Reflections on the Hearing to "Designate the Square Dance as the American Folk Dance of

the United States": Cultural Politics and an American Vernacular Dance Form
Author(s): Colin Quigley
Source: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 33 (2001), pp. 145-157
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
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 REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING TO "DESIGNATE THE
SQUARE DANCE AS THE AMERICAN FOLK DANCE OF
THE UNITED STATES": CULTURAL POLITICS AND AN
AMERICAN VERNACULAR DANCE FORM

By Colin Quigley

"Dance in its socio-political aspects," one theme of the ICTM Ethnocho

Sub-Group Symposium at which this paper was presented1, was a tim
immediately following, as it did, the Los Angeles riots of spring 1992.
time, one could open the arts section of a newspaper or magazine to find
raging over such concepts as multiculturalism and diversity. Such cont
within the arts community might have seemed merely a sideshow to the p
inter-racial, -ethnic, and -class conflicts that erupted then in Los Angles in
of the largest American civil unrest of the century, but the social and
struggle over diversity in our country is a dispute with serious implicati
those engaged in arts research as well as for activists and advocates in th
sector.

I will approach this large and pervasive issue by examining the terms in
which one such debate-the legislative effort to have Congress designate the
square dance as the national American folk dance-has been cast. My discussion
of the cultural politics of the square dance form, with which I am familiar through
both personal participation and research, will utilise primarily the statements of
those who testified before the congressional committee considering the proposed
legislation in 1988. I will "unpack" the rhetoric of contention and deconstruct the
discourse as represented in the text of the hearing.
In its published form the hearing documents constitute approximately
fifty pages of testimony by four panels of witnesses for and against the proposed
legislation (U.S. Congress 1988). These witnesses include advocates for the bill
representing leaders of various organised square dance associations and dance
callers; opponents include recognised dance performers from African-American,
Hispanic-American, and Native American ethnic groups, as well as professional
folklorists and one square dance caller not affiliated with the sponsoring
organisations.
I will cull from their testimony the active rhetoric and analyse the terms
of its construction, seeking the roots of its power to persuade, contextualising
terms as needed so that the reader might appreciate the ideologies their use
invokes. As I proceed I will note the concomitant legacies with which American
folk dance scholarship continues to grapple and elucidate the implications of
different positions.
The two sides arrayed against one another in this debate represent
tensions with a long history in the U.S. but now of global significance as well.
Close examination reveals that the opposition is constructed in shared terms, each
containing and evoking the other's view. I hope such insight offers hope of
surmounting these conflicts through recasting its terms. Indeed, I chose to examine
the rhetoric of this debate, which might seem overly transparent in an American

1 ICTM Ethnochoreology Study Group symposium, Nafplion, Greece, 4 July 1992.

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146 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

