The Independence (PA) Lancers
For moving images of the dance, click here and here
This is Bob Dalsemer's account of discovering an old dance form maintained in a rural Pennsylvania community:
"On two occasions in 1979, I had the good fortune to visit the bi-weekly Saturday night square dance at the Grange Hall in Independence, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. I found many of the best features of traditional rural dances: a good caller with an interesting and varied figure repertoire, a solid three-piece band-made up in this case of fiddle, electric guitar, and electric bass-and an enthusiastic group of dancers of all ages, including many older dancers who have been dancing most of their lives. I was also surprised to find the Lancers being danced as part of a continuing local tradition. ...
"The Lancers is a five-part quadrille that was popular in the nineteenth-century ballrooms of England and America. I had seen it mentioned and described in quite a few dance books and occasionally one or two figures from it are revived at New England style dances. But I was truly astonished when BillMcAdoo invited me to witness a performance by a set of his oldest dancers of a complete five figure Lancers, perfectly phrased to its own special music played by fiddler Doc Fry accompanied by his brother Joe on the electric guitar."
In addition to a description of the five figures, the article contains music transcriptions by Claudio Buchwald.
Tags: article, Bill McAdoo, Bob Dalsemer, Claudio Buchwald, Independence, Lancers, Pennsylvania
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Duck and Dive - Bill McAdoo |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Independence Lancers - Pennsylvania |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Independence Lancers |
| Item: Social Symbolism in a Rural Square Dance Event | is related to | This Item |
| Item: A Few Square Dance Calls from Bill McAdoo | is related to | This Item |
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This is Bob Dalsemer's account of discovering an old dance form maintained in a rural Pennsylvania community:
"On two occasions in 1979, I had the good fortune to visit the bi-weekly Saturday night square dance at the Grange Hall in Independence, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. I found many of the best features of traditional rural dances: a good caller with an interesting and varied figure repertoire, a solid three-piece band-made up in this case of fiddle, electric guitar, and electric bass-and an enthusiastic group of dancers of all ages, including many older dancers who have been dancing most of their lives. I was also surprised to find the Lancers being danced as part of a continuing local tradition. ...
"The Lancers is a five-part quadrille that was popular in the nineteenth-century ballrooms of England and America. I had seen it mentioned and described in quite a few dance books and occasionally one or two figures from it are revived at New England style dances. But I was truly astonished when BillMcAdoo invited me to witness a performance by a set of his oldest dancers of a complete five figure Lancers, perfectly phrased to its own special music played by fiddler Doc Fry accompanied by his brother Joe on the electric guitar."
In addition to a description of the five figures, the article contains music transcriptions by Claudio Buchwald.