John Oldfield was
born in Upstate New York some time in the middle of the last century. Progressively
moving west as he went from high school, to college, to graduate school, he ended
up in Chicago, Illinois in 1981. Now
in his third career since that time, he works for a large printing company located
in Elk Grove Village.
John Oldfield
was accidentally exposed to Square dancing in the late 1980’s when he went
to Carol’s Speakeasy to learn to two-step. After learning through the Advanced
level with Lin Jarvis, he began to learn to call Square Dancing, and eventually
to teach.
He attended the caller’s
school sponsored by the Gay Callers Association in 1992 at the I.A.G.S.D.C convention
in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He currently
teaches the Beginning class for the Chi-town Squares, although he has taught all
levels from Basic through C-1 over the years. Chi-town Squares is a Gay and Lesbian
square dance club on the north side of Chicago and is the largest member of the
Metropolitan Chicago Association of Square Dance Clubs. John is a member of both
Callerlab, The Association of Square Dance Callers and past vice president and
current president of the Gay Callers Association.
He has choreographed the opening scene, an old time square dance, of the opera
Susannah for Western Michigan University’s music department and for
the College of DuPage, here in Illinois.
