In order to understand
why country line dance is popular and how it reflects on our times we must take
a look at how it came about.
Modern western dance
has roots that run wide and deep. They can be traced to the taverns of Ireland
and to the ballrooms of Europe, to the Czarist palaces of Russia and further
back still to the fluid tribal rituals of Africa. Representatives from all of these cultures brought their native
dances when they landed in America.
Religious
prohibitions and traditional customs firmly established the in East began to
move west with the pioneers. Worldly pleasures such as dancing were often
frowned upon, and when not altogether banned, were designed to keep contact and
spontaneity at a minimum. Consequently, it was the minuet, cotillion, pattern
dances, courtly processions, and "safe" folk dances that were favored
by the early settlers. People organized
barn dances, cowboy balls and get-togethers.
We basically do the same thing today, and to prevent chaos we organize
all our steps. Sometimes we even hire
a caller and have a square dance.
To prevent chaos from dominating the dance
floor, the caller was employed. It was
his job to orchestrate the heterogeneous crowd into harmonious movement. The caller added a "cowboy waltz"
position and helped promote the square dance. This new hybrid was considerably
more casual that the traditions it was derived from, but it still inhibited the
young who were ready for a dance that would add a more intimate hold on their
partner.
A new dance
called the Polka started moving west. Having "the intimacy of the Waltz
and the vivacity of the Irish jig", the Polka was embraced with
enthusiasm. Other new dances were also developed,
creating offspring such as the Varsouvianna and the Two Step. German settlers
in El Paso, Texas developed the Schottische and line dances that were important
precursors of modern western dances such as the Cotton-Eyed Joe.
Slowly a dance that was specifically "western"
began to evolve. The freed Black Americans in particular exerted a stylistic
influence that can still be seen in today's country swing dance. However, the most important influence came
from the cowboy!
The cowboy paid little attention to
traditional dance forms. The cowboy was
not the most limber of creatures. The long hours in the saddle and strenuous
work produced dancers of questionable finesse. He was not of a temperament to
master intricate dance steps or to gracefully lead a fair maiden across the
floor. Rather he would join a dance with a wild whoop and a goat cry. Joseph McCoy, the first great cattle baron,
wrote in 1874 that the cowboy "usually enters the dance with a peculiar
zest, his eyes lit up with excitement, liquor and lust. He stomps in without
stopping to divest himself of his sombrero, spurs or pistols." This dance
style was not so much original as it was a spontaneous adaptation of
traditional moves brought west by various immigrant cultures.
Heavy army issue boots
contributed to crude footwork. The habit of wearing spurs even on the dance
floor forced the cowboy to keep his feet apart and shuffle as he moved to the
music. Several of these cowboy mannerisms, although tamed, survive in today's
modern western dance. The "double arms over" move is reminiscent of
the final "tying off" of a calf's legs prior to branding. The basic
"push pull" position recaptures the rhythm of grasping the reins.
At the turn of the
century, with the threat and disruption of World War I, the arts reflected a
radical questioning of values and a change in dance forms to reflect individual
expression and a more dynamic way of life.
In the middle of this metamorphosis was the
Black American. Their principal source of relaxation and entertainment had been
their music and dance. In the old South, contests were frequently held on the
plantation to see "who owned the fastest dancer." Fascinated and
envious of the rhythmic freedom of Blacks, Whites later "corked up"
in black face and toured the country.
By the turn of
the century carnivals, minstrel shows, medicine shows and eventually vaudeville
routines frequently showcased Black dancers or White imitators. The Black dance
style was referred to as "jazz" or "eccentric dancing".
These fast, gyrating, acrobatic and tap dances had names like the Turkey Trot,
Grizzly Bear, Kangaroo Dip and Chicken Scratch.
African American
dance was viewed as a novelty, sometimes ridiculed, but the intricate footwork
and fluid motions of Black performers were slowly seeping into America's dance
repertoire.
When The World Went Mad
Around the outbreak of
World War the world went mad. The
century opened with a period of relative peace. It was thought that humankind
was now too civilized to engage in war.
Then the world decided to abandon it's values. The unconventional ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps was considered
scandalous almost causing a riot in 1913 at its premiere in Paris. As a reaction to the stylized movements of
ballet and rising out of the women's emancipation movement, a new form of
dancing emerged valuing free expression.
By 1916, two years after the War began, New
Orleans jazz was in full bloom. Just one year later historian Bernard Grun
proclaimed Chicago the "world's jazz center". Inspired by the
improvisational elements in jazz, couples began to experiment on the dance
floor: They separated, broke apart, twirled, and jigged.
The Roaring Twenties
In the "Roaring
Twenties" women made a statement revolting against traditional values,
wearing short skirts, cutting hair short, painting their face, smoking and
drinking in public. Some saw this as
a symbol of moral decay; others saw it as a symbol of freedom and progress. Skirts rose in 1910 slightly and during the
war to nine inches above the ground because of wartime shortages of
fabric. After the war despite the
increased supply of fabric, skirts continued to rise. By the twenties skirts
rose above the knee. Short haircuts
were called Bobs, and extremely short was a boyish bob. Young women adopting the new styles were
called flappers, and they liked to kick up there heals and do the
Charleston.
