Looking for genuine U.S. forms of folk art, Richard Chase finds the square, or barn dance.

‘The People’s Dance’ by Richard Chase from New Theatre Vol. 2 No. 6. June, 1935.

THAT America has a “Folk-dance”–one of the most highly developed group-dances that any people has ever evolved–is a fact that is hardly known to us as a nation. This traditional dance is done by the working classes of our rural areas from New York state to as far west as Colorado; but it is particularly native to the South–to the entire rural South, and is not confined to the Southern Mountains.

The origin of this dance is, at present, unknown. It may have been brought over from the north of Ireland by the “Scotch-Irish”; but it has grown and been given its form by its use in this country until it has become “American.” It resembles only one other known English Country Dance out of some two-hundred known dances. It shows traces of primitive ritual-dance including many figures from the Sword Dance of northern England.

The late Cecil J. Sharp, foremost authority on the traditional music, songs, and dances of England and Anglo-America, recorded the dance on one of his ballad-hunting trips in Kentucky and took it back to England where it has become quite popular. The dance was called by Mr. Sharp “The Running Set” and it is known by this name to the members of the English Folk Dance Society in England and in New York and Boston. This name is Mr. Sharp’s invention, and was probably due to the fact that the Kentuckians spoke of “running a Set” instead of “doing a dance.” (The hill-country Baptists frown on the word “dance” but give a grudging consent if the young folk call their “playing” a “Set” or a “Play Party.”)

Our people have no one name for the dance, since its general style and its run of Figures vary from State to State, or, in the most isolated regions, from one side of a ridge to the other! It is called “Square Dance,” “Barn Dance,” “Country Dance,” and by such names as “Break Down” (Alabama) or “Kitchen Hop” (New York). However, the pattern of the dance is universal: a “round for four couples,” or, in its more recent and perhaps corrupted form, a “round for as many as will.” Within either of these two forms is an almost unlimited number of Figures usually involving two couples at a time.

The Figures done are determined by the “Caller” whose shouted directions, usually in rhymed couplets, keep the Set coordinated.

A full description of the dance is impossible in the scope of this article, but an attempt to give the general nature of one four-couple Set may help to visualize its actual form.

As the four couples stand in a “square,” the men have their partners on their right; the woman on the man’s left is his “Corner.” The couples are numbered counter-clockwise, 1st to 4th. Here are a few “Calls” and their execution:

“All hands around and circle to the left”–the four couples join hands in a ring and move around clockwise once, to places;

“Turn your partner once around”–men turn their partners clockwise, a half-turn (hands engaging elbows);

“Turn your corner upside down”–men move on the outside of the Set and turn their Corners in the same way;

“Take your own and promenade home”–men move (on the inside of the Set) toward their partners, take crossed hands. (R in R & L in L) and all move around once, counter clockwise, to places.

The above calls make up one Promenade Figure.

A particularly interesting figure is the second one:

“First couple off for the Ocean Wave”–1st couple moves to the right and faces 2nd couple, the other couples wait.

“Wave of the ocean, wave of the sea, Wave that pretty girl back to me.”–1st couple moves forward and back (no set phrasing of steps) between 2nd couple, while 2nd couple separate and circle (inside the Set) around the 1st couple, 2nd man circles clockwise, 2nd woman counter-clockwise (man passes woman R shoulder to R), 2nd couple on reaching home turn once to get into place, as 1st couple reaches center again.

Then 2nd couple goes forward and back while 1st couple circles them, as above.

This Figure is repeated by 1st couple. with 3rd and 4th couple whereupon the Promenade is done by the entire Set. Then 2nd, 3rd, and 4th couples lead the Figure in turn, each round being followed by the Promenade. This makes one set, whereupon dancers and musicians rest.

THERE is a sort of Prelude Figure to the whole evening’s dance, as well as several ways to vary both the “Little Promenade” and the “Grand Promenade.” –There are some fifty-odd known Figures. in the Square Dance; here are some of the most interesting ones: Shoot the Arrow, Cowboy Roll, Cowboy Loop-i-ty-loop, Grapevine Swing, Grapevine Twist, Old Shuck Basket, Break the Chicken’s Neck, Wind Up the Ball Yarn, Black Snake, Georgia Rang Tang, Duck for Oysters. Some Figures have not specific names but the entire Call; e.g.

“Lady round the lady and the gent also, lady round the lady and the gent don’t go.”

“Couple up four; half and back;
ladies whirl and the gents step back;
gents whirl and the ladies step back;
everybody whirl and couple up four.”

To give any full description of this dance would require a volume. It is much better to learn it from a “Caller” and there are many such in the state of New York. Near Glens Falls we have seen dancing

in which each Figure had its own tune, to which the Calls were sung. This triple coordination of Call, tune, and Figure we have not found elsewhere in America; a fact which would indicate that the New York tradition is a genuine and reliable one.

The Step used is a quiet but very swift walk done with a jauntily dignified lift of the whole body, a “style” which is quite impossible to describe or even to teach.

The Music used for the dance varies all the way from ancient morris dance tunes (of which “Turkey in the Straw” is a good example–its former name being “Old Mother Oxford!”) to Sousa marches. It is important that the musicians know the dance and its general style, and that they have endurance!

There seem to be only two classes in America that take any interest in this dance: the working class and genuine “intellectuals.” The middle class has no use for this sort of thing; jazz is properly theirs, their creation and their expression. In their hands such a “Folk” dance as this would become inevitably burlesqued and corrupted.

It is absurd to talk about “reviving” or “preserving” this tradition; it exists, vitally, in the body of our working class and only needs a little careful stimulation and direction under the proper leadership. Left by itself in the face of the “modern world” it has degenerated in the hands of those workers who think they must ape middle class habits and attitudes and do what is “popular.” Older citizens and class-conscious groups (for example, in the mining sections of West Virginia) take great pride in being able to go through a Set of difficult Figures, and regard the dance as a handed-down thing which is worth while for its own sake. It is a true art, and an example of true culture, typical of the background of a people. It can never be anything but a group-expression to be used as a social welding force.

The New Theatre continued Workers Theatre. Workers Theatre began in New York City in 1931 as the publication of The Workers Laboratory Theatre collective, an agitprop group associated with Workers International Relief, becoming the League of Workers Theaters, section of the International Union of Revolutionary Theatre of the Comintern. The rough production values of the first years were replaced by a color magazine as it became primarily associated with the New Theatre. It contains a wealth of left cultural history and ideas. Published roughly monthly were Workers Theater from April 1931-July/Aug 1933, New Theatre from Sept/Oct 1933-November 1937, New Theater and Film from April and March of 1937, (only two issues).

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/workers-theatre/v2n06-jun-1935-New-Theatre.pdf