Nelly Bly, a Classic Singing Square Dance
From the square dance "craze" of the fifties
Recently I’ve really gotten into calling “singing squares.” These square dances were all the rage in the mid 20th century and basically took a popular song and modified the lyrics to create the choreography. Sometimes the melody was retained from the original song, sometimes not. One of my favorite dances lately is “Nelly Bly.” The lyrics come from an old Steven Foster song from 1850. Here are the original words:
Nelly Bly! Nelly Bly!
Bring de broom along
We’ll sweep de kitchen clean, my dear
And hab a little song
Poke de wood, my lady lub
And make de fire burn
And while I take de banjo down
Just gib de mush a turn[Chorus]
Heigh! Nelly, Ho! Nelly
Listen lub to me
I’ll sing for you, play for you
A dulcem melody
[Verse 2]
Nelly Bly hab a voice
Like de turtle dove
I hears it in de meadow
And I hears it in de grove
Nelly Bly hab a heart
Warm as cup of tea
And bigger dan de sweet potato
Down in Tennessee
Nellie Bly – George Hodgson · Square Dance History Project
Recently I became aware of Ralph Sweet’s version. It’s a “keeper” i.e. you keep your partner throughout so more accessible for inexperienced dancers and is pretty much how i call the dance. I tell the dancers, “Your partner stays the same throughout and your corner is always the same person and always in the same place.” Here’s a great video of Ralph calling Nelly Bly at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield MA. The band is Bill Tomczak, Dave Langford, David Cantieni, and Ann Percival.
So I’ve been calling this dance every summer at Maine Fiddle Camp. During the pandemic I thought it might be nice to do the dance virtually, so here’s how I did it for dancers online and their ‘imaginary partners”. So, come to think of it, readers of this blog can dance virtually right now.. Square your sets! Here we go…..
seeya next month! – bill
Nelly Bly, a Classic Singing Square Dance
From the square dance "craze" of the fifties
