Coronavirus: Glenview Square Dance Club Offers Online Dances

GLENVIEW, IL — Gov. JB Pritzker's stay at home order to reduce the spread of coronavirus has required groups like the Glenview Square Dance Club to be more innovative when it comes to offering dances and other recreational activities. After being forced to cancel all spring dances, including its 70th anniversary dance in May, Glenview Squares president Janice Cha decided to host live-streamed dances via Zoom.

"Square dancing draws people both for the social aspects as much as for the way you need full concentration and team effort to execute the calls given by the caller," Cha said in a news release. "After seeing a Zoom-based square dance advertised on Facebook, I figured our club could do that as well."

Cha said the first Zoom dance was on April 3 and the next one is scheduled for April 17. The hope is to host two a month as long as the governor's order is in effect. Instead of having four couples interacting in a square, a caller has to interact with individual couples. Ken Burke, who led the first Zoom dance, said in the release that he was asking participants to imagine invisible dancers and move accordingly.

Glenview Squares has around 100 members from Glenview and surrounding suburbs. The club normally hosts dances twice a month from September through May. The club partners with the Glenview Park Center to offer weekly square dance lessons at the beginner and intermediate levels.

"As soon as the threat from COVID-19 is behind us, we plan to offer lessons and start dancing again," Cha said in the release. "We look forward to that day. In the meantime, we will see each other on Zoom."

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