Square dance caller Peter LaBerge gets into action, while performers (from left) Sheldon Sandler, Judy Hough-Goldstein and Richard Gordon provide the music. Photo by Duane Perry

There are some familiar UD faces at the Russellville Grange on the second Saturday of each month. Usually, they're among the crowd on the dance floor, performing traditional square dances while fiddles and banjos ring out traditional tunes.

On a recent Saturday evening, Tater Patch, an old-time music band with strong UD ties, set up on the stage of the 126-year old, two-story frame building where they would provide music for a three-hour square dancing session in the small community near Oxford, Pa.

Tater Patch includes Richard Gordon, Information Technologies, on guitar, and Judy Hough-Goldstein, agricultural sciences, on fiddle, along with Delaware lawyer Sheldon Sandler picking out tunes on banjo.

While the band went through its last-minute tune-up, couples gathered on the hard-wood floor waiting for caller Peter LaBerge to get activities under way.

For Gordon, who plays a small-bodied Taylor guitar and an old Gibson that he found on the Internet, playing this toe-taping music with its rich Appalachian heritage is an opportunity to work in some new variations on the traditional old time music standards.

"The tunes all have to be a certain length, so the dances will work out right," Gordon said. "As musicians, it's fun to see how we can improvise yet stay within the framework of the tunes."

A Missouri native, Gordon got started playing traditional music nearly 30 years ago as a sort of rebellion against all the classical music he had listened to as a youngster.

Hough-Goldstein, chairperson of entomology and applied ecology, first became acquainted with the music she now plays while going to dances in New Hampshire and Massachusetts as a teenager.

"I had played classical music on violin, where you play according to certain notes and scales," Hough-Goldstein said. "Old-time music is played by ear, which basically means that you listen to the music and then reproduce the sound. It's the old-time tradition of learning from one person and passing that on to the next person."

Whatever the music means to different people, the band members know they are on the beam when they see the dancers and the caller getting into a groove where they really appreciate the music and the rhythm.

"It's just plain fun to play that kind of music, mostly because of the give-and-take among the musicians," Hough-Goldstein said. "We like changing the tunes into something that gets the crowd's attention."

For banjo player Sandler, the most rewarding aspect of playing at square dances is that way that the music and the dances seem to complement each other.

Sandler said the band plays about 30 separate tunes during the course of an evening, with about three tunes dedicated to each dance.

"The dancers don't care what you are playing, as long as you play well and rhythmically," Sandler said. "By playing so many different songs, the band can have fun and keep the dancers happy, too."

This strategy appeared to be succeeding. The crowd was enthusiastic from the outset, when veteran caller LaBerge got things moving with his first command of the night, "Let's square things up."

Although the intricate steps with their clockwork-like precision may seem confusing and complex to the novice, the observance of a few of the 10 basic rules of square dancing can help make things manageable for the newcomer.

Although they enjoy playing square dance music, some members of Tater Patch wouldn't mind occasionally changing places with their friends on the dance floor.

"I love to square dance, and that's the thing I like least about playing for events like this," Hough-Goldstein said. "I wish I could be out there on the dance floor, too."? ?

For fellow band member Gordon, being part of the musical accoutrements seems the safest and most logical choice.

"I used to dance, many years ago," Gordon said. "Now, it's much safer for everyone if I'm up here on the bandstand with my bass or guitar."

Many of those who do venture out on the dance floor have been coming to places like the Russellville Grange for years, following their favorite bands over a square dance circuit that covers about a 50-mile radius from the Newark-Oxford area.

According to Sandler, the social aspect of square dancing, where the music is not so loud that people cannot have a good time, has been undervalued,

"It is really a nice way to spend an evening," Sandler said. "If more people tried it, I'm sure they would enjoy it."

–Jerry Rhodes