context, for presentation in this international forum, with the hope that better
understanding of American cultural politics may provide a stimulating foil against
which to view other dispositions of what I believe to be central issues of our times.
This legislation, a similar bill defeated in 1986, and a previously
successful bill designating the square dance as the national folk dance for the year
of 1984, was proposed by leaders of the nationwide network of recreational clubs,
who perform what is generally referred to as moder Western square dance. They
actively campaigned for its passage, presenting numerous petitions with thousands
of signatures gathered from their membership to the congressional committee.
Moder Western square dance is a social dance form practised in
organised recreational settings which has been developed from earlier forms of
figure dancing associated with more traditional folk groups (LaVita 1983: 4). The
great variety of the older and more traditional local practice in the U.S. has been
categorised choreographically into three main regional groupings: the Northeastern
square dance, largely derived from nineteenth century quadrilles; the Southeastern
form, an "Americanized form developed from shared European patterns and
aesthetics that were shaped by immigration and frontier experience in the New
World" and essentially circular in formation (Friedland 1998: 687); and the
Western square dance which developed from a confluence of these Northeastern
and Southeastern forms in the nineteenth century as the territories west of the
Mississippi were peopled by settlers from these regions.
Modern Western square dance, in its turn, was developed from this
traditional Western repertoire for use in both education programs and exhibitions
of "Cowboy" heritage. Lloyd Shaw was the crucial figure in this process,
introducing new variations to old figures, arranging for all couples to be
continuously "active," and employing a variety of figures in each dance, thus
reducing their repetitiveness (Shaw 1952). Following the Second World War there
was an "explosion of interest in organized Western square dancing and clubs
formed all over the country" which continue to thrive today (Friedland 1998: 689).
These clubs are characterised by the wearing of distinctive costumes
evocative of a western or cowboy image, along with membership badges, use of
special pre-recorded music, and an ever more complex repertoire of dance calls
and figures. Indeed, in order to be eligible for membership in a square dance club
one is required to complete about forty weeks of lessons to achieve the first level
of competence, a "mainstream" series of sixty-eight calls, and even more time is
needed to master advanced levels. New calls are continually added, codified and
revised by an organised group of professional callers to which several of the
witnesses for this legislation belong (LaVita 1983: 5). The modern square dance
caller employs improvised choreography quite different in structure from the fixed,
highly repetitive, easily memorised choreography of the traditional forms (LaVita
1983: 7). In addition, some clubs incorporate other dance genres such as round
dances, prompted couple dances performed in circular formations, progressive
longways contra dances, clogging-which in this context refers to unison
choreographed step dancing through square dance figure patterns-and heritage
dances such as the Virginia Reel, that the legislation designated as part of the
definition of "square dancing".
This move elicited strong objection from Bob Dalsemer, the only square
dance caller testifying in opposition:

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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 147

I was very surprised to fmd [these] other dances included...It implies that Cong
is...being asked to adopt an entire lifestyle, a whole range of activities which l
modern Western square dancing involves classes, costumes, badges, and increas
levels of complexity-all things that square dancers outside the modern Wester
movement do not chose to adopt (U.S. Congress 1988: 27-28).

Indeed, although not spelled out in these terms, the proponents were i
sense asking Congress to validate the values symbolised for them in the w
expressive culture of moder Western square dance groups. Such voluntary gr
organised around a recreational expressive activity-common in today's hig
mobile, urban societies-have been characterised as providing "the member wi
sense of belonging to a group wherever he happens to find himself moving ab
by drawing "upon inherited forms as the basis for articulating their groupn
while making some statement about their values and life-style" (Abrahams 1
80).
That such, indeed, is a major dimension of club participation is revealed
in many of the witnesses' testimony. A letter of support notes that

...the inter-city visitations of square dance clubs extend across state boundaries. We
were welcomed with open arms when we visited clubs in New Orleans, Tucson, and
several cities in Hawaii. Everywhere we go, we find that to square dance is to express
the joy of being alive, free, and American. (U.S. Congress 1988: 49)

Mary McClure, a long time leader of the campaign for this legislation and
historian of the United Square Dancers of America writes:

I have the opportunity to share an activity with people in my immediate community

as well as in any community I might be visiting in the sate of California. Or for that
matter, I can find the same friendly atmosphere in any community throughout the
United States. Wherever I might be visiting, form the national square dance directory,
I can locate a square dance. I always "end-up" finding a new friend. (U.S. Congress
1988: 47)

In the only folkloristic study of this genre, James LaVita takes note of the "game
like" quality in dancing to improvised calls and concludes that "this play mirrors
daily life in an uncertain age, with the difference that most of the time the outcome
is successful and happy" (LaVita 1983: 20). By reinforcing the members' sense of
competence, security, and belonging in this manner the "uncertainties of a
contemporary world are distilled and made tractable and bearable by casting them
in the form a dance game, as play" (LaVita 1983: 21).
While the main dance activity of these clubs seems rooted in the safe
enactment of such general societal dislocation, the older traditional forms
addressed more local concerns by serving the primary functions of community
entertainment, expression of community solidarity in difficult rural environments,
providing a scene for the enactment of courtship ritual, and as a general festive
occasion; I found dimensions of community meaning of the same sort in
Newfoundland dance traditions (Quigley 1985, 1995).
Modem Western square dance choreography, LaVita concludes, has been
modernised to enact, but control the challenges of contemporary social relations
within the safe container provided by participation in the highly insular club
setting. The elaborate and mandatory costuming which marks group membership,

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148 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

similarly provides a safe symbolic enactment of familiar social roles under threat.

