New York Folklore: Volume 14, No.3-4: Country Dancing in Central and Western New York State

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NEW YORK FOLKLORE
Vol. 14, Nos. 3-4, 1988
Folk and Traditional Music in New York State
Ray Allen and Nancy Groce, Guest Editors

COUNTRY DANCING IN CENTRAL AND WESTERN NEW YORK STATE
by James Kimball

. . . then came the singing master, and the dancing parties, and society was sociable.

Many a pioneer recollection, such as this one from “Aunt Susie,” recorded in an 1870 Dansville Express (3/20), attests to the importance of dancing among western New York’s early white settlers. From New England, from eastern New York, north from Pennsylvania or straight from Europe they came, in the last decade of the 18th and through the first part of the 19th century. Cabins were built, then houses, barns, shops and churches, and for those whose religion did not object, there was soon room for parties and dancing masters. In an 1814 Ontario Repository we find the following notice:

DANCING SCHOOL. Mr. Shepherd, respectfully informs the inhabitants of Canandaigua, that he intends to open a SCHOOL on Tuesday the 11th inst. at the Ball Room in the Jail, for the purpose of instructing young Ladies and Gentlemen the polite and fashionable accomplishment of Dancing . . . A number of new Cotillions, etc. will be introduced (OR 10/4/1814).

In the same year, young Hezekiah Beecher of Livonia Center wrote in his diary about a fashionable July 4th dance at a neighboring house...

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