Square roots: Dance festival celebrates 60th

Get ready Yuma: It's almost time to swing your partner and do-si-do.

The annual Yuma Square and Round Dance Festival kicks off this weekend, bringing about 1,000 dancers from around the nation to Yuma's dance floor.

The festival is obviously a hit with local dancers, along with folks who just like to sit and watch all the swirling, twirling action.

"This is a great chance for people to just come and watch. We welcome any spectators," said Marilyn Partiss, one of the event's organizers. "Oh, people love to see all the ladies in their costumes and all the colors, plus the music is always just happy and good foot-tapping music!"

The Yuma Square and Round Dance Festival will be swinging Friday through Sunday at the Yuma Civic Center, located off S. Avenue A.

The festival amounts to a big deal every year for dance lovers, but this year's event promises to extra special. That's because this is the dance festival's 60th anniversary.

"This one is a milestone," Partiss said proudly. "Sixty years is a big deal."

To celebrate the 60th anniversary some internationally-known men and women who cue and call the various dances have been invited to the festival. The three featured callers are Tony Oxendine and Jerry Story, both from North Carolina, and Jerry Jestin of Yuma. Teaching and cueing the round dancing will be Gert-Jan and Susie Rotscheid from the Netherlands, along with Kristine and Bruce Nelson of Yuma.

Dancing begins at 7 p.m. Friday. Saturday's dances will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. A casual dance is planned for 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Spectators will be allowed to attend free of charge. Prices will vary for dancers; Many of them register at the door. For more information call 317-1476 or send e-mail to mpartiss@aol.com.

Dancers are coming from all over Canada and the U.S to attend the festival.

"I personally knew people one year where a couple flew in from Virginia and one lady drove down from North Dakota to dance," Partiss said. "This festival has an outstanding reputation. I've heard people say that for your first festival you've got to go to Yuma and see how it's supposed to be."

The festival is sponsored by the Yuma Square and Round Dance Association. The group passes on charging dues and holds a pretty flexible policy on membership. "Our thinking is that anyone who dances in Yuma is a member," Partiss said chuckling.

Years ago the event was hosted by various dance clubs, which eventually consolidated into one organization.

Partiss said she found the earliest written mention of the festival in a 1956 issue of Desert Magazine.

"Most people here really got involved in the 1970s apparently. That's where our history begins, as far as pictures go," she said. "Unfortunately we are in a downward trend right now. One thing is that our dancers are aging obviously and we're not getting as many young people. Another thing is that young people's interests have gone more toward computerized things."

But Partiss said she doesn't understand why more people aren't checking out all the square-dancing fun. She stressed that the dancing is not only fun, but amounts to a healthy hobby as well. She said the people involved with the dance association are great people, too.

"It's the commitment of the people here that makes this festival happen. We have such wonderful people who always pitch in and help," she said. "It's just a happy, fun time for everybody."

Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.