Men reflect an outdated [dominant] gender role, without penalty and women are
released from the need to be constantly vigilant about their position. [Thus]
relationships which are stressful in society are momentarily replaced by more
comfortable traditional roles, played out in a socially safe environment. (LaVita
1983: 22)

LaVita does not address the characteristic ideology of these dance groups
that emerges in the political context which I examine here, but we shall find it in
keeping with this characterisation; dominated by an idealisation of now reactionary
values identified with the older traditional forms to which its practice refers. At the
centre of the political debate incited by the prosyletisation of these values beyond
the "safe" haven of the square dance clubs through this legislation are questions of
what it means to be American; what constitutes Americanness; and how such
identity is established. An association of the square dance with the nation as
political entity, and with the nation's history and its people becomes an important
response, rhetorically expressed through the application to the square dance of
terms in which values identified as American are expressed. A key strategy for the
proponents is association of the historical origins of the square dance with the
founding period of the United States. Thus there is repeated reference to the
historical depth of the square dance, the origins of which, it is argued, extend back
to "the earliest part of our colonial history". The square dance "has been part of our
country since pioneer days" and it "evolved from...the people who founded this
country and who wrote the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights"
(U.S. Congress 1988: i, 7, 9). H.A. "Decko" Deck, a professional square dance
caller, also asserts: "This form of dance alone can claim a development from the
earliest days of our Nation, through expansion of our population across the land"
(U.S. Congress 1988: 30).
A "genealogical chart" of the square dance, most likely originally created
by Dorothy Shaw drawing on a wide variety of historical speculations (Friedland
conversation 23 March 1993), submitted by the proponents represents the standard
view from their perspective (U.S. Congress 1988: 11). Folklorist and dance
scholar Lee Ellen Friedland, testifying in opposition, challenges this historical
account directly, commenting that it "inherits and perpetuates.. .grievous errors and
outdated misconceptions" (U.S. Congress 1988: 25). Indeed, actual popular dance
practice at the end of the eighteenth century in the American colonies was not
much different from that in England at the time and included longways country
dances, cotillions, and minuets that bear little resemblance to the moder square
dance as practised by its proponents.
Even one of the best of the square dance movement's historians, S. Foster
Damon (1957), exemplifies the projection of this nationalist ideology in his
account. After a reasonably documented and lengthy account of popular dance
from the late eighteenth to the later nineteenth centuries, he summarises the
twentieth century development of these forms, which had been largely supplanted
by turn of the century popular dance fads. He notes that popularisation of square
dance related forms after the First World War owed much to Henry Ford, inventor
of the automobile assembly line, who promulgated the "wholesome" leisure
activity of "old-time" dancing, associated with the virtues of rural life, at the same
time the industrialisation to which he contributed was helping to eradicate this
idealised American lifestyle. Moreover these dances were presented as a means to
combat the threat of foreign (and need I add African-American) influenced "jazz".

