CENTRE HALL – Residents at Wynwood House in Centre Hall and CARES of Central PA’s VIPs recently got together for a down-home good time square dance.
“September is national square dance month,” said Wynwood House Regional Activities Director Cory Geishauser, “Our best volunteers who come to three out of our five Wynwood locations here in Centre County to help in several different activities and events each week joined us for this singing and dancing jamboree!”
Geishauser, who has been calling square dances for 40 years, started a handicapable square dance group in Altoona 20 years ago called The Hakuna Matatas and that group has sparked interest all over the world with two new nearby groups just starting up this summer — one in Everett of Bedford County and this new one in Centre County.
The VIPs of CARES also assisted in maneuvering the residents of the Wynwood House community in wheelchair square dancing.
Geishauser calls familiar calls such as “Swing, Promenade, and Do Sa Do” to the floor as well as ones with fancier names like “Star Promenade, 2X2 Do Sa Do and Allemande Left.” Dancers really seem to enjoy when he calls, “four boys to the center and twist or four girls to the middle and hula.” Smiles and laughter from both the young and the young at heart were heard for the full hour at this square dance.
Geishauser has called for many groups with developmental and intellectual disabilities that the novice and even the experienced square dancer would raise an eyebrow and have a double-take.
“I’m calling for a blind and visually challenged group next month which I am really looking forward to,” Geishauser said. “But probably the most unique group I have ever had the pleasure of calling for was Equestrian Square Dancing. There are horseback riding square dancing clubs out there, but this awesome group was a Therapeutic Horseback Riding Group consisting mostly of autistic children on top of the saddles with guides leading the horses.”
Both residents of Penns Valley Wynwood House and the CARES of Central PA loved the hand jive line dances – The Cowboy Macarena and The Lone Ranger. Geishauser remarked that “they had so much fun that we will probably have another square dance either here or at another one of our Wynwood House locations around Halloween.”
Anyone interested in watching this very special kind of square dancing or volunteering can contact Geishauser at WynwoodActivityGuru@gmail.com.
