Marge Anderson’s association with square dancing began in California and accompanied her back to Atlanta decades ago.
Anderson, a 1952 Emory graduate, moved away from the area with her first husband so he could pursue a Ph.D. in nuclear physics at Stanford University. The couple met a group of people getting into square dancing in a Sunday School class at Palo Alto Presbyterian Church. They took lessons alongside them to learn the basic moves.
Anderson eventually made her way back to Atlanta, went back to school to be a physician’s assistant, and worked at Emory until 2005. She continued to dance all the while. The activity saw her and her son through the adjustment period after her divorce, and she danced with the Peachtree Squares for many years while it was an active club. The pandemic halted meetings, but Anderson, 82, hopes to get back on the floor with another local organization sometime soon, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Learning the moves
“It challenges you because you’ve got all these moves to learn, but you learn them sequentially. It’s not strenuous. You’re moving all the time — you’re just constantly moving. A big move might take 32 beats, and you have to keep up with the time because the heads and sides are interacting all the time,” Anderson said, referencing the four couples that make up a traditional square dance arrangement with assigned male and female roles.
Anderson explained that a caller lets the dancers know when to rearrange themselves for the next combination of steps. There are mainstream moves and then there are “plus” moves — combinations of calls with names like “relay the ducey” and “load the boat.”
New dancers typically spend about six months getting confident with the basics, she said. Peachtree Squares usually hosted three or four squares at its twice-monthly dances, along with visitors from other clubs, and her current husband, Richard Oliver, 88, danced until recently, she said.
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‘Modern-day’ square dancing
Kent Tolleson, 58, of Morningside, began square dancing in 2001. He was in his late 30s at the time and had recently moved to Atlanta. He was on the lookout for a social opportunity that didn’t involve hanging out at a bar, and a friend suggested square dancing. Tolleson was initially skeptical.
“I heard it from a friend, and I’m thinking, ‘Square dancing: I remember this from my junior high days,’ and that terrified me,” he said. “And he says, ‘No. It’s different. It’s modern-day country square dancing.’”
Tolleson found a group twirling around to disco music, and he’s been square dancing ever since.
“It was just a lot of fun from day one,” he said. “You have to think. You’ve got to know your left from your right. You’ve got to hear the commands from the caller. You’ve got to know the moves. What it does is it keeps your mind sharp.”
He now dances with the Hotlanta Squares, a local, LGBTQ-supportive club that’s part of the larger International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs. He’s seen a lot of the Hotlanta members age — some members are in their 80s and 90s now — but he said square dancing has kept them moving and mentally calculating their next maneuvers.
“The exercise, I think, that the older communities get from it is invaluable,” he said. “It’s very good physical activity, and we have different levels of dance. You learn the beginning, and then you go to the next level. There’s, like five or six levels you can learn.”
Callers keep things lively with unexpected combinations.
“These callers come up with all these different patterns and stuff and make you dance with people that aren’t really there,” Tolleson said. “So, they make you really think, and you have to use your brain and you have to use your body.”
Now, he dances two nights a week and helps newer dancers learn the male and female roles.
An LGBTQ-friendly atmosphere means dancers take on diverse roles.
“For us in the gay group, we dance either side, so a lot of the time, (for) the straight people that dance with us, it’s like, ‘OK, but you’re a guy. But you’re standing in the girl part,’ And it’s like, ‘But I know how to do the girl part,’” Tolleson explained. “And once they figure it out and they know that we’re good dancers, it really brings two communities together.”
Participants regularly go out for coffee after dancing or gather for dinner beforehand.
“One of our members just had a real big potluck,” Tolleson said. “Everybody brought a dish, and we must have had 40 people in her house. There is so much socialization to be had.”
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Where to square dance in metro Atlanta
Hotlanta Squares, hotlantasquares.org - Atlanta
Silver Stars, silverstarssquaredance.com - Lawrenceville
Metro Atlanta Square Dancers Association, masda.net - Marietta
Kennesaw Square Dealers, squaredealers.com - Kennesaw
Wheel Arounds, wheelarounds.com - East Cobb
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