HAROLD SEARS

Some Personal Background

I was born in Delaware. I went to school there, in Illinois, and in North Carolina, and throughout those years, my family camped, hiked, skied, and paddled. I have long enjoyed and even needed the quiet solitude of wild and little-visited natural areas.

Meredith and I started Square Dancing about 1988 and Round Dancing in 1989, with Charlotte & Ray Farmer in Spartanburg, S.C.  We stayed at the lower levels for 5 - 6 years until a friend talked us into driving to Greenville to dance with Larry Monday and Gladys Gunter, who introduced us to advanced Rounds.  We started traveling—went to DRDC weekends and S.C. & N.C. Round Dance Conventions.  We joined Carousel Club 232 with John & Kay Grooms in 1998.  We attended the National Square Dance Conventions in 1999 and 2000; URDC Conventions in 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2006; CRDA and KRDA conventions since 2004, and other regional festivals. 

We retired in 2004, after Harold's 30 years of teaching college-level biology in South Carolina, and we moved to Boulder, Colo.  Here, we dance regularly with Chris & Terri Cantrell and Jim & Bonnie Bahr.  We are members of the International Choreographed Ballroom Dance Association (ICBDA), the Dixie Round Dance Council (DRDC), the Colorado Round Dance Association (CRDA), and Roundalab. In 2000, we began writing a Web-based Round Dance Figure & Styling Manual based on the Roundalab and ICBDA manuals and on lessons presented by many teachers, and we continue to expand that resource. We regularly write dance articles for DRDC, CRDA, WASCA, and for other round dance organizations.