Arlington Squares step into their seventh decade of dance

Dancers arranged themselves in groups of eight Sunday on a hardwood floor with basketball hoops suspended from the walls above at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights.

Some of the men were garbed in Western gear, while some of the women had puffed-out skirts.

Soon, music poured out of the public address system, and caller Bill Harrison addressed the crowd with his smooth, good-humored voice.

"Everybody have the partner you want?" he asked.

The crowd answered yes and then stood still, anticipating the caller's instructions.

He began, "Bow to the partner. Swing the partner."

The dance soon shifted into a complex pattern of calls, with dancers following the caller like students hanging on to the words of a lecturer relaying a complicated equation.

The occasion was the 70th anniversary dance of the Arlington Squares, the oldest continuously dancing square dance club in the suburbs.

The club went out of its way to make the event, themed "Puttin' on the Glitz," a special occasion, bringing in Harrison from Cheltenham, Maryland, to lead the dancers.

The Arlington Squares began in the fall of 1948, meeting at Miner School. They now meet regularly for classes and dances at the Arlington Heights Senior Center.

Squares President Al Gain of Arlington Heights said the club has about 50 members.

"Square dancing does not need anything more than two feet and knowing which is your left and your right," he said.

Longtime member Barry Johnson of Lake in the Hills said the atmosphere is very welcoming, with some members dancing in wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. The club has even had members who are blind and others who cannot hear the instructions but somehow know what to do.

"It's a family friendly, healthy activity that spans multiple ages," he said.

The music isn't limited to country and western - the Squares dance to everything from Beethoven to pop singer Pink.

The music provides the members with valuable exercise, but provides a mental challenge, as the dancers keep pace as the caller shuffles the deck of 100 different calls and somehow resolves the tension at the end.

"It's like scrambling up a Rubik's Cube and then unscrambling it to get the surprise at the end," Johnson said.

Chris Murray, a member from Rolling Meadows, said it's a great way to stay in shape mentally and physically.

"You meet a whole great group of friends and it becomes a big part of your life," he said.

For Murray that is certainly true - he met his wife, the club's president-elect Cheryl Murray, through square dancing.

"On the way to the state convention, we just eloped," she said, referring to last year's Illinois Square & Round Dance Convention in Decatur.

"Dancing isn't competitive. Dancing is cooperative," she added. "You really work within your group of eight. And you have to work together."