Honour Your Corner

Another caller and I were giving a demonstration earlier this year and there was a problem with the supplied sound equipment. While it was being corrected I chatted to the crowd to keep them from getting too restless.

I explained that square dancing was a cross between bush dancing and wife swapping – bush dancing because it's country, and wife-swapping because you change partners four times in every dance. (I hastened to add that we always go home with the appropriate person.)

OK, I got my laugh but when I thought about it later I realised that sometimes we don't always consider the feelings of our left-hand dancers.

Ladies, have you ever, even once in your life, been somebody's corner? Right. And did he take you back to his home position when it was your turn? Right. And did he offer you the spot permanently? Of course not. Men are so fickle.

Let's face it. When you're somebody's corner it's like being "the other woman." It's great while it lasts but you know he's heading home to his partner on the next call. It's downright humiliating.

If Callerlab are aware of this anomaly they have never faced up to it and nothing will be done unless we take it upon ourselves to do it.

Let's declare a National Corners' Day when the corner is awarded the prestige she deserves. If we start it in Australia I'm sure the rest of the world will follow.

Imagine a night when the calls go something like this:

Men roll away and circle left (now you've got him where he belongs – on your left), walk all around your opposite lady (she's on his left now), seesaw your corner (on his right) and so on.

And, presto! The corner comes into her own.

Of course it's going to take a while for the men to get used to the new order; any caller can tell you they're not as versatile as women.

Just think what this will do for rigged round-ups. Dapper Dan won't be able to count down the round-up any more to make sure he gets the prettiest girl in the hall. No matter who he starts out with he's going to finish up with his corner.

Decision time is here. You can strike a blow for freedom and dignity and insist on your corner treating you as an equal instead of just a dolly to be cast away when he doesn't want you any more. Or you can allow things to continue in the same old way.

Ladies, it's up to you.

AN EXPLANATION –   This item won't mean much to non-dancers. In square dancing a man's partner is the lady on his right, his corner is the lady on his left. For the women, of course, the opposite applies. So corners work together quite a lot but always go back to their partners by the end of the dance.