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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 149

It seems the association of square dancing with the "old fashioned" virtues of
vanishing "rural" society and white America was established at this time. When
Lloyd Shaw began exhibiting "Cowboy" dances in the 1930s, the form was again
used to represent the legacy of a disappearing life style, this time invoking and
acquiring the "Western" associations seen today in its costuming.
The moder Western Square dance genre was developed from this
repertoire during the 1950s. Damon again gives voice to the spirit of this
movement:

The second world war swept away our last romantic notions that Europeans wer
better than Americans; the nation worked together as never before, and again th
spirit of democracy rose from the folk to the ballrooms, the countryside and city wer
one again. (Damon 1957: 50)

Already identified with a romanticised vision of American historical experience,

was now also associated with the nation's political ideals. Damon (1957: 50)
observes that:

...[soon] Square dancing...spread beyond our borders. For square dancing is greate
than any one nation. It is democracy itself, in dance form. Can anybody think of
better way to spread the spirit of democracy in a world that needs it so badly?

This was in 1957, a period of intense Americanism and cold war conflict. Thus th
social and political milieu in which the modem Western square dance was shap
from the malleable materials of Anglo-American vernacular dance vocabular
imbued it with an Americanism that was, in turn, bolstered by an historic
projection of this ideology.
As well as generating an identification of the square dance with the
nation's founding, this movement's ideology incorporated and perpetuated, unt
rather recently, what I would identify as Romantic nationalist conceptions of t
nation's people, that is "folk". These may be characterised as deriving from t
nineteenth century's theoretical legacy of unilinear cultural evolution and th
concomitant identification of folk custom as survivals from hypothesised earli
stages of cultural evolution (Buckland 1982); for the Romantic nationalists th
also meant an earlier, and thus purer manifestation of the national "race" a
character.
Thus in the family tree of the modern Western square dance we find
rather fancifully, the ceremonial and thus presumably ancient "Morris Dance"
one root, lending a folk pedigree to movements more easily linked in histor
documents to the unfortunately rather less than democratic "Royal Ballrooms o
France" which stand at the head of the other line of progenitors. Lloyd Shaw, in hi
historical commentary for example, concludes that "the Western [square] dan
stems back to the pagan ceremonials of our English ancestors by way of th
Kentucky Running Set" (Shaw 1952: 30-31). While Damon introduces fo
dancing as "older than mankind" for "anthropologists report that the great ape
have been observed dancing in lines and circles" (Damon 1957: 1). All this cou
be considered merely anachronistic curiosity, were it not for the stubbor
persistence of these notions in the popularly oriented dance literature, and amon
participants in such self-conscious folk activities; a phenomenon worthy of stu
in its own right.

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150 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

The mythologised genealogy of modem Western square dancing,

although listing a good many dance forms showing morphological and structural
relationships and including a few instances of demonstrable historical genetic
connection, was constructed to culminate in "today's square dance" in a way that
both authenticates its roots in ancient folk practice, and demonstrates a
democratising Americanisation process leading to an inclusive American
amalgam. The history of these forms is rather more complex and the network of
interlocking elements more extensive, characterised by a continual re-ordering of
dance movement elements including structural schemes, group formations, and
figures.
Even as the bill's proponents make the nationalist and Americanist
arguments we have heard, however, they must deal with the international
distribution of the related dance genres as well. Before being made "into a
uniquely American dance" for example, it is argued that the square dance
"borrowed pieces from those of a number of countries"; the "people who founded
our country"; who were "the early immigrants from Europe" (U.S. Congress 1988:
7, 9). According to the bill's sponsor, Hon. Leon E. Panetta, the square dance
represents a blending of

...various folk traditions. It evolved originally as an amalgamation of the Morris and

Maypole dances of England, the ballroom dances of France, and Spanish church
dances. And later as immigrants from all over the world flocked to [the U.S.] square
dancing also incorporated the folk traditions of nations such as Ireland, Germany,
Italy, Poland, Austria, Russia, and Mexico. It truly represents an amalgam of what our
country is all about. (U.S. Congress 1988: ii)

