Bow to Your Partner
Hold a family square dance.
Materials
- Music for square dancing (optional)
Directions
Hold a square dance! A traditional square dance requires eight dancers (four partners), but you can do your own version with four people. Turn on some country dance music (you can play the theme song to this episode, The Green Hills of Kentucky, or sing "Skip to My Lou" or another familiar song). One dancer can also be the square dance caller. Here are some basic traditional steps:
- Join hands and circle right.
- Right hand star: Everyone walk to the center of the circle, right arms raised. Place your right palms together, fingers pointing up. Circle around.
- Left hand star: Drop your right arms. Turn and place your left palms together. Circle around.
- Promenade your partner around the ring: Standing next to your partner, reach across and join right hands together; join left hands together. Your arms will form a cross. Walk around the circle side-by-side, as a pair.
- Face your partner and do-sa-do: "Do-sa-do" means to circle your partner. First walk forward a few steps, passing your partner right shoulder to right shoulder. Then move to your right, keeping your back to your partner. Then walk backwards, passing your partner left shoulder to left shoulder, ending up facing your partner in your starting position.
- Bow to your partner: Put your left arm behind your back. Place your right foot in front and bow. Women and girls can choose to curtsey.
You can also make up funny variations of your own, for example:
- Circle left and walk like a monkey.
- Right hand star and flick your tongue like a lizard, et cetera
Talk About It
Rossi tells Buster why playing the fiddle is so important to her, "The songs get passed down from generation to generation," she says. "If nobody carries it on, it's going to be forgotten, and I don't want that to happen." Encourage your child to talk, draw and write about their own "living history," something that has been passed down to them by an older relative or friend.
Related Books
- Fiddlin' Sam by Marianna Dengler
- Let's Dance by George Ancona
- Nina's Waltz by Corinne Demas
- When Uncle Took the Fiddle by Libba Moore Gray
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