Thesis Errata

Known issues with my thesis

February 2009

I've been meaning to update my thesis to fix two smallish issues since just after I finished it. I've not gotten to this yet, so instead I'm putting the notes here.

There are no data points in Maine becasse I didn't go to any dances there. But it's well known in the Massachusetts dance community that in Maine people do right and left through with hands. According to dancers from Maine, this is how people dance at all contra dances in the state. If this really is something that has sharp boundries at state lines, that is surprising, but you do see things like this elsewhere. The US/Canada border, for example. Perhaps this is thought of as "Maine contra dancing style"?
I talk about "ocean waves" and "tidal waves" at one point. The former is frequently used in the call "pass through to an ocean wave". But the latter is I think only used by Barb Kirtchner. It was in my head when I wrote that section, but it's not the normal term. The most common terms, both when I wrote this and now, would be "wavy lines across" and "long wavy lines".

June 2009

I went to the Falmouth ME dance this weekend (6/6/2009) my first time to a dance in Maine. I can now add a data point in Maine, though it's somewhat inferior, as it's three years removed from my other data points.

Addendum to Figure 13, "Dance descriptions":

    State    Town        Name    Size (est)   Abbreviation
    -----    --------    ----    ----------   ------------
       ME    Falmouth       -            85           FlME

Addendum to Figure 14, "Dance properties":

    Dance | Prom  R&L T  Star  CT  Pet  ROMs  Footnoise
    ----- | ----  -----  ----  --  ---  ----  ---------
     FlME |   CT      H    WG   T  m-C     S       m-NN

The two things that really jumped out at me, aside from the confirmation that in maine right and left through really is with hands, were the courtesy turns and the footnoise. For the turns, there was a lot of twirling, and it did not seem to be grouped by age. This is somewhat unusual, as most places the older people twirled less. People were also very quiet with their feet. The hall was quite full and the band was energetic, but very few people made much if any noise.

September 2009

I was talking to some friends who had been to dances in regions I'd not, and collected some new informant data:

Addendum to Figure 13, "Dance descriptions":

    State    Town        Name    Size (est)   Abbreviation
    -----    --------    ----    ----------   ------------
       NY    Rochester      -            80           RoNY
       NY    NYC            -           120            NYC
       ME    N. Whitefield  -            40           NoWh

Addendum to Figure 14, "Dance properties":

    Dance | Prom  R&L T  Star   CT   Pet  ROMs  Footnoise
    ----- | ----  -----  ----  ----  ---  ----  ---------
     RoNY |   CT      ?    WG     T    C     S       N,NN
      NYC | m-CT   H,NH    WG     T    C     S       m-NN
     NoWh |   CT      H    WG  T,NT  m-C     S       m-NN

Note that NYC and NoWh are current (mid-2009) but RoNY is from 2007.

November 2009

A discussion came up on the trad-dance-caller list about hands across vs wrist grip stars. I've put some relevant bits up here:

    Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:43:32 EST
    From: Sylvia Miskoe, Concord NH

    While the contra world uses a wrist grip I have a bit of history.
    I hope it is accurate, relying on memory and word of mouth.
    Contra dancers always used hands across.  At the NE Folk Fest in
    the late 40's early 50's the Latvian dance group used a wrist grip
    for their demo dances.  The idea appealed to the Boston dancers
    and they adopted it.

Now I want to go back and look at the illustrations to the "Country Dance Book" (Toleman and Page 1937) and see whether they show a wrist grip star.

    Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:01:01 -0700
    From: Chris Kermiet, Denver CO

    As I recall here in the Denver area, when contras started to be
    danced, the prevailing star was the one generally used in the
    western squares, i.e., the pile of hands star. It wasn't until
    some dancers came from "back East" and were adamant about the
    wrist lock star, that our local dancers adopted it. This was in
    the ancient long ago now, but it's become a rigid tradition.
    ...

Then someone asked about hands on right and left through, and Sylvia Miskoe wrote:

    Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:03:13 EST
    From: Sylvia Miskoe, Concord NH

    I never saw hands used in R&L until the 90's.  When I learned to
    dance one DID NOT USE HANDS under pain of boiling oil.  So from my
    point of view, the use of hands is a relatively recent addition.

Videos for historical dance comparison

1951 Bob Osgood -- no right and left through shown, stars are a mix of lump and wrist grip (maybe depending on gender), promenade is skater's. Maybe from california?
Something from the 70s
Late 70s square dance?
american's square dancing in 1950s australia?
more australian squares?
New orleans square 1958
1950s square dance
nyc central park 1948 squares
early 1930s

December 2009

I was talking to another informant, and now have another location to add:

Addendum to Figure 13, "Dance descriptions":

    State    Town           Name    Size (est)   Abbreviation
    -----    --------       ----    ----------   ------------
       VA    Shepardstown      -           120           Shep

Addendum to Figure 14, "Dance properties":

    Dance | Prom  R&L T  Star   CT   Pet  ROMs  Footnoise
    ----- | ----  -----  ----  ----  ---  ----  ---------
     Shep | CT,B      H    WG     T    C     S       N,NN

Last modified by Jeff Kaufman: Tue Dec 1, 2009