Proponents address the internationalism of square dancing explicitly at several

points by distinguishing it from foreign "ethnic" dance:
Square dancing in this country developed from the dance forms of the
earliest settlers, as has been said before... [But], the square dance is not a preservation
of an ethnic dance. [Rather, it is] a dance form developed in the United States by our
citizens and its roots go back mostly to England and France, but even in those
countries it is done as an American dance [nowadays that is], not as an English or
French dance. (U.S. Congress 1988: 29)
A broader comparative view indeed finds related forms widely
distributed, and equally associated with other social and political identities. I found
that the dance which has recently become most closely identified with outport
Newfoundland is much like the Southeastern American square dance type. A local
dance tradition strongly influenced by American square dance models, investigated
by Camille Brochu (1991), is considered to epitomise French Canadian dance
culture. The square and step dancing of Canadian mixed blood Metis and other
Native Americans also exemplifies such appropriation through re-
conceptualisation (Loukinen 1991), turning the usual relations of cultural
hegemony on their head.
The language of this bill, calling for recognition of the square dance as
American was a rhetorical change of terms from the 1984 use of "National,"
designed to sidestep the reality of this international distribution (U.S. Congress
1988: 32). It is a move that relocates the site of contention to the more overtly
ideological and thus less easily confuted and potentially more highly charged
ground of American values.
What are the terms in which these values are invoked on their behalf by

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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 151

the proponents? We have already encountered the square dance referred to

"democratic" along with its characterisation as an "amalgamation" of immigr
elements. One set of terms defining points of contention at this site, and associa
with the tension between national and internationalist perspectives, revolv
around the diverse national and racial origins of the American population
According to Gordon Goss, editor of the National Square Dance Directory, "l
the United States itself the square dance activity is a melting-pot of the dan
which our ancestors brought with them when they settled in this nation" (U
Congress 1988: 20).
The familiar term melting pot, of course, invokes a particular view
immigration, ethnicity and their history in the U.S.:

At first, immigrants to America settled in concentrated areas, keeping their dances

and other customs in a pure form. As they and their descendents began to spread an
"melt" into our society, so did their dances. The eventual result was an American fol
dance which includes many of the best features of all the others. (U.S. Congress 1988
21)

The ideological perspective underlying this theoretical model postulates most

importantly a unitary American identity and we find this rhetoric prominently in
the statements of proponents:

Square dancing is the only activity I know that cuts across all of the ethnic
backgrounds that make up our society (U.S. Congress 1988: 30).
Or:

This Nation is basically a broad cross section of the world that has brought together
families from everywhere into one great country. We have great diversity. We also
have a number of symbols that give us unity.. .Square dancing, which as I mentioned
incorporates a variety of dance forms, deserves national recognition...It is truly
symbolic of the vitality, diversity, history, and wholesomeness of this country. (U.S.
congress 1988: 7)

Again we find proponents acknowledging and incorporating key terms of the

opposing arguments. Recent studies of ethnicity in the U.S. have found the
melting-pot model inadequate to explain both the persistent significance of ethnic
identification and its seeming fluidity. This re-thinking has resulted in such
theoretical formulations as situational ethnicity, symbolic ethnicity and even
creative ethnicity. Such thinking emphasises the variety of multiple identities
which people manifest in their expressive behaviour. "Diversity," along with
"multicultural" and "pluralistic" are thus key terms in the rhetoric of this
legislation's opponents.
Witnesses for the opposition included prominent dancers from groups we
have not heard mentioned as ingredients in the American amalgam. Tap dancer
Honi Coles stated:

I hear about where square dancing come from, its origin, and all I hear is Europe and
England. I don't hear anything else. And I am here representing Black people. (U.S.
Congress 1988: 22)

Ironically, of course, one can find many instances of cultural exchange

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152 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

between black and white dance practice in the long history of this relationship,
indeed extending back to colonial times and particularly evident in traditional step
dancing, for example.
Listen to Juan Gutierrez, a Hispanic cultural activist from New York City:

First of all our community doesn't have even the slightest idea of what square dance
is...I am director of a Puerto Rican folk music group...I respect the traditional square
dancing form as well as others, but I believe... .[in] national diversity. I don't think that
square dancing will ever represent the diversity of people in the United States. (U.S.
Congress 1988: 25)

