Lester Bradley calls a very traditional square dance program in central New
Hampshire. (Lester was one of the dance callers selected to represent New
Hampshire at the 1999 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC.)
Here are five videos of traditional singing squares from Lester's monthly dance
in Wentworth, NH. The files are lower-quality than some others I've posted; I
tried out a different compression algorithm to speed up the process.
My goal in posting all this material is to encourage callers to include more
squares in their repertoire. The squares are part of our rich country dance
heritage and they add variety to an evening's program. For callers unfamiliar
with this material, seeing some of the dances may make it easier for you to
think about calling them.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
Here's the latest batch:
Red River Valley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMhOllPhq5w
This one also has shots of the various musicians playing with Lester; those
shots come about halfway through the video.
Forward Six and Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wPM7ncM4Yg
Comin' Round the Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyR3J-5ydM
Oh Johnny (big circle mixer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRGauYCPwY
Listen to the Mockingbird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsdiBIvRLVc