Club News

NEWS FROM WHITE ROSE SQUARES

White Rose Squares has 31 regular dancers at the club. We are fortunate to have our club Caller

Gene Turner and two newer Callers, Heather Innes & Nick Tillotson, along with our former Caller

Cliff Anderton who occasionally Calls for us too. We have had a busy year concentrating on

recruiting, extending the dancing of our Plus learners at the club, and holding Dances attended by

clubs from Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire & Lancashire. It’s been great to welcome few foreign

visitors to some club nights too. In January we got our Beginners’ Class off to a start, with our

experienced dancers acting as Angels, and we deliberately run these as part of our club nights to

encourage people to mix - some Let’s Dance visitors wanted to keep going when we took part in

Let’s Dance in late 2025.

The National Let’s Dance initiative, spearheaded by Angela Rippon, takes place in order to

encourage people to give dancing of all types a try. We took part in the first one in 2025, having a

Hoedown on a very wet day in the November, to use as an introduction to square dancing for our

Beginners’ Class that started in January 2026. At that point we had three people who then

decided to come and join our January Beginners Class, to learn to square dance with us. For 2026

clubs in the Yorkshire Federation decided to publicise a Let’s Dance Event at their own club to

encourage new dancers. White Rose Squares 2026 Let’s Dance event was an Open Club Night on 8

March where we showed visitors what happens during a normal club night. It enabled them to try

square dancing alongside the Beginners that had already started with us in the January. We were

delighted to welcome 5 visitors to the Let’s Dance Open Club Night and they enjoyed trying square

dancing - 3 decided to come regularly to join in our Beginners’ Class. A successful and enjoyable

evening. The hall was decked with bunting and we had special refreshments.

We were delighted to welcome Philip Mee to Call our 48 th Birthday Dance on 28 February.

A regular Caller for White Rose Dances, Philip launched into some lively songs and balanced them

with some slower paced ones to make sure everyone enjoyed the afternoon. He Called SSD

alternated with full Mainstream & full Plus tips, and we enjoyed pot luck for refreshments and

held a raffle 4 squares plus some extras. Dancers came from across Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire

 to this one. A fun, relaxed Dance, nice singing and all the dancers left having had a very happy

afternoon.

White Rose Squares Summer Dance at Clifford on 6 June was a Mainstream & Plus

 Dance Called by Granville Spencer. 

He did not disappoint, calling a wide range of music that dancers

 enjoyed. It was well attended with about 5 squares and included 11 Callers and 1 Trainee Caller!!

 Granville led a lively Dance that allowed our Plus learners who attended to dance a number of the

 Plus tips too, so not much sitting out! And he did not forget the Mainstream dancers attending.

 Wendy Spencer, experienced dancers and Callers made sure that everybody was up on the floor. We

 had scones, jam & cream, appropriate for a summer day and held a raffle, and everybody went

 home pronouncing what a great time they had had.

Alongside all of this our Plus learners have been extending the Calls they know at our regular club

nights, and also by some taking advantage of the Plus Workshops run throughout the summer by

the Yorkshire Federation with Harmony Squares. There, Gene Turner and Philip Mee have carefully

taken everybody through their paces to help Plus Dancing across the Yorkshire Federation.

Please make a date in your diaries for:

White Rose Squares Halloween Dance

Trevor Day Calling SSD

Saturday 31 October, 2pm - 5pm at Clifford Village Hall, LS23 6HY

£7 on the Door / Pot Luck / Raffle – Pot Luck – Spooky Snacks & Sandwiches /

Dress: Traditional or Spooky.

See you there!

Ann Tillotson, Secretary, White Rose Squares.

If you are interested in learning to dance please contact us.

Please telephone Ann Tillotson 01943 878066