HEARTBEAT

When the Bachelor ‘n’ Bachelorettes hold their weekly get-togethers, you’d best be there and be square. Here, the way to a potential partner’s heart is through a Teacup Chain, Through Four, Step to a Wave, a Ferris Wheel--and anything else the caller tells you to do. That’s square dancing, pardner, and the B ‘n’ Bs have been bringing together the unbetrothed for a do-si-do for more than 40 years. There are now eight B ‘n’ B branches in Los Angeles and surrounding counties and dozens more throughout the world.

“I met my husband square dancing,” says Estelle Milmar, the 86-year-old vice president of the L.A. chapter and former vaudevillian. “That was in 1955. We were together until he passed away in ’84. Then I came back.”

Although the membership at the L.A. chapter, which meets at Plummer Park in West Hollywood, leans toward the mature decades, the suburban chapters draw younger dancers. The only requirement is that members first take the eight-month beginner’s square-dancing class. “You’ve got to be able to keep up,” Milmar explains.

And learning can be half the fun. Dee Quinones met her current beau, Mel Rolfsness, when he came to her class as an angel--square talk for experienced dancers who come in and help the beginners. “The minute I saw him I fell in love with him,” Quinones recalls. “That was two years ago,” Quinones adds happily. “We’ve been dancing ever since.”