Come and dance in a theme of USA! Our hall will be decorated in the red, white and blue and a supper including donuts, mini hot dogs and apple pie will be demolished. Please bring a basket supper to help us out.
Our night’s square dance program will be a musical journey around the cities and states of America. New York New York, Georgia, Mississippi to Seattle. Wear red, white and blue colours and y’all enjoy yourselves!
For five days in June 2007, over 800 dancers from all over Australia and overseas converged on Adelaide for our annual National Square Dance Convention held at the Distinctive Homes Dome (formerly Clipsal Powerhouse) at Findon.
The Adelaide Outlaws club was well represented with one full set and a combined set in the dressed sets parade on the Saturday evening and many of our dancers attending the weekend’s sessions. There was also a novelty for us in that one of the venues for the Convention was our regular club hall - the Macedonian Hall at Findon. We felt right at home!
Some of the highlights for us were:
Congratulations to convenor David Armstrong and his committee for the culmination of years of planning and the final staging of the event. We look forward to the next National Convention in Brisbane in 2008.
We were fortunate to be contacted by a reporter from the ABC television current affairs show “Stateline” just prior to the Adelaide National Convention. After some arrangements were made, the reporter and cameraman visited the National Convention venue to film interviews and setting up and then paid a visit to the Adelaide Outlaws/JR Squares Trail In Dance on Wed 6 June. Interviews were held and a lot of footage was shot of the capacity crowd dancing.
The end result I must say was one of the best stories on square dancing we have ever seen. Not only was the segment a good length but it did not degenerate to the “hick” image we so often are portrayed with. The reporter, Simon Royal, put together a good balance of interviews with Graham, James Reid (JR Squares caller), David Amstrong (National Convention Convenor) and footage of dancers at the Trail In dance.
Our thanks to the ABC and Simon Royal for such good coverage.
The atmosphere was electric - the crowd was buzzing - a night to remember!
The hall was filled to capacity with dancers from all over Australia and we had a ball. Graham Elliott and James Reid called the entire program as their two clubs, the Adelaide Outlaws and JR Squares, combined to put on a pre Convention show. Not only was there a feast of dancing and entertainment but we also had clothing and shoe stalls at the back of the hall - albeit a bit squeezy down there.
A special highlight of the night for us was the presence of a film crew from the ABC television show “Stateline”. They filmed the dancers and callers and conducted interviews. The final segment was shown on their show the following Friday. See the Blog item for details.
A big thanks to the two club committees who arrived early to decorate the hall and clean up afterwards. A special thankyou to all the dancers who, despite facing five more days of Convention dancing, came along in droves to join our party. A party that consisted of great dancing and even guest appearances from the Motown boys, the Grease boys and those two Village People who closed with the finale. Big thankls to Les Tulloch who kept people dancing during a  costume change.
A great group of new dancers have now joined us Monday nights and unfortunately we cannot accept any more new starters. We are progressing through the teaching program and can’t go back to the beginning.
If you would like to learn square dancing and missed this intake, contact us for details of other clubs’ learners programs. Don;t hesitate - we’d love to have you join our friendly pastime. 