford, and imposing conditions that will make it impossible for us to plan for and hold regular dances. We'll continue to have Friday night dances at Swiss Park through the end of April, when our lease expires. And we'll hold our June workshop at Swiss Park, in accordance with an agreement we signed many months ago.

But starting right now, we're looking for a new home.

If you know of any location that might be suitable for our dances, please email the webmaster or contact one of the board members. We'll post on this website periodic updates about the status of our search, and the schedule and location of dances we intend to hold in the future.

Valentine's Day Dance

Jmighell 15:34, 13 February 2008 (PST)

Last Friday night at Swiss Park we had a great Valentine's Day Dace in a hall nicely decorated for the occasion. Two special visitors from Hong Kong, Suki and Yuki Ho, were there to try out line dancing. Diana Ward and Tina Beare played Chocolate City Hustle for them, and they had it down solid. Helen Davidson passed along the hint that we're always looking for additional board members. On the way home with Auntie Elaine and Uncle John, Suki and Yuki said the evening was 'ho wan' (Cantonese for 'very fun').

Jennifer Elling has recovered from her hard disk crash and expects to resume publishing the Roundup in March. Please send any submissions to her by February 20th.

Neil Hale and Evelyn & Denny have very kindly volunteered to DJ for the club on additional nights this year, filling up the remaining slots in our dance calendar for 2008. Thanks, guys!!

February Roundup

Jmighell 09:37, 28 January 2008 (PST)

Jennifer Elling, our intrepid Roundup Publisher, suffered a hard disk crash (ouch!) and will be unable to produce the February newsletter. If you have any articles, pictures or news items you had hoped to publish in the February newsletter, email them to the webmaster and we'll post them on our website instead.

New Year News

Jmighell 18:08, 14 January 2008 (PST)

Jennifer Elling has just published the January 2008 Roundup, with some great photographs by Gary Davidson and several interesting articles. A great job, as always; thanks, Jennifer! Contributions of articles, pictures, puzzles and the like are always welcome. Anyone wishing to submit something for publication in the Roundup should send it to Jennifer by the 20th of each month.

The club finished the year 2007 with a $653 surplus, in part due to a donation by an individual who insists upon remaining anonymous. But on behalf of the board, and the entire club, I'd like to express our appreciation for this person's generosity. The financial statements and Treasurer's Report can be viewed on the Treasurer's Reports page.

We've just posted to this site a Schedule of Upcoming DJ's for the year, and a list of local choreographer who will be honored by the club as Choreographers of the Month. January is Hedy McAdams month, and I understand that Evelyn Khinoo will be teaching Hedy's Iko Iko (read about the song here).

The Cactus Corners Classic Workshop on January 19 is sold out, but people can still come to the evening dance at 7pm at the Danville Grange. The instructors are Michael Barr, Michele Burton, Gary Clayton, Charyle Hartje and Evelyn Khinoo. Read more about the workshop and evening dance here.

Sue 'n' Kathy are teaching about 9 classes nowadays, and hosting a Saturday Night Social twice each month. And because that's obviously not enough to keep anyone fully occupied, they're also hosting a Chinese New Year Party on February 5 and a Mediterranean Cruise later this year. Check out their website for details, and some great dance videos.

Helen Davidson's Christmas Message

Jmighell 09:33, 16 December 2007 (PST)

It was a wonderful Christmas Party last Friday at Swiss Park Helen Davidson was ill and unable to attend, but Lee Sollicito read a message from her:

BnB Board Elections - and a Call for Volunteers

Jmighell 10:46, 28 October 2007 (PDT)

Maybe it's time to 'give back' just a little. We all enjoy dancing at Swiss Park, but these social dances don't just happen all on their own. There's a good bit of work done behind the scenes. Someone has to collect admissions money at the door, arrange the DJ schedule, pay the bills, help decorate the hall, and so on. If you're a club member and able to contribute a few hours of your time each month to work of this kind, you can earn the gratitude of your fellow dancers by volunteering for the club's board of directors.

It's not rocket science. No special skills are required. And it's not like you'll have to run an election campaign, kiss babies and go around asking people to vote for you. There are almost always more board positions available than volunteers to fill them. Just talk with one of the current board members and they will be happy (more than happy!) to guide you through the process.

And now is the time to do it, because the nomination process for the election of the 2008 Boots 'n' Buckles Board of Directors is now open. Any club member can nominate themselves or any other club member for the board, so long as the nominee has been a "club member in good standing for 6 months". You can nominate as many candidates as you wish. No special form is required; just hand a piece of paper with the names of your nominees to any board member. You can use mail or email, addressed to any board member. There will also be a box at the back of the hall on Friday nights for you to drop a piece of paper with the names of your nominees.

