It’s Hip to Be Square … Dancing

Shirts ‘N Skirts club has been promoting dancing for more than 70 years on Friday nights in Fulton and continues to attract large crowds. Dancers get plenty of exercise and have fun doing it!

By Stefan Yablonski

 

Grab a partner and do-si-do — or allemand, whatever that is.

If you’d like to learn the ins and outs of square dancing, the Fulton Shirts ‘N Skirts Square Dance Club is ready to make your dream a reality.

The club does what is referred to as Modern Western square dancing. It meets every Friday evening at the Fulton Municipal Building, located at 141 S. First St., from September through spring. It’s set up as a class.

The club was founded in 1954 as a social activity to promote square dancing. More than 70 years later it is still active in the square dance community today.

On Sept. 19 and 26 they held free dance lesson nights. Club members filled out the squares as needed to help with an introduction to some basic calls.

They have a lot of different kinds of music these days, according to current club president Sandy Bomgren, 65.

“We do promenade and allemand left and do-si-do,” she said. “It’s all just for fun. No awards, just for fun.”

“The dress code is casual,” she added. “It used to be — years ago — shirts and skirts. Now if we dress like that, it’s for a really special event. Most all of our dances these days are casual. The music is more modern.”

“The music is really just about anything with 123 beats a minute,” the club’s caller Dave Eno explained.

Square dancing tends to attract more mature audiences, Sandy’s husband, Eric Bomgren, 66, said. However, the Shirts ‘n’ Skirts group boast quite an age range.

The club has about 30 active members. The oldest member is in their 80s. The youngest member is late 20s to early 30s, he said.

Club members pay dues, $10 per person per year.

 

Anyone can do it

Traditional square dance usually consists of simple, repetitive steps led by a caller, which makes it quite beginner-friendly, according to Eno.

“You don’t need to know too much to be able to jump in and start dancing,” he added. “Modern Western square dance uses a wider variety of steps in an unpredictable order.”

Wherever you go in the world, square dancing is called in English, Sandy Bomgren pointed out.

“We have been to events in Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas — every place,” she said. “If you do this kind of square dancing, Modern Western square dancing, you could go all over the world and find a dance; it is all the same.”

“That’s right. You really don’t have to know anything special to be able to square dance — except maybe your left and your right,” Eno laughed. “It’s similar to the stuff a lot of people probably learned in school; really not any changes, just building on that do-si-dos, promenades and so forth.”

Eno’s father was a caller. He was having a class and needed one more dancer — so 9-year-old Dave danced with his mother. He said he enjoyed it so much that he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. It will be 50 years in 2026, he added.

 

An active club

“Our club is active in the community. We bring stuff for the pets, we donate Toys for Tots and we have an ALS benefit square dance in June — everything goes to ALS Association,” Bomgren said.

The club also holds special dances monthly such as Pizza Night, Hotdog Roast, Ice Cream Social and Chili Night.

“I have been dancing with the club for 10 years now. This club has been going for a lot of years,” said member Dave Bingham “It’s good exercise and you have fun doing it.

“Eno’s mother passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and we have an ALS dance every year to raise money. We raised about $3,500 this year.”

“We have quite a few new people here tonight and that’s great,” Eric Bomgren said. “Most of us are retired. There are a couple young people who came tonight.”

Hayden Whitney and Corey Cantrell were two of the younger first-timers.

“I learned about this from Phoebe [Vought] at church,” Hayden said. “And then I told [Corey].”

“I might keep doing this,” Corey said. “It is fun.”

“This is our first time, but we’d like to come back again. We are having a good time,” Whitney added.

“It’s nice to see some young people here,” Vought said.

 

Grab a partner

The club offers two free square dance lessons on the last two Fridays in September.

Then, classes are $5 per person per evening. They are open to individuals and couples alike. Since the participants are learning new steps each week, it’s preferable that those interested start in the first few weeks of the fall, so they can catch up quickly.

Light refreshments are provided by some members.

The Fulton group is one of nearly two dozen clubs that are members of the Rochester Area Federation of Western Round and Square Dance, according to Eric Bomgren. The federation includes groups in the Rochester area and its suburbs, as well as Auburn, Liverpool, Bath and Penn Yan.

The classes in Fulton are “more mainstream and for all levels. Other chapters offer more advanced levels, with more steps included in their choreography,” he added.

The Bomgrens started dancing with the club in 1986, when they were both in their middle 20s. They took about 12 years off from dancing and came back to it about 10 years ago.

“Square dancing not only gets people moving, but it is also a good mental exercise, keeping one’s listening and memory skills sharp, she said. “The benefits include fun, awesome exercise, great socialization — and making great friends!”