What are some of the most profound examples of the African-American contribution to American dance?
There appears to be a substantial amount of evidence to indicate that it was probably an African-American or African fiddler in the South that invented American square dance calling. So that’s quite a shattering assumption in some quarters, because we don’t see a black presence in American country culture today. So how is it that a black fiddler could have possibly invented American square calling? First of all, the contra dances, the square dances, when they came to America are not called. In Europe, those dances have to be committed to memory. And the way that was done, especially by the upper and the more affluent classes, was to study with a dancing master. Well, of course, when we come to America things change. They don’t have the rigid hierarchy based on royalty, based on the aristocracy. And of course, in the traditional contra dances in Europe the line is formed according to status. Well, once we come to America, things change. Now imagine this scenario. Here we are all on Mass