Laura Courtney, member of the Makah Indian tribe of Washington state said:

I think that if the square dance or any other dance is designated as our national or
American folk dance it would be leaving out a lot of people...It would not encompass
the pluralistic aspects of our society or our culture...I can't see how any one dance
could be singled out as our "national folk dance" when we are a pluralistic society, a
land of geographic, racial, cultural and religious differences...The motivation for
choosing a dance as a national folk dance should be to inspire unity among people
and I believe choosing one, any one, would give birth to feelings of resentment and
animosity. (U.S. Congress 1988: 34-36)

But for the proponents unity is indeed what they believe the square dance
represents; a unity of idealised values, associated with their particular conception
of American history, values and identity.
Even a unity of values based on the shared expressive "style" they
identify with square dancing is illusory, however, for Bob Dalsemer's testimony in
opposition emphasises the "diversity" of square dancing itself. He cites:

...[the] many small rural communities where a local style of square dancing has
remained essentially unchanged for several generations; [communities in which]
modem Western square dancers, in spite of their many hours of lessons and training,
would be totally unfamiliar with the structure, figures and terminology (U.S.
Congress 1988: 26-27).

And he mentions as well a revival of interest in traditional forms of square and

contra dancing more recent than that which produced the modem Western club
movement. This revival [to which I trace my own involvement in traditional music
and dance] emerged in New England during the 1960s and 1970s, and has
continued to grow and spread. Like the modem square dance groups, these contra-
dance communities constitute a nationwide network providing "kindship" affinity
groups for a highly mobile population. But unlike the clubs, they invariably use
live music, require no special costumes, and perform a repertoire of figures which
can be learned while participating in the dance. As happened in the development of
moder club square dancing, this milieu has also generated new dances which
express the social relations, values and ideology of its participants. No wonder
social exchange between the two groups is rare despite the close relationships
within the choreography; underlining once again the nature of traditional
expressive systems as reservoirs of potentiality available to people to recycle and
remake anew.
Rather than the melting-pot ideology of progressive amalgamation into
dominant cultural norms, opponents of the bill emphasised the persistence of

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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 153

cultural distinctiveness despite oppression by dominant groups. Among the Mak

for example:

...dancing was traditionally taught by elders to youngsters. Unfortunately, the

outlawing of the Potlatch, the secret societies and the arrival of missionaries and
boarding schools has broken this crucial cultural contact for three generations. [Its]
revival.. .is a great experience of cultural pride. (U.S. Congress 1988: 36)

Rayna Green, a folklorist and Cherokee, explained:

When my grandmother was a girl and when my great-grandmother was a child, they
were forbidden to speak their language, forbidden to dance their dances by the
American Government and by missionaries in this country...How ironic I think it
would be if my grandmother, who danced the square dance in school-the only place
she ever danced it-but could not dance her own tribal dances were now to be
dishonored, and all of our ancestors were to be dishonored, in fact, with the
designation of a dance that represented the overturn and the repression of our own
dances.. .[and] the oppression of our people. (U.S. Congress 1988: 38)

