What’s the official dance of the State of Illinois? Give up?
It’s the square dance. But like any folk art it’s made up of fragments from many places.
English dance masters crossed the ocean to teach country dances to Americans, and then the French showed them how to dance the quadrille, which required four couples.
As often happens with anything new, square dancing was not without controversy. Clergymen abhorred dancing because it took time away from work and worship, but Americans danced on. They picked up some steps from southern Appalachia, and when settlers moved West to answer the call of the gold rush, cowboys added their own ingenuity to this lively hybrid that has become a piece of Americana.
Today 42 clubs, which number about 3,500 square dancers, are members of the Metropolitan Chicago Association of Square Dancers. Paul Thompson, who started calling square dancing in 1963 and goes dancing once a week, says that there are 60 to 70 callers in the Chicago area, and they are in great demand. Clubs may book them two years in advance to be sure they get the best ones on their schedule.
Today callers often create square dance patterns by putting four couples on the screens of their computers and moving them around to the music to see what works. Thompson, however, still does it the old-fashioned way, step by step, in his studio, where he has some 2,000 records to choose from.
Callers put together singing calls, in which the same pattern is repeated several times, and hashes, which flow unexpectedly from one configuration to another. Square dancing thus becomes not only a physical challenge but a mental one as well, because dancers have to listen to the call and carry it out then and there.
The foot movement itself is not difficult to do. “The less exertion you use the better off you are,” explains Thompson. “A lot of people can make hard work of it, but it’s really not. You just slide your feet along the floor with every beat of the music.” He adds, “It’s not only good exercise but it stops the mind from the regular routine and deviates your thought to a point where you rest your mind.”
As is the case with many folk dances, the proper clothing plays a role. “The women wear full skirts with 60 to 90 yards of crinoline petticoats,” explains Thompson. “I never stopped to count them but that’s what they claim, and the petticoats are pretty bouffant. The men wear Western-style jeans and a Western-cut shirt and a kerchief or a string tie.”
But clothes alone don’t make a square dancer. There’s a whole new language to learn, with terms like sashay and box the gnat, dip and dive and rip ‘n’ snort, and the movements they correspond to. Dance lessons are a prerequisite to enter the world of do-si-do and allemande left, where no alcohol is served and friendly hugs called “yellow rocks” are common.
It takes about 36 lessons, which are held once a week, to master the 50 to 75 basic movements. But dances are usually held so that students can begin to try out the newly learned patterns with experienced dancers called “angels,” who join the squares and keep the configurations from becoming chaotic.
Once the basics are accomplished, there can always be more to learn, but they are a passport to square dances around the world where, even in Japan, club members move to the same patterns, which are called in English.
Admission fees for a square dance in the Chicago area are about $8 per couple or $4 per person for a singles dance. Several singles clubs exist in the area. There is also a gay and lesbian square dance club called Chi-Town Squares (312-357-3100), which offers classes and dances.
Those who are too impatient to take a series of lessons and want to get moving on the dance floor right away can attend dances at several locations sponsored by the Chicago Barn Dance Co. “We have live string band music with a fiddle, banjo and guitar and sometimes a piano,” says Paul Watkins, a caller for the organization. “It’s the precursor of blue grass music.”
Events include contra, circle and old-fashioned square dances, and beginners are always welcome because the caller teaches each dance before it is called. The event at the Lake Street Church in Evanston even has a family hour at the beginning of the evening when children join their parents on the dance floor.
Dancers dress in whatever they please, but comfortable clothes and shoes are usually more important than fashion statements.
Watkins says that a friend of his has a good description of the difference between a square dance and a barn dance. “Going to a singles group of modern Western square dancing is like going to the opera. And going to a barn dance is like going to a good blues bar,” he explains. “It’s a lot more free-wheeling and energetic.”
Watkins adds, “There’s very little dancing with the same partner all night. In fact, people who do dance together all night are just beginners who don’t know what it’s all about.”
Chicago Barn Dance Co. holds events at the Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St., 8 p.m. Mondays; Lake Street Church, Lake and Chicago Avenues, Evanston, 6:45 p.m. families, 8 p.m. adults, 3rd Saturdays; Kuhn Village Barn, Fermilab, 1 Che Che Pinqua at Saulk and Batavia Roads, Warrenville, 7 p.m. 2nd Sundays of the month and 2 p.m. 3rd Sundays (September through June); $5. 773-271-9173.
The Metropolitan Chicago Association of Square Dancers is a resource for information about square dance clubs and classes in the Chicago area. 847-437-5270.
The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., houses the Rodgers Square Dance Research Collection, which includes books, magazines, video tapes, music scores, oral histories and much more. 312-255-3521.
