"It's Sunday evening and dozens of people are ping-ponging around the room at Berkeley's Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center. It's the end of a three-day traveling music festival called " Dare to Be Square West," and folks are whirling, stomping and otherwise having a ball. A man who's perched like a shepherd eyeing his flock calls out instructions from the stage. "Take your partner and promenade!" he hollers, as people form lines, part and reintegrate."
""When I was a boy, we had all kinds of music and it always changed. Rock and roll went from Elvis to the Beatles. Classical music went from Bach to Rachmaninoff," he tells the crowd. "When I first heard this old-time music, I said to myself, 'It's fine the way it is.' It will change, but there's just something about it that is so joyous and welcoming, and so unnecessary to try to do anything but 'get it.'""
A three-day festival, Dare to Be Square West, drew energetic crowds to Berkeley's Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center for square dancing and old-time music. Dancers formed lines, promenaded and performed traditional figures with live callers guiding the action. Old-time music was described as joyous, welcoming and largely unchanged in spirit even as tastes evolved. Local organizations across the Bay, with names like the Lucky Steppers and the Oaktown 8s, host regular dances. The revival includes themed parties such as a Lord of the Rings costume square dance and workplace events involving companies like Google.
Read at The Mercury News
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