Program Directory

Peo­ple have been doing the square dance since before the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence. But does that mean it should be THE Amer­i­can folk dance? That ques­tion took us on a jour­ney from Appalachi­an front porch­es, to dance class­es across our nation, to the halls of Con­gress, and final­ly a Kansas City con­ven­tion cen­ter. And along the way, we uncov­ered a secret his­to­ry of square danc­ing that made us see how much of our nation­al iden­ti­ty we could stuff into that square, and what it means for a dance to be of the peo­ple, by the peo­ple, and for the people.