Hi, John… The problem is that square dance history can’t really be separated into “traditional” and “MWSD.” MWSD grew out of certain forms of traditional squares, a step at a time, like the “word ladder” game in which you can turn WARM into COLD by changing one letter at a time, always using real words (WARM – WARD – WORD – CORD – COLD). Many aspects of MWSD – the club and federation structure, the insistence on couples, the series of lessons, the dress codes – were in place before the choreography had strayed very far from tradition. In other words, club callers in the mid-1950s were using a lot of traditional material along with stuff that was innovative at the time but that today’s club callers and dancers would dismiss as “traditional.”
Whenever MWSD advocates write history, they start not in the 1940s but in the 1650s. They try to mention every form of European group dancing from that day to this, usually getting the details wrong. One state federation, arguing for the recognition of SD as the national folk dance, published a statement that “square dancing has been enjoyed in New Jersey since 1651” (the date of Playford’s first edition). I suppose I’d be OK with separating trad and MW history, as artificial as that seems to me, if the MW people would agree to keep their hands off everything except how MW evolved from c. 1945 to now. We can’t just agree that pre-1940s/50s belongs on the Trad page and post-1940s/50s on the MW page, because traditional dancing (even leaving contras aside) has continued to grow and change alongside MWSD. (Side note: Most of the current Trad SD page is my work. When I first became aware of Wikipedia, that page consisted of 2 or 3 sentences, beginning with “Traditional square dance is the form of square dance done in alternation with contra dance.”) Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com<http://www.hands4.com/> New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 9:44 AM To: 'Caller's discussion list' <[email protected]> Subject: [Callers] Re: Wikipedia Dance Vandalism Hi Tony, I think the MWSD history should be on the MWSD page; the American traditional squares history should be on the traditional page and the main SD page should provide brief synopses of those with pointers to the other pages. My main interest is the main SD page. If you publish your research and let me know what you would like added to the main SD page, then I would be happy to update the main SD page and cite your articles. I am Dancer42 on Wikipedia. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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