Credits

President since 2022, Treasurer 2015 - 2021, (London & Home Counties RCA Chairman since 2017)

Bio

Very early in his calling life, Kevin deservedly gained recognition for the effort and rapid progress he was demonstrating – something that was confirmed by the council when they awarded him the Harry Preston award and invited him to become our Treasurer in 2015.  A couple of years later, he was also asked to become the Chairman of the London & Home Counties Regional Caller Assembly, a position he still holds.  Later still, in 2022, Kevin became the President of the Callers Club itself, wishing to help our activity recover and progress from the decline experienced in the preceding years.

The potential he showed has certainly been realised with him becoming an established regular on the Saturday night, workshop and weekend event scene in the UK and abroad.

With the assistance of his wife Annika, he also started his own club in 2015, All Square At Zero (the name a play on his surname Lovell, pronounced “Love All”) which continues to be very active in the recruiting new dancers as well as developing existing dancers near their home town of Milton Keynes (40 miles north of London).  For several years, he has used condensed teaching programs allowing them to successfully recruit multiple times a year, which they continue to do now using the SSD program, as well as proving opportunities for local dancers to learn other programs through to A2.  In all cases, he teaches and develops the dancers’ abilities for multi-position dancing.

Credits

Vice President since 2022, Webmaster since 2013, Public Relations Officer 2010 - 2011, Ordinary Member 2005 - 2009, News & Views Editor 2002 - 2011

Bio

Gene originally hails from St. Louis, Missouri, USA and has resided in Yorkshire, England since April 1980.  Gene and his wife Sandra learned to square dance in 1986 and eventually danced through A2 before dropping the advanced dancing in favour of the FUN programs Basic through Plus & now including Social Square Dancing (SSD).

Gene started calling A2 in 1992. In 2002 he stopped calling and dancing Advanced programs and decided to concentrate on calling new-dancer dances and hoedowns as well as weekly club evenings. Over his calling career, Gene has called in the USA, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Guernsey, and Scotland as well as on ZOOM virtual square dances. Gene was a caller at the 50th and 60th Anniversaries of the British Association of American Square Dance Clubs (BAASDC) and SDCCGB, as well as being a staff caller at Grand Square – UK Festivals in 2007, 2009, and 2014.  Gene currently calls SSD, Mainstream, and Plus each week at Harmony Squares, White Rose Squares, and Wolds Weaver's Square Dance Clubs. Much of this would not have been possible without the close bond of friendship and mentoring, of Cliff Anderton, over the past twenty-seven years. Cliff and Gene co-founded Harmony Squares (Yorkshire) in 1997. Gene founded 'Red Centre Squares' (Alice Springs, Australia) in 2001 when he lived and worked in Australia.

Gene became a member of the recording staff of Shindig Productions Square Dance Music Producers in 2017.

Aside from his positions within the Callers Club of Great Britain, Gene is Chairman of Grand Square - United Kingdom. 

Gene considers the recruitment of new dancers and the training of new callers the highest priority of our activity today.

Credits

Secretary and News & Views Editor since 2007, Librarian and Archivist 2006 - 2007, Librarian 2002 - 2005, Secretary 2001 - 2004

Bio

Susie has been the Secretary for the Callers Club for many years.  Susie started dancing in the early '50s when just a teenager.  Her newsagent was the Caller Jack Smith who was the first Secretary of the BAASDC.  They met at Oakwood SDC which was held in Oakwood Sports and Social club.  Susie attended some of the weekends, lots of Saturday dances where she fell in love with all the boys and met her first husband John Heath. They married in 1958 soon after he finished his National Service in the R.A.F.As soon as their two children were old enough to go dancing - about 10 years old - they found themselves a club and started dancing again.  First, they found a local Folk Dance Club where they did the occasional squares.  Then they heard about the Harlow Folk and Square Dance Club where Ian McConnell was the caller.  Very soon it became clear that a group of them wanted more Square dancing so Susie found the hall in Much Hadham, where she and John lived, and they helped Ian to start Country Roads SDC.

