About me

I've  called in the Ottawa, Kanata, Cornwall, Brockville and Kingston areas of Eastern Ontario.  I call up to the Plus level, and am currently teaching and calling Basic, Mainstream and Plus.

Marguerite and I began square dancing with Geoff Clarke’s Town and Kountry Kickers when the club first started in 1998. It didn’t take long to decide that I wanted to be a caller when I found I was singing along with the songs on the radio and every one started with "circle left". I started down that path in 2000.

Apart from some summer clubs to gain experience, I didn’t start calling regularly until 2005 when I auditioned to become the caller for the GoodTime Squares in Brockville until the club closed (2005 to 2012).

In 2008, I added the Kingston Limestone dancers to my list of regular clubs. I called for a few years until the club re-organized to consolidate different dance levels (2008 to 2015).

In late 2015, I was asked to call for the Stone Bridge Squares in Russel, outside of Ottawa. At that time I was currently was filling in for a caller at the Cornwall club on the same night -- so I had to get a temporary replacement until I was able to start calling in Russell in the new year. (2016 to 2019).

When Keith Watters retired, I went from doing a few tips with him each week to taking over the calling for Sunshine Squares. (2015 to 2024).

In 2022, Marguerite and I took over the caller-run Kanata Squares, a Basic and Mainstream afternoon club,and had a lot of fun with great dancers until we had to close the club. (2022 to 2024).

Currently I'm calling all levels for Cornwall's Swinging B's club.

In the summer, I call regularly for two of the Riverside Gypsy Square camping weekends and was an occasional guest caller for other NSDCA* clubs in the past. I have called at a number of "open" dances throughout the year such as the Alzheimer's Benefit Dance and Spring Thaw dance held in Brockville and a variety of EOSARDA dances in Ottawa.


*NSDCA  National Square Dance Campers Association

More

More than you want to know

We (Bob and Marguerite) live in Kemptville, Ontario.  We have been married since 1974 have 3 daughters, two living in the Ottawa/Kemptville area and one in Cochrane, Alberta.  We have 12 grandchildren from pre-school to 3 in university

I'm retired from Nortel where I had a varied 30-year career from technical writing to office automation to web development.  

I have been involved in several organizations while at Nortel and afterwards. In reverse order ....
- National Square Dance Camper Association as a dancer and website developer/webmaster for the association's website (nsdca.org)
- Eastern Ontario Square and Round Dance Association: as a dancer, caller, board member. I developed their website and currently run it as the webmaster (eoDance.ca).
- Ottawa-Carleton Soccer League: as a player, coach, referee, board member, website developer and webmaster for their early website.

I was also the initial developer and webmaster under contract with the Ottawa chapter of the Retired Teachers of Ontario where I developed their initial website.