Emerald Waves
Location: Pensacola, FL, USA
Website:
Started:
Admitted to IAGSDC:
Status: Started 2008. Disbanded 2010?
History: This was our short-lived LGBT square dance club in Pensacola. Bill Van Hoesen was our caller and we danced at Holy Cross MCC on Fairfield Drive. We had, at most, 12 members. You need 8 to make a square and dance. We lasted about 1 1/2 years a a club.
We never had a board of directors. I recruited the caller and we paid him directly. I had been a member of the Independence Squares and the Times Squares. When I moved to Pensacola I didn't want to go without LGBT square dancing, so I started this club.
— Brian Heike
It was a WILDCAT Queer Square Dance Club and it was fabulous…
I had no interest in square dancing. Zero. I happened to be at the church one Sunday afternoon and Brian recruited me because they needed 8 to dance. The only reason I did it was because they weren’t going to be able to do their thing without me.
After one session, I was hooked! It became a creative outlet I didn’t know I needed, and it was great social event.
If you know anything about square dancing, you know you dance from a gendered perspective (the man and the woman).
Well, we had 7 guys and one woman (Joy). I cheerfully danced the woman’s role.
I do believe we scandalized the square dance establishment in Fort Walton, where we were the only non-traditional group. You could tell how much Bill loved us all that night. Lol
I wish we could all meet at the same place and dance the night away 🤠
— Louis Cooper
Classes:
Club Caller[s]: Bill Van Hoesen
Levels: MS
Dance Location[s]: Holy Cross MCC, Fairfield Dr, Pensacola, FL
Fly-Ins Hosted:
Conventions Hosted:
Ephemera:
Photos
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Members of Emerald Waves, 2008
Members of Emerald Waves dancing. Oct 2010