Candidates for the board can be "drafted". In other words, you can nominate someone without their prior consent. Drafted candidates are free to announce, in time-honored fashion, that "if nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve". And if they win the election, they may decline the honor of a position on the board; but they cannot remove their name from the list of nominees on the ballot. All it takes is one nomination, a single club member nominating themselves or another club member, and that person will be an official nominee with their name on the election ballot.

At the end of the night on Friday, November 16, the board will compile the names of all qualified nominees and print them on the election ballots. These ballots will then be available at the dances on the following two Friday nights, for use by club members in registering their votes. Write-in votes are allowed; so you can vote for any qualified club member, even if they have not been nominated and their name is not printed on the ballot. Write-in votes for unqualified candidates are not counted.

There have been a couple of occasions in prior years in which mail-in ballots have been made available. But over the club's 22-year history, the vast majority of elections have not used mail-in ballots, and this year the board decided to save money and not use them. Voting will take place at Swiss Park on November 23 (8pm until 11pm) and November 30 (until 9pm). Election results will be announced at about 10pm on November 30.

A Welcome for Cactus Corners at Swiss Park

Jmighell 21:22, 26 August 2007 (PDT)

This coming Friday (August 31) Boots 'n' Buckles will be extending a special invitation to the Cactus Corners Dance Club. Members of the Cactus Corners and their friends will be admitted to Swiss Park at the normal fee charged to BnB members. It's certain that nobody's going to be checking club membership cards at the door. Just mention that you're a member, or tell them you have a friend of a friend whose sister knew someone who once thought of dancing with those folks out at the Grange....

Gary Clayton, current President of the Cactus Corners, will be our DJ for the evening, and it will be a pleasure to see him. It's not all that often that Gary comes to dance at Swiss Park, and half the fun of the evening will be in ribbing him for being reluctant to venture this far south. Helen Davidson will preside over a general membership meeting that will probably last for all of three minutes. The rest of the evening is sure to filled with great dancing.

Apologies: An earlier post incorrectly said that it was the Country Hustlers who were to be our special guests on August 31. This is the kind of thing that happens when a man gets back from a two week vacation and finds four weeks worth of work waiting for him. Apologies all around. The BnB dance hosting the Country Hustlers will be held on October 19; Clint Qualls will DJ the event, and I hear that Millie will do a teach.

DJ Junction Funshop - August 11

Jmighell 10:22, 5 August 2007 (PDT)

The big line dancing event during the late summer in the Bay Area is always the Country Hustler's annual DJ Junction Funshop. They call their dance workshop a 'funshop' because it really is a lot of fun.

This year the instructors will be Millie Dusha, Gary Clayton, Evelyn Khinoo, Alice Marez, Clint Qualls and Patsy Long. It will be held at the Livermore First Presbyterian Church (2020 Fifth Street, Livermore) next Saturday, August 11. Registration starts at 11:30am, followed by dance instruction between noon and 5:30pm. There will be a social dance from 7:00 to 10:00pm. Even if you can't make it for the dance classes, you're more than welcome to drop by for the social dance.

The Country Hustlers have a well-deserved reputation throughout the Bay Area for hospitality. They are friendly people who make you feel right at home. Here's the Funshop Registration Form.

Not Even Spielberg

Jmighell 14:02, 26 July 2007 (PDT)

Sue 'n' Kathy have been busy over the last three weeks loading some very nice dance videos to their account on YouTube. At last count, they had produced an astonishing 53 videos(!), with the most recent one, I Remember, uploaded only 11 hours ago. Not even Steven Spielberg has made this many movies.

These videos are of particular interest to local dancers, because they show many of the dances that are most popular at social events all over the Bay Area. They include old favorites like:

• Beer for My Horses
• Sunset Stampede
• Key Lime
• Bottle It Up
• Bicycle Waltz
• Cha Cha Lengua
• Fly Like a Bird

as well as newer dances:

• Cry to Me
• Sail Away Cha
• Show Me Wot U Got
• Show Me Yours
• I Won't Be Crying
• Charanga

and many, many more. I was delighted to see the mix includes local choreographer Charlotte Skeeter's Hasta Manana, Carmel Hutchinson's Runaway, Evelyn Khinoo's Silk & Satin and Michele Burton's Divisadero Cha.

