Square dancing coming back in Northside, America

Amid Northside Tavern’s calendar of indie-rock and karaoke is a monthly event celebrating an old-fashioned form of entertainment, one that is making a comeback here and in other American cities.

On the second Tuesday of every month, the back room of the Tavern hosts the Northside Square Dance, an event organized by local enthusiasts drawing all sorts of demographics, including a young and curious crowd who wouldn’t know a “birdie in the cage” from a “Texas star,” or any square dance maneuver for that matter.

“It’s all taught on the spot,” says John Bealle, one of the organizers of Northside Square Dance. “The dances are pretty simple. People come from the front bar out of curiosity to see what’s going on, and they get pulled in and end up having a good time.”

A collection of players called the Northside Volunteers provides the music. Bealle calls it “old-time string-band music,” songs like “Mississippi Sawyer,” “Soldier’s Joy,” and “Forked Deer” that predate the bluegrass era, played on acoustic instruments such as a fiddle, banjo, bass, mandolin and guitar.

The star of the square dance is the caller, who tells dancers what to do. “A particular square dance will last 10 or 15 minutes,” explains Bealle. “At the beginning the caller will say, ‘square your sets’ or whatever, and everyone will come up on the floor. And he or she will walk through it slowly without music, to teach people what’s going to happen. Then the music starts, and the caller prompts by saying ‘circle left’ or ‘swing your partner’ and so on. You’ll give that call right before the phrase of music stars, so the dancers will hear the call and then when the music comes to a new phrase they’ll do that particular figure.”

Bealle hires callers locally as well as from around the country for each dance, and a donation is collected to pay for the caller. This month’s caller goes by the name of T-Claw, who is from Nashville and learned his craft on the West Coast, according to Bealle.

“They have a kind of a square-dancing youth movement out there among the D.I.Y. set, and they really turned it into something fun and real lively,” he says. “It’s sort of like they recovered the original D.I.Y. entertainment, square dancing, and turned it into something that young people do. And that’s why we thought it would be a nice fit in Northside, because the people that live in Northside are really into sustainability and all.”

Bealle says that this region was once a hotbed for square dancing, and though it is dying off in rural areas in Kentucky, the tradition continues to be passed from one generation to the next in certain communities in West Virginia, where there’s a square dance cultural trail.

“It’s a traditional American dance form that was really popular through the 19th century, but is based on earlier forms that were done informally in cabins in the mountains and so on. And then as other fads came through, square dancing was sort of relegated to the past and so that’s the way we think of it now, as something antique and old-timey,” Bealle says.

People are now embracing it for the same reasons it was once dismissed, and it’s the urban crowd that’s bringing it back.

“It’s just fun to do,” Bealle says. “It’s just real practical. You don’t need a lot of paraphernalia. It’s just easy to do. It really fits into the sort of millennial D.I.Y. mindset.”

IF YOU GO

What: Northside Square Dance

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 8

Where: Northside Tavern, 4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside; 513-542-3603

Admission: $5 donation