History
In 1993, Terry Sherrer and Elin King were among the early members of the Rocket City Rainbow Squares (Huntsville, Ala.). Terri and Elin were hooked, and they were determined to learn to dance. Then, after only a short involvement in Huntsville, Terri and Elin found themselves moving to Birmingham, Alabama., where it saddened them to learn that there was no gay square-dance group. With a bit of research, they tracked down the local straight clubs and found a club offering lessons. It took a little persuasion even a little bribery to talk their neighbors, Frank and B.J., into taking lessons with them. By October, they had worked their way through the Plus program and graduated from their class.
The same month, Terri, Elin, Frank, and B.J. celebrated their recent graduation by attending the Rocket City Rainbow Squares' first fly-in. There, they met members of Memphis' Cotton Pickin' Squares, including their caller, Todd Harris. Ideas began to formulate and a plan was made. Todd Harris agreed to drive from Memphis to Birmingham every Saturday to teach a beginning class.
So, on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 1997, they held a kickoff dance, with Todd calling, and with several of the Cotton Pickin' Squares and the Rocket City Rainbow Squares attending. Todd has quite a talent for getting new dancers involved, and soon he and the four original members had generated enough interest for a beginning class.
They named the club the Magic City Diamonds for Birmingham which is called the magic city because of its fast growth due to the steel industry and scheduled the first class. They would accelerate the class, meeting for six hours every Saturday for about 16 weeks, to get new, dancing members into the club as soon as possible.
The accelerated classes were a challenge, but the group came together nicely. Before they knew what was happening, they were through the Basic and Mainstream programs. In April, a stroke of good fortune led the club to find Paul Place, a gay-friendly local caller. While the original class pushed forward through the Plus program, Paul started calling club dances and teaching a second class on Thursdays. Many members were dancing twice a week, and by June 14, the six students of Todd's first class graduated and became new members of the club.
Since then, the Magic City Diamonds have continued to grow and develop. Birmingham AIDS Outreach invited the club to dance an exhibition at the AIDS walk in October, and we were featured in the November issue of the Alabama Forum, our statewide gay and lesbian newspaper. Perhaps our most rewarding moment came in July, when the IAGSDC approved our application for admission, with our four charter members there to hear as they voiced the "ayes."
Now, Paul continues to call for the club on Thursdays at Baptist Church of the Covenant, 2117 University Blvd. We keep generating new interest, as we dance tips from Basic through Mainstream and Plus levels beginning at 7 p.m. We have also gone to dance with several straight clubs in town and have been invited back to dance again and again.
We are very proud that we have come so far in so little time. We are still struggling, but we're having fun. We have gone from having only 4 dancers attend the national convention to having 9 dancers. We've been accepted into the straight local association know as the Birmingham Square Dance Association.