Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Spotlight on Square Dance: Caller Darren Gallina, Cuesta Squares and GCA

Post authorBy chloelouiselangendorflouis
Post dateMay 28, 2021
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Spotlight on Darren Gallina, Cuesta Squares and GCA

Talking about Square Dance in San Diego and the conversation always turns to getting the word out and finding more members for our clubs.
With COVID going on we have gone to Zoom Meetings and virtual dances and the cool thing about it is that we have made many good friends around the world.

Very honored to speak with Thom Dang today from Cuesta Squares in San Luis Obispo,

Many square dancers have been attending this very welcoming LGBT square dance group and enjoying their weekly dances and their caller, Darren Gallina.

I was anxious to speak with Thom because one can observe that he does a very good job of promoting his club, his Partner, Caller Darren Gallina and the LGBT community in square dance.

Thom gave us his thoughts about how to let folks know about square dance, who is our audience and how do we find them–how do we make people aware of our local square dance clubs.

Thom has worked hard with GCA, Gay callers Association, to let the other clubs know about their existence and their very qualified callers.

Darren Gallina has been calling for over 20 years and he is very talented and skilled. He likes to conduct the wind-in-your-face theory of square dancing where he keeps the dancers moving with fun choreography that range from easy to moderate levels of complexity.

We want everyone to feel welcome and know that we want them to attend. We want to keep moving and dancing and singing as opposed to spending a lot of time learning a tedious call.

We want to have fun and be diverse and have music that is multi-generational–songs that appeal to everyone. Not every song has to be a country-western selection and can easily be the Top 40 that one can hear on the radio.

We want to get the word out about style and dress.

Traditional square dance clothes are not required, a partner is not required and a previous knowledge of square dance is not required.
With COVID all of the clubs are making a strong effort to get new members and keep old members involved.

Thom Dang finds Facebook to be very helpful and he also has a You-Tube channel. At their Zoom meetings they have time for chatting and trivia. Last evening we were lucky to hear about museums that have recently opened in New York City.

Thom and Darren do not want anyone to feel isolated and left out particularly during this stressful time of illness and lockdown.

Here is our chat on the Radio Night Train podcast.

Thank you, Thom, for taking time out of your busy day to tell us about the calling skills of Darren Gallina, Cuesta Squares of San Luis Obospo and GCA, Gay Callers Association.

We will definitely see each other at some of the upcoming conventions.

https://www.youtube.com/DarrenGallina

(20+) Cuesta Squares | Facebook