The quality of these videos is really very impressive, compared to many other dance videos we see on the internet. Very nice work!

You Can Dance

Jmighell 13:42, 26 July 2007 (PDT)

A great dance last Friday, at which we were joined by many dancers from the East Bay and a good number of Sue and Kathy's students. Sue and Kathy have posted some very nice pictures from that night on their website. We celebrated birthdays for Lee, Jim and Evelyn (pictured at right). Neil and Linda did an outstanding job as our DJ's for the evening, and they'll be back in the saddle again as DJ's for the First Sunday Dance in San Bruno on August 5.

Frances Lind has just uploaded the playlist for last Friday to our Playlists Page. It's interesting how much overlap there is between what is played at Swiss Park and at the Country Quicksteppers dances. Of the 10 most requested dances at the CQS dance on June 30, we played 8 last Friday:

• Heart of an Angel
• A Cowboy and A Dancer
• Bosa Nova
• Cry to Me
• It’s Up To You
• I Won’t Be Crying
• Rio
• Silk & Satin

Of the 20 dances most requested at CQS, we played 13. And of the 50 total dances played that night at the CQS dance, we played 26 last Friday. Dances played at BnB last Friday, but not at the CQS dance on June 30, included Bicycle Waltz, Kill the Spiders, Kisses on the Bottom, Side by Side and many others that are often played at CQS socials. In short, CQS dancers should feel right at home at Swiss Park.

Lucia has just given us a translation for lyrics in the songs used for the new dances Stay Another Day and Aloha. It appears that the lyrics of Aloha (Wari Boom) are in Spanish, not Hawaiian as we might have supposed, and the song was used as part of the promotion for the 2006 World Cup soccer match. Many thanks, Lucia!

This weekend there will be a Country Hustlers dance 8:00 - 11:00pm on Saturday at the Livermore First Presbyterian Church, with DJ Clint Qualls filling in for Gary Clayton. Clint and Alice Marez are hosting a Come As You Are Party on Sunday, 1:00 - 4:00pm at the Hayward Area Senior Center. See details about both dances on our Other Dances page.

Doris Volz has just posted the August Roundup; it includes some shopping tips submitted by Helen Davidson, a trip report by Lee Sollecito, and notes about foot massage (a subject of great interest to dancers) written by Carole Wiegand.

Don't forget to come to Swiss Park this Friday for the Watermelon Feast! Evelyn and Denny will be our DJ's, and Alice Wong will be there.

Kandice Peterson at the Quicksteppers Luau

Jmighell 01:01, 24 July 2007 (PDT)

Last Saturday night at the Country Quickstepper's Hawaiian Luau dance we were treated to a wonderful performance of Polynesian dancing by Kandice Peterson. Kandice is Alice Marez's granddaughter, a lovely 16 year old who attends Hayward High School.

Kandice is part Filipina, and first became interested in Polynesian dancing after seeing a performance at a wedding. With Alice's encouragement, Kandice enrolled at the Tamali'i Dance Studio in Hayward under the direction of Yolanda Ku`uipo Taufa`asau-Vincent, and danced with others from the studio when they won a prize at the Tahiti Fete in San Jose last year.

Kandice's first dance was an exceptionally beautiful aparima (literally translated as 'kiss of the hands'), a Tahitian form of dance similar to the hula that tells a story set to music, mimed by graceful gestures of the hands. This aparima was choreographed at the Tamali'i school, and was the dance that won the prize last year in San Jose.

Her second performance was in the style of a tamure, featuring a grass skirt, shaking hips and drum percussion. But the tamure is also a couples dance, and so for the third set, Kandice invited Mike Shannon to dance with her. It is hard to imagine anyone even noticing Mike's dance styling, given that his partner was the beautiful Kandice; but it's actually more common for guys in Tahiti to do the tamure by shaking their knees in and out in a scissors-like motion known as the pa'oti (like this), rather than swaying their hips. Due to copyright issues on the music, the YouTube videos have been taken down per the request of Tamali'i.

Kandice also enjoys hip hop dancing, and likes to attend the Glow dance parties held for teenagers 16 and over on Sunday evenings at The X nightclub in San Francisco. Her next performance of Polynesian dancing with the Tamali'i group will be August 4, 3:30 - 4:30pm at the free admission Aloha Festival held at the Presidio in San Francisco. For inquiries about booking a performance by Kandice, email her grandmother Alice Marez.