They also started to dance regularly at Curliques SDC at Great Chesterford.  For their New Years Eve Party 1983/4, the caller offered those who wanted to have a go, a loan of some records to practice with. So Susie did and got hooked.

Susie joined Callers Club in 1985.  Attended a year's school with Pete Skiffins, meeting Bi-Monthly.  She realised the library needed attention so offered to take it on.  Ted Ivin the Secretary at that time, suggested she might like to come to a Council Meeting and somehow, innocent as she was, she found herself in 1986 being proposed as Secretary to replace Ted.

Susie's first Calling experience was with Market Squares at Romford every Wednesday night.   This started off OK but then unpleasant internal politics caused a parting of the ways. In the meantime, she had also started calling at Tudor Squares on a Monday and here she was well supported and have been ever since.

In 1989 Susie met Simon Kelly and he joined the staff of Tudor Squares and so New City Squares in Milton Keynes became their second club.  Susie and Simon were married  in 1993. 

Susie does all the usual Secretarial jobs to keep the Council running smoothly and have worked with seven different Presidents and many more hard-working Council officers during the last quarter-century.

Training new Callers and keeping the regular callers educated has been her greatest aim during her term in office.

In an endeavour to inspire our membership to attend Callers Schools, in 2003 Susie took the initiative in asking the newly formed GSI organisation to run a school and festival in the UK. After some negotiation, with Walt Burr speaking to them in American, the UK eventually hosted our first school and festival in 2007. We followed this swiftly with another in 2009 having more than satisfied the US GSI Leaders that the UK GSI organising team could fulfil their criteria in running the event professionally and economically, with the least cost to them.

Simon and Susie now call for five square dance clubs, running weekend workshops when necessary to give dancers more experience or to get to the next programme.

Their great pleasure is in their regular Caller's practice sessions which they have led on a monthly basis for about ten years now. Susie says, "It is so exciting to see the progress new callers make and hugely satisfying when they take off on their own and start new Clubs".

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Treasurer since 2022

Bio

Credits

Membership Officer since 2016, Public Relations Officer 2015

Bio

Cliff graduated as a Mainstream dancer in 1984 and has spent many of the years since wishing that he had discovered the activity much sooner. Within little more than a year he was dancing Plus and performing the occasional singing call as a guest at local clubs. He continued to learn dancing through the A1 and A2 Programs and to develop his calling to the point where he became confident enough to call club nights, teach new dancers and eventually call Saturday night dances.

Cliff was the founder caller for Humberside Steppers, a club over 35 years old, and has been on the calling roster for several other clubs in Yorkshire and further afield. Latterly his principal calling commitments were as calling partner at Harmony Squares along with Gene Turner and as caller for White Rose Squares, helping students and more experienced dancers to enjoy the Basic, Mainstream and Plus programs. Cliff and Gene have always been ably supported at Harmony Squares by Jackie and Sandra (who actually run the club, though they let the guys think it is them). Cliff and Gene made their first tentative steps as recording artistes a few years ago (though Cliff is slightly ahead, having made 1/7 th of a record while Gene wasn’t looking as he was away in Australia).

A member of the Square Dance Callers Club of Great Britain (SDCCGB), Cliff was elected to its Council, served a year as PRO and is currently its Membership Officer. He is also a member of the Northern Area Regional Callers Assembly, currently on its committee as Treasurer and has been involved with the Committee of Grand Square – United Kingdom for many years. All of these positions are part of Cliff’s attempts to give back to Square Dancing some of the fun he has derived from it.

Cliff has called in Germany, the USA and Guernsey as well as in many areas of the mainland UK and was a caller at the 50 th and 60 th Anniversaries of the British Association of American Square Dance Clubs (BAASDC) and SDCCGB, as well as being a staff caller at Grand Square – UK Festivals in 2007, 2009 and 2014.

Unfortunately, a recent need for emergency surgery has left Jackie with care needs which make travel difficult, and which Cliff feels that he cannot meet as an active caller. He therefore took the decision to retire from calling but remains involved in the activity through his membership of the committees. He is inexpressibly grateful to Gene for stepping into the gaps.

