I am a full-time square dance caller, averaging over 370 dances a year. Three nights a week, I call for clubs at Wischemann Hall: The Sebastopol Spinners on Sunday, The Redwood Rainbows on Monday, and the Saucy Squares on Tuesday. On Thursdays I call for the Circle’Squares at Monroe Hall in Santa Rosa, and on Fridays I call for the Buzzin’ Boots at Hamilton School in Novato.

In addition to calling Modern Western Square Dancing for these five clubs, I also regularly teach and call traditional squares and reels, cue round dances, and teach and lead line dances, circle mixers, children’s dances and more.

My wife and I began taking square dance lessons with the Saucy Squares in September, 1980, as part of the very first beginners class to start in the newly built hall! I was immediately engaged and energized by modern square dancing’s unique “thinking on your feet” feature, and I loved the variety of the music, the flow of the dance, the socializing…

A couple of months later, when the caller taught the move All 8 Circulate, I realized that the choreography of the modern square dance was chess-like in its elegant geometries, and I threw myself into the activity. I made my calling debut at a Saucy Squares amateur night during that winter and — despite being so nervous that I needed help taking the needle off the record — got such a positive response that the activity kind of “claimed” me at that point. By spring, before my own graduation from beginners class, I had a club of my own (The Windsor Whirlers) and had begun apprenticing to Dave Wischemann, who was then the club caller for the Saucy Squares.

Two years later I went through callers school with the late, great Bill Peters, one of the major figures in shaping the modern square dance. Many years later, Bill and I would reconnect through an internet jazz discussion board, and grew to become personal friends.

I am a member of Callerlab, the International Association of Square Dance Callers, and served for several years as chairman of Callerlab’s Advanced Quarterly Selection Committee, which oversaw the screening of new experimental calls. I began calling full-time in 1987, and have called hoedowns throughout the state, as well as festivals in Maui, Napa, Lakeport, and elsewhere in the west.

Unlike most callers, I have focused heavily on working in the general (non-square dance) community and in the schools. I call many benefits and fundraisers (including the Healdsburg Food Pantry, Napa Valley Opera House, and Sonoma Academy), birthday parties, parent-child dances (including both the Sonoma and Marin County YMCAs), camps (Westminster Woods, Emandal, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus Summer Camp have all been steady clients for decades), church dances, weddings (square dancing is a terrific hands-on icebreaker for families and friends who have never met), company parties, and bar-b-ques by the dozens.

Working with children is one of my specialties and delights, and no caller anywhere has a more extensive program of calling in the schools. I work with all ages, from kindergarten on up. The energy level is always high, and there is nothing quite like starting off your day by leading 60 5-year-olds through a Hokey Pokey — “That’s what it’s all about!”

I am almost always working somewhere that feels like a party. I am often among old friends who have danced with me for decades — twice a week, twice a month, once a year. Thanks to beginners classes and weekend party dances, I meet an endless parade of interesting strangers, some of whom grow to become friends. And, at all these events, I teach and sing and chant, and serve as a catalyst to bring to life the ancient and joyous magic of community dancing, in its most contemporary and exciting incarnation. Remarkably, for this the dancers pay me, share with me their laughter and their food, and thank me at the end of the dance for helping them to have such a good time. How could I not love what I do?!

For more information about my programs and schedule, see my webpage: www.steveminkin.com