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Origins of Square Dance Sounds Effects
by Allan
Hurst - allanh[at]myrealbox.com – Last
updated 7/29/2002
Converted
to HTML with minor revisions 8/4/03
Have you ever wondered how
sound effects are created, or who created them, or why?
If you've been dancing or
calling for any length of time, you've probably heard sound effects for many
square dance calls, such as:
"Whoosh!" (Slide Thru)
"Fuzzy boo-boos!" (Rotary Spin; Vancouver BC variant)
"Whoop! Whoop!" (Track II)
“Hinge, Fold, Pass, Peel” (Linear Cycle)
“…Big Deal” (caller’s retort to “Hinge, Fold, Pass, Peel”,
Chicago variant)
"My peas are frozen!" (Mini Busy,
West Coast variant)
"Scratch and sniff!" (Step & Slide, West Coast variant)
Why do we have sound effects?
Generally, sound effects
enhance the fun dancers derive from a specific call through humor. Sometimes, sound effect are used to "spice
up" what have become otherwise routine calls for experienced dancers who
are feeling bored.
Granted, this type of
information isn’t essential to square dancing or calling, but they are fun, and
have become highly ingrained in gay square dance culture. Sometimes, sound effects are useful for
students or new dancers as mnemonics for the calls themselves.
For example, Mike DeSisto is
well known for calling a novelty tip in which he only vocalizes the sound
effects for a series of calls, rather than using the calls themselves...and the
dancers who know the sound effects seem to have no problems at all remembering
which call to perform. (For example …
“Quack! Squeak!” would translate to “Acey-Deucey, Hinge”)
There's a list of popular sound
effects compiled by Paul Asente of El Camino Reelers, which can be viewed
online at:
http://www.dosado.com/articles/soundeffects.htm
...however, there's little
or no information regarding the origins of sound effects.
How are sound effects created?
After a fair amount of
informal research, I believe most popular sound effects are created and spread
spontaneously. One person starts a
sound effect, one or two observers note the effect and like it, so they begin
using it, and as others notice, general usage increases. (Much like that annoying series of shampoo
commercials many years ago "...and THEY tell two friends - and so on, and
so on, and so on...") Each sound effect has its own story of origin.
I happened to be present at
the time and place a relatively recent sound effect - "My peas are
frozen!" (for the A2 call,"Mini Busy") - came into being.
The origin of “My Peas Are Frozen!”
In July of 1999, at the
IAGSDC Convention in Los Angeles, I was dancing in the C1 hall with Joe &
Jenny Dadek from Stanford Quads. We
three tend to be a bit boisterous when we're having fun (who, me?). The C1 room and the other dancers were
fairly quiet during that particular session, as it was early in the
morning. Joe, Jenny and I were getting
bored (always a dangerous thing).
At one point, the caller
said, "Mini Busy". The usual
sound effect for Mini Busy (up to that point) was "But few are
chosen". (As in, "Many are
called, but few...") So … Joe and
Jenny and I all enthusiastically yelled out "But Few Are Chosen!" and
kept dancing.
The room was quite chilly
(its air-conditioning having been adjusted to handle more people than were
actually present). Jenny was wearing
open-toe sandals, and the caller began moving us around very quickly. Eventually, Jenny started complaining to Joe
and I how cold her feet had become.
This happened to coincide with the caller calling "Mini
Busy". Intending to say, "my
toes are frozen!" Jenny later told us she unconsciously echoed "But
few are chosen", and blurted out "My peas are frozen!" (None of the three of us ever figured out
why Jenny mixed up "toes" and "peas". Some things are beyond analysis, and
rightfully so.)
Jenny looked at me. I looked at Joe. He looked at Jenny. And
the three of us (and one or two others in the square) started laughing, because
it was that kind of a fast-and-furious square, and we were having fun, and it
was such an obscure and bizarre non-sequitur that we found it hysterically
funny at the time.
The next time the caller
used "Mini Busy", we yelled out "Our peas are frozen!" and
started laughing again. Eventually, the
crazy mood of our trio spread to others in our square, and soon we were all
yelling, "Our peas are frozen!" at the appropriate moment. To the visible relief of the caller on
stage, the dance session came to an end just about that time, and we all
dispersed to other squares and other rooms and activities.
The next day, in the A2
hall, I heard someone else say, "My peas are frozen!" This intrigued me, since the person voicing
the sound effect hadn't been in the C1 room with Jenny and Joe and me. After convention, I kept on using the sound
effect at local dances and club nights in the SF Bay Area, as did Joe and
Jenny.
- Later that month, I was dancing to Anne Uebelacker, who called
"Mini Busy.” I automatically
yelled, "My peas are frozen!"
She stopped the music, leaned over the table and looked at me, and said
"Beg pardon?" I repeated,
"My peas are frozen!" She
winced, said that sounded a bit painful, giggled, and then kept calling. A couple of other dancers took up the sound
effect the next time she called "Mini Busy." Anne just rolled her eyes at me and said
nothing further at the time.
- In August of 1999, during Seattle’s annual fly-in, I heard
dancers from Seattle and Portland echoing the sound effect. None of them had been in the C1 room at
Convention, but a couple of dancers seemed to remember hearing the sound effect
in the A2 room at Convention!
- In late 1999, it was
reported to me that Anne was teaching the sound effect to her A1/A2 class in
Vancouver BC. By now, the effect had
spread through both my A&C home clubs (El Camino Reelers and Midnight
Squares) and their associated
classes. Grant Ito (Squares Across the
Border) reported to me that he'd heard it used by dancers in Squares Across the
Border during several club dances.
- By November of 1999, during Squares Across the Border's
"Weave The Rain" November fly-in in Vancouver BC, dancers from all up
and down the West Coast were using "My peas are frozen!".
- At the July 2000 IAGSDC Convention held in Baltimore MD, I heard
dancers from the Midwest and East Coast using "My peas are frozen!"
on the dance floor.
- By the end of 2000, Anne Uebelacker herself had added a
variation. When she called "2/3rds
Mini Busy", she suggested that the dancers yell back, "My peas are
mooshy! (Ewww!)"
…so, THAT’S where sound effects come from?
Based on the above experiences,
it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that most sound effects are propagated
via one of the following four channels:
- usage (by a dancer or caller) during a local club night/dance
- usage during a fly-in
- usage by angels or being taught by a caller during a local class
- usage during a Convention
As a result of documenting
the above anecdote, I’ve become interested in collecting stories regarding the
origins of square dance sound effects.
If enough people send me information on their favorite sound effects,
you may see another article on origins of sound effects!
[end]
Allan
Hurst lives, dances, and calls in the San Francisco Bay Area, with semi regular
visits to Chicago. He is a member of El Camino Reelers, Foggy City Dancers,
Midnight Squares, Squares Across the Border, and Chi-Town Squares. He can be contacted via email at “allanh
[at] supportnet.com”