Concord’s Clutch Busters Square Dance Club launching beginners class

There just isn’t a lot of buzz about square dancing. Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart aren’t making a reality TV show about it. Lululemon isn’t branching off into hoop skirts either, and soccer moms aren’t texting each other about it.

That doesn’t mean square dancing isn’t thriving, though, under the radar. Groups like Concord’s Clutch Busters still strut their collective stuff every Thursday night at the city’s Willow Pass Community Center, where the 67-year-old group looking for some new blood will start its new class for beginners Sept. 14 (clutchbusters.org/join-the-fun-1).

Admittedly, the vast majority of the 40-some hoofers who showed up at a recent gathering of the group were definitely eligible for Social Security benefits, but younger dancers were also on hand, including sisters Catherine and Amelia Wu, of Clayton, 13 and 15 respectively.

They learned about the club through their involvement with the Clayton 4-H club and their father, who read about it on Patch. Eventually the sisters wound up joining the Clutch Busters (the group’s name stems from a incident in their beginnings when they were having trouble learning a new step called “Slip the Clutch”).

Catherine said she considers her involvement in the club to be a “a lifelong thing.” Both are actively recruiting their friends to join.

“They think it’s pretty cool,” says Catherine, but “mostly they’re concerned with what clothes to wear cause they see all the puffy stuff,” referring to the petticoat skirts favored by most square dancers including herself. While many of the Clutch Busters wear the traditional petticoats and western wear for the men, it’s not mandatory. So far the sisters haven’t been able to convince any of their friends to join, but she says she thinks they’d really “blend in.”

Still, the pair have to overcome the idea that square dancing is not Gen Z-appropriate.

“They say ‘that’s kind of old. Why do you guys do that?’ But they’re intrigued because we like it and we’re younger. We’re like, ‘Just try it. Get rid of your prejudices,’ ” says Catherine.

“And honestly, it’s just fun,” says Amelia.

The heart and soul of any square dance group is the “caller,” the person who calls out the moves that the groups of four paired dancers, usually two males and two females, must do to complete the dance. There are eight groups in all.

“If I don’t call anything, they don’t move,” says longtime Clutch Busters caller Gary Kendall, 77.

He started square dancing with his wife, April, while stationed with the U.S. Navy on the Panama Canal in 1973. He took up calling in 1983. A retired cell phone engineer, Kendall also calls for a group in his hometowns of Fairfield and Napa. Kendall bristles at the common impression that square dance music is only country and western.

“If you’ll notice, I haven’t played any country music yet,” said Kendall at a recent dance as he was about to cue up Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” He’s also been known to play other special versions of songs such as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Bruce Springsteen’s hit “Born in the USA” that are recorded specifically for use by square dance callers.

“What we do is not a copy, although it is copyrighted,” says Kendall, meaning the group has to pay royalties to the artists for using their music.

“It’s all formation management,” says Kendall of the art of calling. “I know where I’m starting from and where I’m going to end up — what I can do from those positions, what I can’t do. It’s my job to put it all together,” says Kendall, whose repertoire includes about 400 songs.

He also likes to point out that in the group’s two-hour sessions dancers will easily get in their 10,000 steps, the daily number often recommended for healthy living. Longtime Walnut Creek member Jon Maienschein, 69, a retired chemical engineer, attests to the benefits of square dancing.

“It was a good way to meet girls,” he says.

It was apparently a good way to meet lifelong partners too. Maienschein met his wife, Lisa Cline, while a grad student at UC Berkeley as a member of the school’s UC Squares dancers — one that included Nobel peace prize winner Owen Chamberlain, a physics professor who worked on the Manhattan Project.

Maienschein estimates that he knows about 100 square dance moves. He says it takes about a year to get to the point where one knows enough to get down with the Clutch Busters, who are considered a “Plus Club” (a grade up from the basic level) in square dance parlance. While the square dancing environment is pretty laid-back, he does have some advice for anyone thinking of taking it up.

“Don’t drink before you square-dance. You drink afterwards. You have to have your wits about you.”

For more information, visit clutchbusters.org online. For information on square dance groups throughout Northern California, visit the Northern California Square Dance Association at ncsda.com.

Paul Kilduff is a San Francisco-based writer who also draws cartoons. He can be reached at pkilduff350@gmail.com.