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- The board
| President:
Birgit Dambeck, Waldstraße 7, 10551 Berlin, Tel: (030) 396 67 68, E-Mail: |
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| Treasurer:
Aloisia Bischoff, Bahnhofstr. 49, 14612 Falkensee, Tel: (03322) 278 505, E-Mail: aloisiabischoff@t-online.de |
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- Having a look into the directory of EAASDC, i.e. the list of clubs inside the European Association of American Square Dance Clubs (which is the European umbrella association of square dancers), you will find lots of terms like 'Swinging ...', '... Twirlers', '... Hoppers', whereas ' ... ' mostly indicates the (anglicised) name of the home town of the square dance club.
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'HIPPO' is the short form of 'hippopotamus' and furthermore two people of the club's founders own a collection of about 300 pieces of hippopotamuses made of various materials; it doesn't mean that the club members are featuring with an increased weight. |
- On the other hand 'HUBBUB' simply means 'noise, confusion'
and thus characterises the level of noise and the course of a typical club night.
The 'HIPPO HUBBUBS SDC BERLIN' (SDC=Square Dance Club) - one of the recent Berlin square dance clubs - has been founded in January 1997 by 20 square dancers who partly had some years of practical experience in square dancing and partly just had finished successfully a square dance class (Class means the beginner's training course in square dancing). The 'HIPPO HUBBUBS' are located in the Northern part of Berlin: on the one hand the founders mostly live there, on the other hand almost every Berlin square dance club arose in the former American Sector and has not relocated, and consequently the North was no man's land with respect to square dancing. - The 'HIPPO HUBBUBS' enjoy great interest: the membership has increased to 35 active members whereof about 75% regularly join the club night on Thursday evening at the dance location down the parish of St. Martin in the 'Märkisches Viertel'. During the club night both the hobby Square Dance is respected and joint events are organised, e.g. our yearly trip to Kühlungsborn - a weekend with excursions, dancing and enjoying the summer time.
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- Nevertheless the main thing is square dancing: the dance level comprises 'Mainstream' which is the most popular basic dance program with about 70 different movements. The caller enjoys mixing the dancing couples and bringing them together again as well as directing the dancers through various dance formations and baffling them by unorthodox interpretation of the movements. Then there will be 'HUBBUB'!
- Square dancing means sports! A square dancer covers a distance of about 3 - 5 km during a club night, the intellectual work is added to the pure motion. Not surprisingly the dancers will work up a sweat! The loss of liquid will be compensated during the 'Afterparty' (the homelike meeting afterwards) in the local after the club night. By now alcoholic drinks are also allowed for alcohol is denied during dancing due to the needed brain work (exceptions can me made at birthday rounds), that is to say the effects of alcohol on square dancing are similar to those on driving a car.
- During the club night with the 'HIPPO HUBBUBS' we will dance in clothes for casual wear whereas at joint square dance events 'professional clothing' will be applied: for the ladies there are petticoats with swaying skirts, for the gents it's western dress.