Submitted by Sandy Elder, Michigan
Idea posted March 1, 2002
The Music-Dance Connection: Lessons 2 and 3
Virginia Reel and Square Dancing
VIRGINIA REEL
The Dance
One of the earliest dances to come to America from Europe was the Virginia Reel. It is a contra dance, which means it is danced in two parallel lines, the men in one line and the ladies facing them in the other line. Immigrants from the British Isles (specifically England) brought this dance with them around 1700 and taught it to their new neighbors during neighborhood dinner and dance parties. It was especially popular among the wealthy Americans who had large banquet rooms in their homes that could be cleared away and turned into dance halls.
The Music
The music for the Virginia Reel is lively and lighthearted. It is played on traditional European instruments, such as the violin (sometimes called a fiddle), hand drums, and pipes or flutes. Some people also had small keyboard instruments in their homes, so these would be played too.
It is said that the Virginia Reel was George Washington's very favorite dance!
SQUARE DANCING
The Dance
Another early American dance which continues to be popular even today is square dancing. It began with a very practical problem: space. Very few country homes had enough space to spread their friends into two long contra lines. This was especially true if the people giving the party were poor. Usually they would clean up their barns and have their dance parties in there instead. This gave them the room they needed, and since barns are square shaped, it made sense to invent a dance people could do in that formation. By standing in small squares instead of long contra lines, they were able to have fun dancing and a new kind of dance was born - square dancing! Soon people all over the country were square dancing and developing new moves to add to those they already knew.
The Music
Because square dancing was developed here in America where there was (and continues to be) a mix of many different ethnic groups, both the moves used in the dance and the music played reflect this cultural mix. Many of the instruments that were used to play music for contra dances in the 1600s-1700s continued to be used for the square dances of the 1800s. However, while the rich had enough money to hire orchestra musicians to play for their dances, poorer people could not do this. They soon learned how to have fun dancing with whatever instruments their neighbors brought to the party. If you played an instrument, you could be sure you'd be invited to play at all the local barn dances. The most popular instruments for this type of music are from the string family: violin, guitar, and mandolin, but whatever people knew how to play would be added to the dance band. As long as the tempo was fast and the volume loud, the people could happily square dance until the sun came up.