25 Jahre / 25 years
Castle Twirlers Coburg e.V.
Zeno Scheirich, President

Looking back on a special event

This year it came to pass! In late January we celebrated our 25^th anniversary. That's how many years have passed since December 1984 when our first class was graduated and the class participants Klaus Bamberger, Rosi Bamberger, Heidi Hofmann, Melanie Kirchner, Gerti Köhler, Siggi Lutz, Birgit Roschlau, Christiane Steinert, Rosemarie Steinert, Stefan Steinert, Wolfgang Vitoul and the Angels Maria Groh and Horst Heinz together with the caller Herbert Köhler on February 2^nd, 1985 got together to found a square dance club and have it registered in the register of clubs under the name of "CastleTwirlers Coburg".

From the beginning on the city youth centre was the home of the club. In the course of all these years many interesting events took place, that many club members would not want to have missed.

Starting in the fall of 1986 beginner’s classes took place regularly. With two exceptions we had a beginner’s class every single year.

In the winter of 1986/87 our president at the time, Matthias Knabner, began substituting for the caller and is our club caller since the year 1989. In addition, starting in 2003 Heidemarie Kuhn was our club caller for several years.

The highlight of the year 1988 was the visit of the professional caller Paul Hartman from Maryland/USA accompanied by a small group of travellers. After his visit he also called for us the following Sunday at a small special. We were impressed how he was able to make very interesting and demanding calls with the first 15-20 movements of the mainstream program.

At our Christmas party in 1989 we had a surprise visit by 4 dancers from Zella-Mehlis/Suhl, who had come in a Trabbi. Already at German Democratic Republic times they had danced traditional square dance. We were happy to help them to get started with the modern American Western square dance.

In 1995 we had our first open air special "dancing into a summer night". Five to six callers each presented 45 minutes of singing calls to a musical theme. In September of this same year, we also celebrated our 10th anniversary with the guest caller Kenny Reese.

Our 15th anniversary was brought forward to September 1999, since that enabled us to book Mike Sikorsky (Meza Apache Records) from Arizona/USA as guest caller. He impressed us with his stage presence and his dance interludes on the stage. In 2005 we had a really big party at the Hotel "Festungshof", celebrating our 20th anniversary with many friends and supporters. Additional highlights were the repeated visits of a travel group from Florida, who had been organized in the nineties by the professional caller John Saunders. In addition we could also welcome the following foreign callers at our club nights :

Saundra Bryant (Illinois)
Vic Ceder (California)
Boby Delph (Texas)
Bent 'Bula' Ericsson (Sweden)
Don Moger (Canada)

At present, the club counts 61 active members, the youngest 11 und the eldest 78 years of age !!! With a rather constant figure of membership over the years and the kids group the club proves to be alive and is being noticed.

For the future I wish us, the "Castle Twirlers", the friendship and support of many individuals, faithful members who love to dance and who feel welcome in our club, but also many new members, young and older, who enjoy dancing.

"Man, learn to dance! Otherwise the angels in heaven would not know what to do with you".

Augustinus coined this phrase in praise of the dance. This phrase means to us today, that we shall do all we can to make it possible for everyone, who likes to dance, to get a little closer to the "heaven on earth".

(Zeno Scheirich on behalf of the board)

Translation Ursula Kreis - HUNTE VALLEY DANCERS e.V