by Freida Marie Crump
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Greetings from Poosey.
Chicken in the breadpan pickin’ out dough
One more girl and on you go.
Don’t be fast and don’t be slow,
Chicken in the breadpan pickin’ out dough.
And so went the old square dance as I’d watch my folks parade around the old Legion Hall on Saturday nights, petticoats flying and laughter fending off the chill of a Midwest winter. There was hardly a small or large town that didn’t host at least one group of square dancers in the mid-20th century, and the shouts of the caller would blend with the whine of the fiddle and guitar as communities would gather for this delightfully American pastime.
Nineteen states have designated the square dance as their official state dance and its roots can be traced back to 17th century England. The basics are …well …pretty basic: Four couples face each other in a square, the music begins, and someone designated as the “caller” shouts out the dance moves, usually in rhyme, and consisting of several predetermined moves. Heck, you probably did it in your school’s PE class. There are hundreds of varieties around the world but in the U.S. square dancing generally falls into two categories, hoedown and Western Style.
It’s good clean fun, great exercise, and a dandy way to enjoy friendships in a sane and joyous atmosphere. That’s why it seems a puzzlement that the nation of China has decided to ban certain types of square dancing, mostly the type favored by the older generation of Chinese. The dance groups are called damas and some media report their numbers to be over 100 million. Yes… over 100 million square dancing Chinese. The trouble is, according to their non-hoedown neighbors, they dance in the street and play their music too loudly. Dwell on the imagined sight of that for a moment if you like. I think the prospect is a little delightful.
So, China being the Big Mother state that it is, has formed an official governmental committee that’s come up with 12 state-approved square dance moves that can be performed in the land of the Great Wall and cheap tee shirts. Twelve. That’s it. If you try to do dance move number 13 you could end up busting rocks into little squares in some far-flung province that’s never heard of the do-si-do. Sadly, Uncle Sam hasn’t treated the Chinese square dances much better. In August of 2013 a group gathered in New York’s Sunset Park and were stopped by the NYPD for making too much noise. In China the dances are banned from performing within 50 meters of hospitals, schools, or scientific research institutes.
All of which is a darned shame. What could be a greater instrument of world peace than the square dance? In the first place, holding hands is common in the typical square dance. When the caller shouts out, “All join hands and circle to the left!” that’s exactly what you do. Imagine a world where Pakistanis joined hands with residents of Bombay, Israelis grabbed the nearest Palestinian, and the pickup driving cowboy from Houston reached out to clasp the hand of the gay rights organizer from Brooklyn in a good old hoedown?
And in the typical square dance you’re forced to change partners at least three times before returning to what’s called, “your own.” I think the United Nations should seriously consider making square dancing a part of their opening rituals each morning. Perhaps the U.S. Congress could “dip for the oyster and dive for the stew” just after the chaplain’s prayer each morning.
The most common square dance call is “Swing your partner,” a move which necessitates putting your arms around the waist of someone else. It’s darned hard to fight when you’re hugging. And in the standard “allemande left and right and left grand” you’re required to shake hands with half the people in your square. How many city council meetings, state elections, and Supreme Court hearings might benefit by the simple act of grabbing an opponent’s hand to the beat of “Flop-eared Mule,” or “Oh, Johnny, Oh!”?
We can only hope that China’s Central Committee sees the light and lets the Ho-Chi-Ho-Downers dance and like everything else Chinese, it slowly begins to take over the world.
You ever ‘round Poosey, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.