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 men in their lives.  Pascale and husband Matthieu are Civil Engineers,  Averil and Hakim are Business Managers and all are working full time.  They have selected homes that are only 10 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 regular basis. 

 

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 continued 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  derive quite the same satisfaction in that less dynamic environment.  At the moment they are still reviewers for the Roundalab Rounds of the Quarter, Phase IV & 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 a Newsletter and a FTP operation ... not to mention their passion for writing dances that really match the music.