In an era of streaming queues and endless scrolling, one Marin County club is keeping a distinctly analog pastime alive: square dance.
The Tam Twirlers meet weekly at the Marin Rod and Gun Club, where they “Get out, socialize, get some exercise and stretch our minds a little bit,” board president Patrick Loftus-Sweetland said. “Everybody who’s dancing has a smile on their face.”
Square dance is an American folk dance traditionally performed with eight people, typically four couples, arranged in a square formation; hence the name. Every Wednesday from 6:30 to 9pm, the Tam Twirlers’ longtime caller, Eric Henerlau, stands on stage and calls out terms like “promenade” or “right grand” as he plays music.
“Each call is an individual movement,” he explained. “You may have heard of do-si-do; that’s one call.” As Henerlau calls out different movements, each “square” of four couples follows his lead, turning a roomful of dancers into one coordinated formation.
Loftus-Sweetland was first introduced to square dancing in his high school physical education class, but it wasn’t until 2021 that he reconnected with the practice. As life began to return to normal following the Covid pandemic, he and his wife were walking around Larkspur when they spotted a sign for the Tam Twirlers. They attended an intro night, and “here we are four years later,” he remarked.
By his own admission, he wasn’t a natural, but that was no problem. “Eric will be the first person to tell you that I have my left and then my other left,” he said. “I jokingly say if you have even a rudimentary understanding of left and right, you’re gonna do fine square dancing.”
Henerlau, on the other hand, is a veteran square dancer. He grew up in Marin County and discovered square dance at 16 years old—coincidentally, also in his high school physical education class. He and his girlfriend at the time saw a flyer for a beginner class and decided to sign up. For him, it stuck. After a few years of dancing, he became curious about what it would feel like to be on the other side of the microphone and decided to learn to become a caller.
In 1994, the caller for the Tam Twirlers retired, and the club asked Henerlau if he would be the replacement. This year marks his 32nd year calling for the club. “Eric is just an excellent, excellent caller,” Loftus-Sweetland noted. “He really adds a lot to what we do with the club.”
Through his decades of experience, Henerlau has learned a thing or two about what makes someone an entertaining, engaging caller. “A good caller is going to have a good sense of timing, a good sense of delivery, a clear articulation and a good personality from the stage,” he explained. “We’re there to entertain people. A good caller can bring that to the floor so that people feel joy and happiness about being together as square dancers.”
When we spoke, Henerlau had recently returned to Marin from a square dance festival in Tucson, Arizona. He often travels to different square dance events throughout the country and overseas. “It’s just a bunch of people getting together,” he said of the square dance festival scene. “It could be hundreds of people getting together to square dance. They’ve all taken lessons; they all know the calls, and callers come from different parts of the country to bring their own unique talents and skills to the event.”
Callers and dancers are able to do this because square dance calls are standardized across the world. Henerlau compared learning square dance to learning a new language. “You and I are speaking English. We know how to put together a sentence, and you understand what I’m saying,” he noted. “Well, the same thing is true in square dancing. No matter what, the do-si-do is going to mean the same thing here as it does in Tucson or New York or Texas or Minnesota.”
Henerlau has traveled widely for his work as a caller. In addition to calling across the country, he has called in Germany and the Czech Republic—he’s even called in Tokyo, where he says there are as many as 40 clubs. “Quite often, very few people speak any English at all,” he said of his experiences in Japan. “I call the calls, but I can’t really talk to the dancers much in between because I don’t speak any Japanese.”
Something that sets square dancing apart from many other types of partner dancing like ballroom or salsa is that there is no aspect of competition. “Square dancing is a recreational activity, period. People square dance for fun,” Henerlau pointed out. “That’s it.” This ethos is part of what makes square dance a low pressure way for club members to connect and have fun together. Henerlau said the real heart of square dancing is to “have a laugh, smile, have a good time and leave the entire world behind you. It’s just ‘Come in and have fun.’”
It doesn’t take much time with the crowd at Tam Twirlers to understand that this group is composed of exactly who one might expect to be drawn to a form of recreation that transcends linguistic differences and is oriented around fun and connection, not competition. Newcomers are welcomed with open arms—and gently guiding ones—to help them as they stumble over new calls and steps. While Henerlau is about as seasoned as it gets, one doesn’t have to be a veteran to join the club.
“There are folks in the club who have been square dancing much longer than I have,” said Loftus-Sweetland, who joined the club with his wife five years ago. “But the beauty of it is they’re so willing to help teach you the calls, which is a lot of fun. They want everyone to succeed.”
Square dance can be a bit of a learning curve, but for some, that is another reason they love the activity. In addition to the fun and socialization, people also come to exercise their minds. “Someone once said it was like a chess game set to Madonna,” Henerlau noted. “If you ask 10 people what they like about square dance, you’re gonna get 10 different answers.” If one wasn’t expecting to hear Madonna, they may want to think again. “It’s not just country music,” he continued. “I use very little country music actually. We use pop music, country, reggae, classical; you name it.”
Ultimately, what keeps people coming back to the Tam Twirlers is the opportunity to connect face to face and have some good old-fashioned fun. “It’s the antithesis to sitting around watching all your streaming shows and doom scrolling and listening to the news,” Henerlau said. “After a while, you just need to get away from that.” It’s the spirit of authentic connection and lighthearted fun that makes Tam Twirlers the right place to do that.
“The club is just filled with a lot of really nice people,” Loftus-Sweetland said. “When you walk in the door, you feel very welcome.”
Upcoming Tam Twirlers events include Black Light Dance on Feb. 25 and Pi Night on March 2. For more information, visit tamtwirlers.org, contact Eric Henerlau by email at er**@**********au.comor call 415.997.3210.