After the war the fashion industry, the
entertainment industry, and other major industries decided to capitalize on
this country's newfound rebellion. Many
found that they could buy things with money that they did not have yet. These 'go out and party' attitudes
eventually lead to the economic collapse of this nation and most of the
world. Throughout the 1920's, radio
brought music to the whole nation. Chicago radio station WLS began broadcasting
the "National Barn Dance" in 1924. A year later the now famous
"Grand Ole Opry" from Nashville was initiated.
From the early 1920's
until the present, new freedom to move parts of the body were part of changes
in social values and attitudes towards the body. Music with a Latin, African
and Caribbean influence inspired the cross-fertilization of dance in clubs and ballrooms
with dances such as the rumba, tango, samba and cha cha cha.
In the late
1920's, George "Shorty" Snowden brought the entire Savoy Ballroom
audience to its feet with his rapid, break-away solo steps. The Harlem
Renaissance brought the rage of African-American dance such as the lindy-hop
and jitterbug into the mainstream. Charles Lindbergh had crossed the Atlantic
in 1927 in one dramatic "hop", the "Lindy Hop" was named
after this event.
Economic Implications
I did not read about
any important dances coming out during the depression . Maybe people were just trying to
survive. This indicates to me that
because we are not in an economic depression we are dancing more.
After the Great Depression
In 1938, after the
country had just about recovered from the depression, Benny Goodman ushered in
a new jazz style. His big band swing
sound was listened to around the world and soon the Lindy Hop gave birth to the
Jitterbug, a fast moving combination of fancy footwork and elaborate spins,
twirls and turns, many of which can still be seen in contemporary country swing
moves.
From the energetic partner dances of the 30's & 40's,
dance became more individualistic with such rock and roll dances as the twist
of the 50's and free-style dance of the 60's.
A new musical tempo could be heard after the Second Word War rescued the
country from its depression. Be-bop, a kind of wild and dizzying swing offshoot
popular in big cities quickly gave birth to "pop" music. Rockabilly
arrived in the '50's and by the middle of the decade had become known as rock
'n roll. Rock 'n roll was music of the
'50's, but the dance that accompanied it was very similar to Jitterbug and
Swing. The young generation of the
1960's decided to rebel. They rebelled
even more with the onset of the Vietnam War.
This caused the style of dance changed dramatically. In the early
1960's, partners were couples only in name and where each allowed his body to
dance directly to the sounds, lights and strobes.
Couple dancing regained popularity in the mid 1970's
with the emergence of Disco. Out of the disco dancing of the 70's and
street-based dances of the 80's such as break dancing, punk, and new wave
emerged a social dance of the 90's. In
the late 1970's as Disco died and country music continued to rise in rapid
popularity. Older dancers suddenly
became models for a new generation.
Mechanical bulls, tapered blue jeans, and the traditional Texas Two
Step, became popular in the early 1980s.
During the late 1980s, music executives on "Music Row" in
Nashville decided that country music would have to acquire more of a "pop
sound to increase record sales. This
caused more people to be interested in country music and in country line dance.
A form of dance is
only as popular as the music that accompanies it. If people like the music they will start moving there bodies to
it. This is the basic concept behind
modern dance. As a musician my goal is
often to make people want to dance. A
good musician can convey emotions with his music. If you let it, music can even control your emotions. It's hard to imagine the great power that
the music industry has. The principle
that if people like music they will dance, explains the popularity of country
line dancing. It's really not that
complicated. People want to dance to
the music. To give order to the dance floor, specific steps have been organized.
Many of the steps in country line dancing are taken from
other dance forms. Line dancing took
steps from all the dance forms I mentioned earlier.
Country western dance
was done in the "cowboy waltz" position with a partner. The man would promenade the lady around the
dance floor. Line dancing however
requires no partner. Africans danced
without partners all the time.
Eventually white minstrels would mimic this dance form, and it made its
way into almost all American dances. In
the sixties dancing individually was popular also. Country western then developed its form of dance without a
partner- country line dance.
Right
after World War I and during the Vietnam War, dance became rebellious. World War II Dance did not cause rebellion
because everyone was thrilled to be out of the great depression. After Vietnam people became callus to the
corruption in the world. People became
unconcerned about matters. Governments
want it this way because they know they have no business doing the things that
they do, so they promote indifference.
The result is that many had a care free approach to dancing through the
70s,80s and into the 90s, often accompanied by psychedelic music and mind
altering drugs. Another form of dance
that was growing at the same time was country western, a much more conservative
form. As in the early cowboy dances
people just want something social to do so they get up to do a few dances. Older people are doing this kind of dance
because they can relate to it more than the newer styles of dance. Most of the young people I know do other
forms of dancing. So I can't say that
country line dancing has much of a reflection on my generation as a whole. However, the ones that do engage in country
western dance are not rebellious, but are rooted in the more customary values. Country line dancing is not a fad, but it is
a composition of the dance backgrounds in this country.