Credits

Liaison Officer since 2021, Public Relations Officer 2016 - 2020, Ordinary Member 2015

Bio

Stephen graduated as a European Square Dancer back in 1973 and danced into the early nineties before taking a break.  In 2011 he returned to Rounds and Squares and soon became involved in the promotion of his local round dance club.  Over the years, this has grown to now include involvement with the callers club, round dance council and the square dance association. His main input is in the promotion and use of social media but he has also recently taken up the microphone to help out at his local round dance club.  He says he is very privileged to work alongside an amazing group of dedicated volunteers who believe this form of dance is a valuable activity for the community.

Credits

Ordinary Member since 2018

Bio

Howard Nichols is married to Elizabeth and they learned to Square Dance in Bournemouth in the early 70's. During the 80's they were unable to attend a Club, but happily returned in the early 90's. They are currently members of both Corinium and Cheltenham Square Dance Clubs. Regrettably, in the current COVID environment they are following medical advice with the result that currently they are unable to attend the Clubs. Hopefully this may change as things progress.

Howard called for the first time on New Year's Day 1998 'just for fun'. At the onset of the Lockdown he had was one of the 'supporting' Callers at Corinium SDC, calling Mainstream regularly. Howard used to sing in a choir and first worked in computers (literally) in 1960, so he enjoys both the Singing and the Mathematical aspects of Square Dancing.

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Cuer's Rep since 2023, 2018 - 2021

Bio

They often say that the unsung heroes are the ones in the shadows.  She is probably the most reluctant cuer in the country but she has always supported rounds and now cueing for Whirl & Twirl she has been able to demonstrate her talent as a cuer and teacher.

She is a dancer first but still finds time to support those that need help and guidance. Having returned to the role as the cuer's rep she has been busy also helping out with the preperations for Callers Clubs 70th Anniversery event.

Credits

Joined SDCCGB July 1968. Membership Officer 1970-74 and 1991-2002, appointed Archivist BAASDC by Linda Gill BA President (2000-2002), joint Librarian with Susie from 2002, joint Editor News and Views with Susie from April 2013.

Bio

Simon started his dancing career in 1967. He was working at a Model Railway Shop, near King's Cross station, where he became friends with an American Serviceman from Alconbury.  He was taken to a club night at Riverside Ranchers in Pimlico, called by Viv Canon.  Simon was immediately hooked and very soon his interest in the choreography was noted by Viv who invited him to attend a Callers Club Meeting.   He was eventually persuaded to try calling and after a while he was doing guest tips at various clubs He built a amplifier ino a record deck and became famous for having carried it and his record box on his Moulton bicycle. In the early ‘70s, he helped Alan Bedford run the Progressive Squares workshop club, decoding Lee Kopman challenge tapes with aid of Burleson. Subsequently, he danced with the Concord and Swingwing workshops with Peter Newberry and then Ralph McCarthy. He served as Callers Club Membership Officer from 1970 until 1974.

Simon was living in London until 1980, cycling between Staines Edgware Walthamstow and Mitcham  to  go Square Dancing.  He moved to Milton Keynes and comuted by train to London until 1989.    He started New City Squares in 1986.

He met Susie in 1989 and soon joined her in calling for the Tudor Squares in Hemel Hempstead.  He was dancing upto C1 and Susie read the book and joined him. Later they both enjoyed Dave Wilson teaching C2 in a week but other commitments prevented regular dancing at that level.

He served as Membership Officer again from 1991 until 2003 all the while giving technical support and training to the Secretary.

He shared the job of Librarian and in 2003 became Official Archivist for the Square Dance Movement in the UK.  In addition to these jobs he edits, prints, collates and distributes paper copies of News and Views.  Along side the CC Library he has amassed his own sizeable collection of SD reference books, and has spent much time researching how SD has got to where it is now. There is also a sizeable collection of railway reference material.

Simon retired from the Abbey National in 2005 and Calls at the clubs they run together as well as the workshops and Caller Practice Sessions.  Other activities have included a number of safaris to Kenya resulting in a (large) number of photograps of cheetah, lion, leopard and elephants among many other subjects.   SMK Apr 2022