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| Callers / Cuers ~ Geoff Clarke |
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 I first became involved in calling in 1995 when one of the local area callers held an information session for anyone that might be interested in becoming a Square Dance caller. This was triggered by the fact that a number of our local callers were about to retire. I decided to get involved and so after completing a subsequent Caller Clinic, what followed was many months of coaching by experienced callers (one in particular) and many hours of practicing in my own basement. Also, teaming up with another fellow new caller (Brian Crawford), we held a series of weekly dances in the basement of a local church and got tremendous support from 3 squares of dancers. This enabled us to hone our skills and build the confidence needed for the next step which was to start our own club!And so, in the fall of 1998, the four of us (Geoff & Teena, Brian & Amy) successfully launched a new Basic & Mainstream Square Dance Club - initially with 20 dancers. We called it the Town & Kountry Kickers. We also decided that we’d do things just a little different from what was considered the norm at the time, and thus the new club was founded on the premise that the dancers were there for fun & friendship, to have a good time together and with any kind of luck, learn to square dance!  We were totally successful and the Kickers club continued to flourish as a Caller-run club until 2009 / 2010 when the club operations was assumed by the membership. We held our 13th graduation of new dancers in April 2010. In the fall of 2010, the club reverted back to Caller-run, but as a Mainstream only dance club. For more information, check out the Town & Kickers website.In the 10 years following the launch of the Kickers, I also did numerous one night stands for church groups, private parties, weddings, etc. As well, I've taught Square Dancing to both grade school & high school students. On trips to Scotland I've also had the opportunity to call a number of times in Scotland for the Aberdeen Kilt Kickers & the Cupar OK Square Dance Club, as well as for public & private events. It was great fun, and for 5 years I also called for The Bay Waves Basic & MS club. However, now that I'm calling 3+ days/week, I rarely do the one nighters anymore.  In 2003, I established a new Plus club called Trackers. For the first 5 years it was a teach/dance club, combining a Plus teaching program & full Plus square dancing into a single evening. It worked very well & in 2007 / 2008 dropped the teach & now just dance the full Plus program. Trackers became an Executive-run club in 2009 / 2010 and continues to flourish, dancing 6-8 squares each week. For more information, check out the Trackers website. And finally, in the fall of 2006 I started learning to teach & call A1. For the first 2 years we danced solely in the basement of my home with a couple of squares, finally launching a new A1 club in the fall of 2008. We call it the Lockits and dance A1 on Wednesday mornings. Lockits was also a teaching/dancing club for the first five years, but in the fall of 2010 we will be A1 dancing only, exploring the A1 program to its fullest. For more information, check out the Lockits website.So, as you can see, I'm calling at least 2 evenings and 1 morning each week as well as Open Dances that I may be asked to do from time to time. Teena & I would like to get in an evening of A1 dancing whenever we can fit it into our schedule. Unfortunately we had to drop our regular weekly Round dancing simply because our schedule was far too busy. Although it's pretty hectic from September to the end of April, it is enjoyable!  I joined CALLERLAB as an Associate in 2003 and subsequently joined the Mainstream & Plus committees. I attended my first CALLERLAB convention in April 2006 and am now a full member of CALLERLAB. As many have heard me say, my personal motto is that should I ever stop enjoying Calling, then I will have a large collection of vinyl Frisbees (records) & CD's for sale. |
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