Many years ago, it was a serious discussion that a recently married young couple had. Will square dance calling and a club be something they want to take on? With all the pros and cons weighed up, the answer was a yes. Graham had enjoyed calling at local Adelaide clubs and after they were married, he & Dawn advertised “learn to square dance” evenings on Monday nights at Woodville starting September 25th 1985. Their nervous anticipation was eased by the wonderful support from new & local dancers who turned up to help. The club was up and running. We negotiated a “trial” hire fee from the Woodville Council of $10 a night and that helped us get going financially. Admission at that time was charged at $3.00. The hall was a good size and had no air-conditioning, but did have glass doors along one side that enabled us to open up in the hot summer months.
After running for just over two years, some of our dancers expressed an interest in learning Plus. As many of those came from the northern suburbs, we opened a Plus club on Wednesday nights in Kilburn. The hall was a small church hall that served us well until one night we turned up and they had carpeted the floor! A hall move was rapidly made to nearby Blair Athol. Again this served well until the landlord wanted the hall on those nights. Another move was made to Kilburn to our current location. In fact hall moves have been part of the history of both clubs. The Monday club moved from Woodville when the leaseholders changed a few times and maintenance declined, We then moved again when the Findon Road hall owner also carpeted our hall!!
We have always been enthusiastic about our special functions and these go back to our early birthdays when a theme was always set. Graham would hand- paint the large backdrops and one year, some ambitious members literally built a wooden cottage on stage for a Colonial theme! In 1990 and 1991, we teamed up with one of our members, Malcolm Hill, and his family and friends to put on live band nights.
In 1990 we also hosted our first feature caller - good friend Howard Cockburn from Victoria. This was our first feature weekend and had a rock’n’roll theme. When reaching our 10th Birthday, we were very ambitious and had three themes on the weekend - a different one each night!! Scene changes were all part of the effort.
We have featured many interstate and international callers over the years. Our first American was Buddy Weaver in 1992 who we met on a trip to the USA & Hawaii. This spawned a “Hawaiian” themed festival weekend. Since then we have hosted many American callers for feature weekends.
We couldn’t do all this without the help of our great committees & dedicated dancers over the years and we thank them all.