Swing your partner round an' round

As the calls rang out, the feet shuffled, the skirts twirled and the grins spread like wildfire across the crowded gymnasium.

"Swing around … single hinge … touch a quarter." Between calls, the man at the microphone sang along with the old-time tunes ranging from rock-and-roll to traditional country western. On the dance floor, fathers danced with daughters, newly married couples spun each other around, and couples who met on dance floors nearly 50 years ago celebrated yet another grand evening together.

The faster and harder the calls came, the more the dancers laughed, swirled, do-si-doed and laughed some more.

That is because even at the Alaska State Square and Round Dance Festival, it wasn't about competition, about who was the smoothest or who stumbled the most. It was about a good time.

"It sounds so corny -- square dancing?" admitted Valley resident Margie Finley. "But it's so much fun."

Finley and her husband, Randy, were among the approximately 150 people gathered at Colony High School last week for the four-day festival, which this year was sponsored by the local square dance club, Paws & Taws. The 30 or so Mat-Su dancers at the festival were joined by visitors from around the world -- Colorado, British Columbia and even Sweden.

"You look at their badges and you'll see the list of 20 years that they've been coming here," Randy Finley said as he beckoned Wasilla dancers Bob and Ann Olson. In addition to their colorful square-dancing getups, both Bob and Ann wore badges on their shirts with the dates and places of the festivals of years past.

The Olsons were among a handful of dancers who had also attended the original Alaska festival 18 years ago. During those first years, Ann said, her husband "had two left feet."

"He still does -- he just knows how to use them," Randy Finley joked.

Before, during and after each dance, the atmosphere at the festival was one of lighthearted exuberance. Dancers in their 70s chatted with younger couples like the Finleys before joining hands and hitting the floor.

This atmosphere, many of the dancers say, is what has kept them coming back year after year. Perhaps the only danger in attending a square dancing festival is that inevitably people will be pushing you toward the floor.

"It's good exercise. It's fun. It's good people, wonderful people," Ann Olson said. "It's just fun, and you should do it."

Like at previous state festivals, organizers brought in nationally renowned callers for the event. Randy Dougherty, a recording artist and professional caller, flew up from Arizona to call the dancing. George and Pam Hurd, who have been professionally cueing and teaching since 1995 and live in the Lower 48, provided the cueing for the round dancing portions of the festival.

Square dancing involves the traditional formation of four couples dancing in a square who have all learned more than 60 possible calls, including moves like the half sashay, the u-turn back, the wheel around, shoot the star and single-file promenade.

In round dancing, which is more akin to ballroom dancing, the couples stay to themselves and dance everything from the waltz to the tango as they move in a wide circle about the floor to the cues.

Gary Feaster, chair of this year's festival and a member of Paws & Taws, said you can tell they're good callers when the dance floor is always crowded. And a talented caller is one who has people on their toes, trying to keep up with the calls -- but always smiling.

"They are so good at confusing us and bringing us back together," Finley said. And those moments when everyone in the square looks at each other in confusion and then starts to laugh are not necessarily the low points of the evening, but in some regards are the best of times.

"I can't think of one other sport or activity in which you can put this many people together and have this much fun … they're all here to have fun," Feaster said.