Watermelon, Alice Wong and More

Jmighell 15:44, 17 July 2007 (PDT)

This coming Friday it will be our pleasure to welcome substitute DJ's Neil Hale and Linda. We'll also be celebrating birthdays for club members Jim, Liisa, Lee, Gloria, Evelyn and Kathi.

What could be better, while dancing on a hot summer night, than a cold slice of watermelon? We'll be having a watermelon feast the following week (July 27), and Alice Wong will join us. Our substitute DJ's will be Evelyn Khinoo and Denny Harris.

Last year club members Frances Lind, Joyce Peloian and Gary McCrea choreographed 'R' Suspicious Minds to the song Suspicious Minds by Clay Aiken. They now have autographed step sheets signed by Clay himself. Warning: the file is almost half a megabyte. (This is Joyce and Gary's copy; Frances also has one that she is holding hostage from the view of others.)

Body to Body at Swiss Park

Jmighell 12:28, 17 July 2007 (PDT)

It was a fun dance last Friday night as Boots 'n' Buckles played host to about 25 students from Sue 'n' Kathy's Cupertino dance classes. A lot of very good dancers! It was hard to believe that many of them had only been line dancing for about a year.

They knew and danced with us a number of old favorites like Cha Cha Lengua, Jambalaya, Storybook Endings, Silk & Satin, Bicycle Waltz, Fly Like a Bird, West Texas Waltz and Rio; as well as many of the newer dances like Cry to Me, Show Me Wot U Got, Grace Kelly, Show Me Yours and Rachael McEnaney's brand-new dance Charanga. Sue 'n' Kathy have produced videos for many of these dances; see the YouTube links on their step sheet page.

It was also a delight to see them do a great new dance called Body to Body by Dutch choreographer Francien Sittrop. This 32-count beginner/intermediate dance is done to the song Body To Body by XYP (music video, lyrics). There are no less than five videos for this dance: a teach video, a demo by Yipee's Eelin Lim and others in Singapore, a video filmed by Frani, a demo with very nice styling from Rhoda Lai in Ontario, and a great clip by Sue 'n' Kathy. Evelyn Khinoo has said she will probably teach Body to Body at her class this coming Thursday (July 19).

Many of our special guests are Mandarin speakers, so the dancers doing Neil Hale's Hot Tamales had great fun calling out the count in that language. DJ's John Bowen and Gina Mello did a wonderful job of keeping the energy high and the floor filled with dancers late into the evening, ending the night with Evergreen and Burning.

To see larger versions of the pictures, click these links for the first, second, third and fourth images.

Special Update:The Country Quicksteppers dance this coming Saturday (July 21) will be held at Temple Beth Jacob (1550 Alameda De Las Pulgas, Redwood City), rather than Barrett as originally advertised. This is the Hawaiian Luau featuring Tahitian dancer Kandice Peterson.

Learn No. 171 Monday Night at Swiss Park

Jmighell 11:18, 15 July 2007 (PDT)

Come learn Terry Hogan's new dance No. 171 next Monday Night at Swiss Park (July 16). It's a great easy-intermediate, one-wall dance, to a classic song, L.O.V.E. written by Nat 'King' Cole. Cole also wrote the song Write Myself a Letter, used for the popular dance Kisses on the Bottom.

The song for No. 171 is performed by Michael Buble, who also sings the songs used in other popular dances like Home (music video), Quando 05 (dance video), You Can Dance (music video) and Sway (music video). Here is a music video of Michael Buble singing L.O.V.E.

	L is for the way you look at me
	O is for the only one I see
	V is very, very extraordinary
	E is even more than anyone that you adore can

The video link shown on the Yippee stepsheet for No. 171 is incorrect. It points to a music video for Michael Buble singing Love at First Sight. But even the Love at First Sight video is well worth watching, because it showcases the lovely actress Krista Allen. (Update 7/17/2007: The Yipee link has been corrected.)

The song L.O.V.E. was featured in the 2000 movie Born Romantic, a film I highly recommend to my dance friends, in part because much of the action centers around a salsa club in London. Here's a video of the song in the movie.

Happy Heiva!

Jmighell 15:50, 10 July 2007 (PDT)

A wonderful dance last Friday, with Mike and Joyce Shannon as our DJ's and guest instructors. They taught Till the Sun Falls (links here), a great dance to a nice country tune. We also had a lot of fun doing Michael Barr's new dance Doors of Life (links). Be sure to join the Shannons for their next Fourth Saturday Dance in August (there will be no Fourth Saturday dance in July).

