Swinging their partners in the Briny Breezes Auditorium are (from left)
Bev Robey, Eric Wolffbrandt, Gene Robey and Joyce Viola. Photos by
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
One day in 1948, way back when Briny Breezes was still just a campground for travel trailers, a fellow by the name of Don Trim started giving dancing lessons on the trailers’ concrete patios.
Trim taught round dancing at first, choreographed ballroom dancing in which couples circle in unison to a caller’s cues. Later, he added square dancing.
And Brinyites have been swinging their partners and promenading ever since.
On Wednesday evening, Feb. 20, about 100 residents and friends gathered in the town auditorium to mark the Briny Breezes Square & Round Dance Club’s 65th anniversary.
Some watched. Some clapped. Some of the women wore shocking pink petticoat skirts. Some of the men sported embroidered Western shirts. Most danced.
And danced. And —
“Bow to your partners!” the caller called, and seven squares of four couples each bowed as the loudspeakers onstage blasted —
Moves Like Jagger, by Maroon 5?
Electro-pop? In Briny Breezes?
What happened to the fiddle music?
“That’s the biggest misconception about square dancing,” says Jack Lewis, a lawyer from Boynton Beach who’s been calling square dances throughout South Florida since 1969. “Fiddle music is old-fashioned. I call to Michael Jackson songs, Broadway show tunes. Anything, really.”
Clearly, this is not what you saw in those old Gene Autry movies.
“Square dancing is really hand dancing,” Lewis explained. “It doesn’t matter what you do with your feet.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Everyone knows “do-si-do” and “allemande left,” but even the basic technique requires dancers to recognize and respond at once to 51 different calls.
There’s the “Flipping The Diamond” and “Slipping The Clutch,” “Boxing The Gnat” and “Loading The Boat.”
But once you’ve learned, you can dance anywhere. The calls are so universally formalized that when a German square dancing club visited Briny Breezes some time ago, they knew exactly what to do.
“I’ve called in Tokyo,” Lewis said. “They didn’t speak a word of English, but they were all able to follow me.”
Eric and Cathy Wolffbrandt, full-time Briny residents for three years, took lessons at the Boynton Beach Civic Center for a year and a half before they felt proficient enough to “Box The Gnat” or “Alamo Style” back home in Briny.
“It’s like a fraternity,” said Eric, sporting a white Western shirt with black music notes embroidered here and there. “Eight people in a square and you’re interacting, shaking hands at the end. We’ve met so many nice people.”
And yet despite the dancers’ enthusiasm, square dancing suffers from the perception that it’s square.
When Lewis first started calling, there were about 50 clubs in Dade County alone. Today, an Internet search finds about the same number in all of Florida.
That’s why Ennio and Sharon Ruggi had to drive up from Coconut Creek to dance.
Back home in Albany, they travel to Lake George to find a club. And yet, Ennio says, it’s worth it.
“If you’re square dancing, you can’t think about anything else. If I’m talking to you, I’m going to miss a call, so it’s a good diversion.”
A good diversion, and good exercise.
Look around the dance floor when Lewis cranks up Boogies Shoes, and you’ll spot a white-haired, 80-year-old woman named Sally Galik spicing up her sashays with the occasional high kick.
“I’ve been dancing for 44 years,” she says when the music stops. “Monday nights I’m at the United Methodist Church, Wednesdays I come here, Thursdays I drive down to Hollywood, Fridays is Boynton Beach Civic Center and Saturday I’m in Hollywood again. Most of these people I’ve known 35 years.”
Galik moved to Briny in April after driving up from Davie for years. But in this club, she’s a youngster.
Les Jones of Delray Beach is 89. His dance partner, Vivian Ciccardi, is 96. When both lost their spouses, they started dancing together.
Vivian Ciccardi, 96, receives a round of applause from
Marcia Kozol, Harold Kelley and Les Jones.
“We’ve known each other 20 years,” said Les, taking a break after “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler On The Roof (without fiddles). “It’s good exercise, and we need that at our age. We’re not as spry as we used to be, but we still hang in there.”
Imagine that. An 89-year-old man and a 96-year-old woman Flipping The Diamond, Slipping The Clutch, Boxing The Gnat and Loading The Boat.
Jack Lewis was not impressed.
“I have a lady in my Hollywood club,” he said, “we just celebrated her 102nd birthday.”
Then he cranked up Michael Jackson’s Beat It, and everyone bowed.
Dancers first gathered in Briny Breezes to round dance
outdoors, followed later by indoor square dancing. Photo provided
The Briny Breezes Square Dance Club meets from 7 to 10 p.m. every Wednesday (January through April) in the town auditorium. The evenings begin with an hour of round dancing, followed by square dancing.
There is a charge of $10 per couple to cover the cost of hiring a caller and providing refreshments.
For more information, call John LeGrow, club president, at 279-0602. Ú
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