Annette, a Belgian
citizen from the Southern, French-speaking part of the country, was employed
at SHAPE (NATO’s military headquarters) near
Mons in
Belgium
and was already a square and round dancer when she met Frank, a Canadian
officer, in 1976. He was probably a little under the influence of the
encounter when he decided to graduate from round dancing in 1978 and from
square dancing in 1979.
In
1980 the American round dance leader of the SHAPE SHUFFLING SQUARES returned
to the United States and the club went into mourning as no replacement had
been trained. Annette was asked to take over but adamantly refused,
much preferring to dance than to watch the fun from the stage. After
dancing to the same cassette of cued rounds for about half a year, her
resolve weakened. She regretfully abandoned her former hobbies and
went for it, embracing the new mission with a rage. Caught in
the momentum of so many changes, she even married Frank, in Victoria, B.C. in 1981. Twin girls were born one year later
and Annette quit her full-time job soon after that. Raising twins,
keeping up with square and round dancing, teaching round-dancing and slowly
finishing the work on a new house and surrounding grounds took all her
energy. Frank is now retired and the girls, having completed successfully
their studies at the local university, have both jobs and boy-friends.
Pascale and boy-friend Matthieu are Civil Engineers, Averil and Hakim
are Business Managers and all are working full time. They have
selected homes that are only 15 minutes from the Woodruff ranch so the
family remains very close and interactive.
After founding their first R/D club at SHAPE,
Annette and Frank started another in Brussels and, for 30 years ran
the Soft Shoes that met weekly and eventually reached a strong phase IV
level as well as the monthly Eager Beavers (formerly Sundae Dancers), a
group which ventured into phase V & VI. The two groups formed,
together, Carousel Club 238. On 28 January 2010 the Woodruffs held their
last club evening, having decided it was time to retire from teaching on a
weekly basis. Carousel 128 lives on, however, with periodical
multi-level workshops.
Frank and
Annette always considered themselves as “club people” much preferring the
quiet and steady work that they could accomplish within their clubs to
performances at festivals. They never looked for fame and glory but
were nevertheless always happy when some of their dances got taught in
America, Europe and even Japan and New Zealand. They
attended three URDC (now ICBDA) conventions and they are still members of
DRDC, ECTA and ROUNDALAB.
They attended faithfully the Coliseum
week in Florida until Coliseum exited and Colossal entered. They continue to
attend the Cham week at Easter and the Eringerfeld week
in the Fall. For 5 years they
worked as figure developers for the Technical Advisory Committee
of ICBDA and gained much
knowledge and satisfaction in that endeavour. Then, for a few years,
they contributed their thoughts, tirelessly, to several RAL Phase Committees
but didn't quite derive the same satisfaction in that less dynamic
environment. At the moment they are still reviewers for the Roundalab
Rounds of the Quarter, Phase IV and V. Of late, Frank's dancing has
been somewhat reduced because of arthritis and Frank and Annette have reached the stage where they devote more
time to desk work than floor work but in no way are they idle. They
spend much energy gathering news, music & cue-sheets which they share with
friends in their FTP operation ... not to mention their passion for writing
dances that really match the music.
Frank and Annette still square dance at the C level whenever they
have the chance. Dancing only twice a year makes it
tough to maintain the knowledge but the Ceder Chest manuals make up for the
paucity of practice.
Hakim (guitar) and Matthieu (accordion) play in a little band called
Mademoiselle George, here is a
link to their web site.
Coming soon: Matthieu and Pascale's wedding on 02 October 2010 at the
Abbaye d'Aulnes.
To view a clip of Matthieu's accordion
concert click on the picture below
To view a slide show of "the kids" in the Belgian
Ardennes, this February, click
on the picture below (click here if you would like it with music)