The debate thus turns on one's view of American history and the nature of
Americanness and how that identity is achieved; through a process of exchange
and unification or one of conflict and differentiation. Both sides of this debate must
take account of the other's experience at the periphery of their own arguments,
revealing their ideological basis. Since the issue cannot be resolved in these terms,
we find a variety of rhetorical moves relocating the debate to yet different ground,
the presumably shared values of our political culture. The proponents employ
several strategies to construct this argument. We have already encountered
"democracy" invoked as a universal American value, but just how is the square
dance democratic?
It is portrayed as egalitarian: "The square dance typifies the American
Spirit. It is open to everyone who wishes to participate with no distinction as to
age, color, creed, nationality or even physical condition". (U.S. Congress 1988: 49)
One witness for the bill, Malcolm R. (Mac) Mackenzie, for example, represents an
association of "handicapable" dancers-clubs "dedicated to increasing
opportunities to learn square dancing for all individuals with handicaps or
disabilities" (U.S. Congress 1988: 15-18).
The widespread and vast popularity of square dancing, is constantly
reiterated. Able to boast of millions of participants, it is characterised as "a
universal grass roots activity". And yet we have seen that full membership in a
modem square dance club is only obtainable after a lengthy course of study
characterised by a rigidly enforced explicit hierarchy of skill levels.
The proponents also argue that square dancing is a populist, non-elitist
activity, "It epitomises Democracy because it dissolves arbitrary social
distinctions". (U.S. Congress 1988: 4-5) Those "...speaking in favor of the bill,
come from many walks of life, and are appearing in their capacity as unpaid, non-
professionals who participate in square dancing solely because they love it and
enjoy it" (U.S. Congress 1988: ii). The proponents have

...the highest regard for the academic community, and well we should. There are
thousands of teachers among our dancers [and] callers, many of whom have
master's and doctorate degrees...

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154 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

[unlike some of the opponents, it is implied here, who are degreed "professionals"
paid for their time and interest in this activity. For

...the quality and degree of one's education are not and should not be pertinent factors
in this campaign. Like the Constitution of the United States, [and the Bill of Rights]
these dance forms were developed by the common people, many of whom [did] not
[have] the benefit of higher education...frontiersman and farmers. (U.S. Congress
1988: 9-10)

The framers of the nation's founding documents, of course, were not uneducated
"common men" but rather among the best minds of their time, familiar with works
of social and political philosophers such as Montesquieu and Locke.
The opponents' rhetorical strategy at this site of contention takes several
tacks. In keeping with their central value of diversity, they emphasise the
uncommon, unusual and distinctive, rather than the familiar and popular. While
there may be millions of square dancers, there are, "only 1200" Makah, who are
"only one of 27 different tribes, just in the state of Washington" (U.S. Congress
1988: 34). If a Native American dance were to be designated, a reasonable
proposition based on 30,000 years of "American" history, as Rayna Green
comments:

...tribal peoples would have difficulty choosing whose round dance...We respect
honor the differences and special characteristics of dance in other communities. (U
Congress 1988: 37)

At the same time, some of the other opposition witnesses turn the square dan
own arguments against them. Honi Coles again:

When you say dance, automatically...you think black when you say dance.
appreciate the enormity of the fact that they have all of these signatures...bu
guarantee you, if I went out and got all of the tap dancers' signatures in the Unite
States of America, it would far overshadow what has been spoken here.. .If there e
was a national dance of America it would have to be the Lindy Hop, becau
everybody in America did the Lindy Hop at one time...But I am a tap dancer a
there are more tap dancers in the United States than square dancers. (U.S. Congr
1988: 23)

Craig Hutchinson of the Potomac Swing Dance Club proclaims that

.. jazz and swing music is rooted in the American experience and square dancing is
rooted in the European folk experience. American swing dance music is a reflection
of the pulsing, driving, energy of a free spirit in a free market. Swing dancing is the
American [people's] spontaneous dance expression to the American music that has
dominated our American air waves since 1900. Swing dancing has and continues to
cross and unite all the cultural, religious, class, economic, and ethnic strata on our
local American dance floors. Keep on dancing America!! (U.S. Congress 1988: 42)

A number of subsidiary values are also invoked by both sides. The telling
words "free market" were used, for example, in the preceding quotation. The
square dance movement, it is argued by proponents, is "self-supporting," neither
seeking nor receiving "financial support from Congress or any other branch of

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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 155

government" (U.S. Congress 1988: ii, 5, 10)-unlike the opposition's

spokespeople, it is implied, whose cultural programs, largely for disadvantaged
minorities, often do make use of government grants.
Square dancing is repeatedly described as "family oriented" and

...enjoyed by people of all ages. Thousands of children are taught square dancing
every year in public school physical education classes, in Farmer's Granges, and 4-H
clubs. (U.S. Congress 1988: 9)

But as an open and democratic form, of course, it cannot be restricted to families.

