Get friends or family on board for a tremendous time you’ll all never forget
Roll away, half sashay, star promenade and separate!
Don’t know what that all means? Don’t worry, all will be taught and fancied during the 25th annual old-fashioned square dance to celebrate Geauga Park District tappin’ season.
What: Tree Tapper’s Ball
When: Saturday, March 8, 2014 – 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.
Where: Parkman Community House
16295 Main Market (U.S. Rt. 422), Parkman Township
If you square danced in middle school or junior high, now’s a good time to thank your old gym teacher for making you hold hands and dance with members of the opposite sex, Senior Naturalist Dan Best joked. “It’s the most fun dance west of the Appalachians!” declares Bob Smakula, a professional instrument repairman from Elkins, West Virginia, who will have soon called 23 of the 25 balls.
The Cordwood Cut-ups are tuning up to provide rip-snortin’ old-time string band music for the whole family on fiddle, clawhammer, banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass. Steps will combine square and line dances (though not Western-style costumed square dancing or modern country line dancing).
Old-time string music descends from British, Scotch, and Irish traditions with regional variations in North America, but the Tree Tapper’s Ball tends to be a bit more southern in flavor, Dan added. Instrumentation registers in many people’s minds as “bluegrass,” which combines musical traditions including blues and country.
Past musical acts have included Buddy Sap and the Sour Notes, Hotcake Hank and the Griddle-Greasers, Lost Sausage Lou and the Missing Links, Eddie and the Evaporators, the Maple Town Tune Maulers and Buddy Sap & the Sour Notes.
Registration opens February 23 for this free event, limited to eight per registering party or call 440-286-9516. Dancing is upstairs at Parkman Community House, which is not equipped with a ramp or elevator.
Don’t be a square, dress casually. We’re laid back and ready to enjoy the evening in Parkman.
Geauga Park District is online, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