This coming Friday we'll be welcoming guest DJs John Bowen and Gina Mello. John teaches a class every Monday morning, 9:00 to 11:30am at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center in Redwood City. He and Gina are also hosting the Second Saturday Charity Workshop & Dance on November 10 (Registration Form/Flier).

It's July, and in Polynesia that means Heiva, a cultural festival that features canoe racing, beauty pagents, music and dance. The Country Hustlers will be celebrating with a Hawaiian dance on July 14, and the Quicksteppers will have a Hawaiian dance on July 21. Tahitian dancer Kandice Peterson will perform at the Quicksteppers dance, and Anni Wunderlich promises to have smelling salts ready for all the men who will need that treatment.

Don't miss Evelyn Khinoo and Denny Harris' Second Saturday dance this coming weekend, from 7:30 to 10:30pm at Barrett Community Center in Belmont. Tonight Evelyn will be teaching No. 171 (see links here) and Michele Perron's 4 Carat Dorks (video demo); this Thursday she will teach Rachael McEnaney's new dance Charanga (teach video, MP3 music). Charanga is a style of cuban dance music, and the dance looks like a lot of fun. I could be mistaken, but I thought last night I heard Rob Lynch saying that he was going to teach No. 171 next Monday Night at Swiss Park.

July 31 is the last day to register for the Country Hustler's DJ Junction Funshop on August 11. Registration is limited to just 60 people.

Sue 'n' Kathy are producing dance videos! And very nice ones at that. Find the links on their step sheet page, or better yet, subscribe here to their YouTube videos.

IndepenDANCE Day Dance

Jmighell 10:43, 5 July 2007 (PDT)

Join us for our IndepenDANCE day dance this coming Friday when we welcome Joyce and Mike Shannon as our guest DJ's and instructors. Wear red, white and blue and bring snacks to share.

One of the dances almost certain to be played this Friday is Michael Barr's new dance Doors of Life, a very nice waltz that seems to have been taught all throughout the Bay Area this week. See Michael's demo here. And here is a music video featuring the the lovely singer Mariya Takeuchi.

Another dance likely to be played on Friday is To Love Somebody (Metelnick & Biggs). We did this dance last Friday at Swiss Park and it is becoming very popular. There is a new demo by Graham Skinner, and another new demo by Ontario instructor Winnie Yu.

Download YouTube videos to RealPlayer

Frances 20:13, 28 June 2007 (PDT)

Go to: www.real.com (right side of page near top) The new RealPlayerBETA is now available (yellow box below to click on says GET IT FREE )

And it works! Real Player has a free audio/video download that will let you download videos from anywhere including YouTube. Very easy. Just right click on the video and you have a choice that says - Download to RealPlayer.

Just go to You Tube and pick a video - start the video just like normal and then right click anywhere on the screen - you will get a menu option that says "Download to RealPlayer". Click on that, let it download and then go to your Real Player and it will be in Videos!

Just a recap... Get the player at www.real.com NOT realplayer.com I'm using Mozilla Firefox and some are using IE 6. Beyond that I'm not sure which browsers are working. AOL seems to be giving a problem so circumvent it.

After you download the player from real.com go to YouTube and pick something you want to download. Watch it once so it's not buffering when you download. Restart it and right click on the screen as it plays - you will get a box with a menu and the last option is "Download to Real Player". Click on that and it will download into your realplayer video files. Also, if you run your cursor over the youtube screen, there's a "Download to RealPlayer" appearing over the top of the screen on the right hand side. So you can do that instead of right clicking if you want to.

So you can save your favorite youtube dance videos to your computer and then delete them once you are done practicing to them.

Gary and Helen in Calistoga

Jmighell 19:18, 25 June 2007 (PDT)

Gary and Helen Davidson recently visited Calistoga, and wrote about it for the July Roundup. It's an adventure tale of a romantic stone castle and wine, a country inn with mysterious literary antecedents and more wine, fine dining and... yet more wine. My kind of trip!

This month the Roundup will include a Membership Renewal form, and is being mailed to all members. Click here to see a larger copy of the picture at right.

The Buzz on New Dances

Jmighell 12:10, 25 June 2007 (PDT)

Here are a few new (or newly revived) dances that people are starting to talk about or teach in the Bay Area; some might find their way to the dance floor at Swiss Park. (This list, by the way, is neither authoritative nor complete; it's just the stuff I hear about.)

• To Love Somebody (Metelnick & Biggs). To Love Somebody by Jordin Sparks. -- Demo by Peter, audio clip, music video.