Wednesday Nights 7PM — Monroe Hall 1400 W. College Ave.

Description

The Singles and Pairs are a modern western square dance club in the city of Santa Rosa, California. We dance the CALLERLAB Plus Program, and we welcome both singles and couples of all ages, genders and backgrounds. We especially encourage dancers who have lost a dance partner to come and get back in the swing of things.

If you think that square dancing is done in barns around hay bales with old scratchy fiddle music, you're in for a surprise.  Monroe Hall may have a rustic feel to it, with all of the old farm implements and art that former owner Clarence Freitas collected and displayed on the walls, but it has a wonderful hardwood dance floor that is one of the best in the north state.  Our caller, Lawrence Johnstone, uses music that ranges from country to popular standards to rock and big band.  (His favorite!)

The dancing is all extemporaneous — there aren't pre-memorized routines as such.  Instead, new square dancers learn to do the individual calls that make up the program we dance (the CALLERLAB Plus Program), and then the calls are put together into different patterns by the caller as he works.  Dancers listen to the caller and follow the directions as he gives them.  It's a unique form of dance that borrows movements from many others, and blends them into something all its own.

Contacts

Name
Phone
Email
BJ Bernette (Co-President)
707-849-3101 bjbernette@yahoo.com
Brenda Kobrin (Co-President) 707-280-9680 kobrin.brenda@gmail.com
Lawrence Johnstone (caller)
707-462-0239
loj@pacific.net

History

S&P Banner circa 1981In January of 1963, a square dance club was formed in Santa Rosa, CA, under the leadership of Dick Mills and Blanche Nickelsen.  Its first meeting was at the First United Methodist Church on Montgomery Drive, with 13 members attending.  The new club was given the name Single 8's.  At some point that year (it isn't clear when), they moved to Monroe Hall.

As is often the case with a singles' club, there were numerous marriages among the members.  So that these couples would not be excluded, the club changed its name in 1972 to the Singles and Pairs, and a new badge was designed by Orville Hickenlooper.  That basic badge design continues with the club today, and is the basis of the logo you see at the top of this page.

S&P Class Graduation Cake 1980S&P Graduation hijinks 1980The club's membership has risen and fallen over the years. It is recorded that at one point we were the largest square dance club in Sonoma County. In fact, in September of 1979 the beginners' class started with 153 members, 75 of whom graduated — and that's in addition to the people who were already members of the club at the time!  We're currently a bit smaller than that, but we love to have new people come out and join us!

S&P Dancing at Monroe circa 1988

Pictures, clockwise from top right:  Club banner circa 1981; "Final exam" at 1980 class graduation; Newer dancer hoedown at Monroe Hall in December of 1988; Graduation cake for 1980 class graduation.


Past Callers

Years
Caller
1963
Harry Whitlock
1964
Mary Ann Athanis
1965-1966
Lee Buckingham
1967-1969
Jack Olds
1970
Keith Gylfe
1971-1981
Vern Churchill
1981-1983
Larry Hudson
1983-2005
Steve Minkin
2005
Doug Saunders and Lawrence Johnstone
2006-present
Lawrence Johnstone

The club's photo albums only go back as far as the late 1970s, so we have no photographs of the callers prior to Vern Churchill.  If you have any and would like to share them, feel free to email them to loj@pacific.net.