square dancin'

into the middle with a whoop and a holler!

One thing about me: I love dancing!

Another thing about me, I am not particularly good at dancing. To my credit, I can keep a beat. It’s just that I’m not all that graceful about it.

Given that I didn’t pursue a career in ballet, my lack of poise on a dance floor hasn’t impacted me all that seriously. Still, I tend to find myself with an air of awareness of my own body that I’d prefer to shed whenever I’m dancing in public (which, despite what the last sentence may imply, I try to do as often as I can). It doesn’t discourage me from dancing when I have the chance, it just pulls me out of what is otherwise one of my favorite things to do.

many dance classes as a child did not help with my grace, but they sure were fun!

It’s fairly easy for me to get in my head about this sort of thing or any sort of thing (if you read my last substack, you may have picked up on that). But that’s why I started this - to hopefully write away some of my discomfort with myself and to document what clicks for me! And this week what clicked was, you guessed it, square dancing.

~

• history break below! (lots of links to external articles incoming if you’re interested)

  As a historian, I feel like I must note that, much like many staples of American Culture, square dancing has a deep and complex history that is often oversimplified. Predominantly in media, square dancing is portrayed as happening in rural, white communities. As Erin Blakemore writes in their article The Slave Roots of Square Dancing, “What’s the whitest form of dance? You would be forgiven for answering ‘square dancing.’”

  

  group of students from Howard University square dancing, 1949. via Smithsonian

  While I don’t have the time to do a full research project on square dancing’s history, I can tell you, like in many other instances, the media gets it wrong. Black Americans played a huge role in the development and evolution of square dancing. Indigenous and Native Americans also were hugely influential in both the musical and dance styles of square dancing. Often times, enslaved men were forced to call or musically accompany dances hosted by the white families who owned them. In the 1950s, Jesse Cosby, a Black man from Jefferson County, AL who lived in Waterloo, IA was one of the most well-known square dance callers in the Midwest.  

  

  Caller Jesse Cosby, 1954, in Ebony Magazine

  If your childhood was like mine, you may have learned about square dancing in elementary or middle school gym class. Why would that be? Well, it’s because there was a movement to teach square dancing in public schools in the early 1900s, in part pushed forward by Henry Ford. As in, Henry Ford the inventor and outspoken antisemite. Ford was a supporter of the KKK and published a series of articles called “The International Jew: The World's Problem.” (Both things that textbooks from my youth failed to mention...) Some argue that Ford’s racism is what fueled his obsession with square dancing and white-washed country music. Supposedly, he had a distaste for jazz music and dancing. I haven’t done enough research to make any claims of my own, but it’s compelling to say the least. My inclination is that these folks are on to something and this “revival” of sorts in the early 1900s is what led many people in America, as Blakemore pointed out earlier, see square dancing as the whitest form of dance around.

(history break ending, back to Saturday night!)

~

For months now, my roommate/friend Emma has been alluding to this square dance group some of her friends attend. We’ve talked aspirationally about going, but it was only this past Saturday that we decided to finally lace up our boots and throw on our hats and mosey on down to the town square. (read: put on jean shorts and cowboy boots and drive to a nearby church basement)

As we made our descent into the basement, I marveled at the seven-piece band setting up on the small stage at the front of the room. I had already been pretty stoked by the idea of this whole night, but I hadn’t even considered the possibility of a live band. We scurried on it and sat down in the seats lining the walls. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this event is that it is BYOB, which is how I found myself sitting down in a church basement, PBR in hand, buzzing with energy and eyeing all of the incredibly cute outfits around the room (it was nice to be somewhere where people really committed to a theme).

sweet emma with the band in the back!

This particular night was for first-time callers - the people that lead or “call” the dance. Knowing that there were other people trying something new there made me more at ease with my own new-ness in the space. Any remaining unease was cast away starting with the first dance. From that point on, I was absolutely in love with the night.

The room was filled with people who genuinely wanted to be there and genuinely wanted to dance. There wasn’t pressure of who would be the best dancer in the room or who knew the most steps or who tripped the least. It was just people laughing and hollering and dancing around! Each dance also had instructions, which for someone who always likes to have a plan, was amazing. Still, there was room for silliness and individuality and moments of surprise and shock!

We were encouraged (ordered really) to switch partners and dance with someone outside of the group we came with and plenty of people came solo. I learned to box the gnat, right and left grand, and promenade. I made some new friends and reconnected with some old familiar faces (it’s pretty impossible to go anywhere in Richmond without running into someone you vaguely know). And! I got to listen to live bluegrass music worthy of a Folk Fest stage. My favorite comment was when one of my partners remarked that it felt like we were in Pride & Prejudice, and while the outfits and music may have been vastly different, I couldn’t help but imagine myself at a ball of sorts for the rest of the night. All in all, a pretty incredible evening.

It wasn’t until I sat down to write about this night that I realized I hadn’t felt any of the self-awareness that usually accompanies dancing at bars or parties or events. I hadn’t been worried that I looked weird or like I was trying too hard (at what, I can never quite say). I really just enjoyed myself. Emma and I convinced a couple of our friends to join us as well, and we all unanimously agreed at the end of the night: we cannot wait for the next dance!

In Richmond and want to come? Follow @rvasquaredance on Instagram!

And me too if you want @cece.tries!!

Song of the sub: You! Me! Dancing! By Los Campesinos