Life Goes to a Square Dance
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Life Goes to a Square Dance
Thousands of fans gather to swing their partners in Oklahoma City
The objects in the picture at the right look like orchids pinned against a wall. They are dancers photographed from a catwalk high in the rafters of the huge Municipal Auditorium in Oklahoma City, where 10,000 fans turned out to sashay and swing their partners at a two-day festival of square-dance clubs. When this picture was taken the fiddle was jigging, the cello was plunking out a lively bass, the spectators were st.amping their feet and the caller had just chanted in a nasal singsong the call for an eight-hand star: "Form a ring eight hands across, turn right back and don't get lost."
Square dances evolved from country folk dances brought over from Europe in Colonial days. There are innumerable variations on a single pattern based on a square of four men and four women. There can be as many squares as space and the number of dancers perrnit. Each square follows instructions chanted by a caller who stands and shouts out in rhyme the order of the figures to be performed. Today all the dances and calls, from "Pop goes the weasel" to "Swing the guy who stole the sheep," are coming back like the old familiar tunes. In California alone there are more than 100 folk-dance clubs. Chicago has a nightclub specializing in the square dance. More than 10,000 New Yorkers have signed up for instruction with folklore groups. Square dancing is lighthearted and old-fashioned. It requires fine timing and a clear head. On the night of the big dance at Oklahoma City the concessionaire sold tons of ice cream, gallons of soda pop, but only three bottles of beer.
Tags: John Steele Batson, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City
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Here's the text, in case it's hard to read:
Life Goes to a Square Dance
Thousands of fans gather to swing their partners in Oklahoma City
The objects in the picture at the right look like orchids pinned against a wall. They are dancers photographed from a catwalk high in the rafters of the huge Municipal Auditorium in Oklahoma City, where 10,000 fans turned out to sashay and swing their partners at a two-day festival of square-dance clubs. When this picture was taken the fiddle was jigging, the cello was plunking out a lively bass, the spectators were st.amping their feet and the caller had just chanted in a nasal singsong the call for an eight-hand star: "Form a ring eight hands across, turn right back and don't get lost."
Square dances evolved from country folk dances brought over from Europe in Colonial days. There are innumerable variations on a single pattern based on a square of four men and four women. There can be as many squares as space and the number of dancers perrnit. Each square follows instructions chanted by a caller who stands and shouts out in rhyme the order of the figures to be performed. Today all the dances and calls, from "Pop goes the weasel" to "Swing the guy who stole the sheep," are coming back like the old familiar tunes. In California alone there are more than 100 folk-dance clubs. Chicago has a nightclub specializing in the square dance. More than 10,000 New Yorkers have signed up for instruction with folklore groups. Square dancing is lighthearted and old-fashioned. It requires fine timing and a clear head. On the night of the big dance at Oklahoma City the concessionaire sold tons of ice cream, gallons of soda pop, but only three bottles of beer.