So, a letter of support from a "singles" square dance group notes that

...although square dancing is generally regarded as an activity for pairs, a great many
dancers are in fact unmarried adults who regard square dancing as a major element of
their social life. These adults look upon square dancing as a wholesome alternative to
the highly publicized "singles scene". (U.S. congress 1988: 45)

Weighing in on this value for the opposition, the Native American witnesses we
have heard from both emphasise inter-generational transmission and continuity.
Square dancing is also portrayed as cooperative:

...the square dance itself is a dance of cooperation. Each dancer must do his or her
part so that the entire square is able to dance. We are a country of cooperation, with
each of us doing their part so that our country is able to grow and prosper. (U.S.
Congress 1988: 21)

And yet LaVita has noted an important element of contest between dancer and
caller. Moreover, popular opinion would probably follow our swing dancer's
characterisation of the American "spirit" as one of unbridled freedom, competition
and individualism, rather than cooperation.
Even acknowledging the particular constellation of "American" values
expressed by the square dancers as a nostalgic idealisation, in rhetorical terms it
might seem difficult to argue against official recognition for a dance that embodies
the equivalent of such Mom and Apple Pie values, as we would say in the United
States. Rayna Green is perhaps most articulate in responding to this rhetorical
thrust. The unifying national symbols mentioned by proponents, such as the Eagle,
were not created by people, she says, but artworks, dances and songs were; and

...the special power of those dances and songs and artworks is that they come from
special communities, tailored and shaped through the years for those communities.
Those dances and songs work for and in those communities or else they would not
have survived...But the special dances and songs do not work for other communities
and may not represent them...As a folklorist and a Native person, I am passionate
about my commitment to the artistry of all American communities. I want to validate
them and give them a stage whenever and wherever I can, should they desire one.
Also, I want to keep them from the stage if they desire that. (U.S. Congress 1988: 38)

This bill was defeated, but similar debate continues every day in many
contexts. Should America be a nation of one people of diverse origins unified by
historical experience and sharing common values? Or, should it be a pluralistic
nation of diverse peoples united by a respect for the espousal of diverse values?

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156 / 2001 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Acknowledgement of the undeniable variety of the U.S. population need not

presume an adoption of the active preservation and promotion of diversity for
which the folklorists argue as an explicit goal of cultural policy; the more articulate
proponents of this bill manage to incorporate this perspective into the rhetoric of
their own mono-cultural "Americanist" ideology. Conversely, however, the
folklorists' and minority cultural activists' successful advocacy of their program in
the end will be dependent upon the working of the country's shared social and
political institutions; as will any resolution to the conflicts that led Rodney King to
ask the people of Los Angeles in the aftermath of his celebrated trial "Can't we all
just get along?"

REFERENCES CITED

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Buckland, Theresa
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Damon, S. Foster
1957 The history of square dancing. Barre, MA: Barre Gazette.
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Friedland, LeeEllen
1998 Square dance. In International encyclopedia of dance, ed. Selma
Jean Cohen. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
LaVita, James A.
1983 Allemande left with your left hand: Structure and meaning in
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Loukinen, Michael, Dir.
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Shaw, Lloyd
1952 Cowboy dances: A collection of Western square dances.
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Quigley, Colin
1985 Close to the floor: Folk dance in Newfoundland. St. John's:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of Folklore.
1995 Anglo-American dance in Appalachia and Newfoundland:
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QUIGLEY REFLECTIONS ON THE HEARING / 157

U.S. Congress
1988 Designate square dance as the American folk dance of the United
States: Hearing before the Subcommittee Committee on Census
and Population of the Committee on Post Office and Civil
Service of the House of Representatives. 100th Congress, 2d
Sess., 1988. S. No. 100-66.

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