About Kentucky Running Set, Warwickshire

Kentucky Running Set is a form of American Square Dance, collected by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles in the Appalachians in the first half of the twentieth century. Cecil Sharp devoted Part 5 of The Country Dance Book to KRS. This exhilarating form of country dancing has figures such as “The Wild Goose Chase”, “California Show Basket”, “Chase the Squirrel” and “Rattlesnake Twist”.
KRS does not involve running, nor any fancy foot work. The local term for having a dance was “running a set”. The figures run on from one to the next, so the dance does keep going for longer than a conventional square dance. Rather than the more usual idea of learning a whole dance and then dancing it, it works by learning a collection of figures, with each couple leading a different figure. Having evolved in small rooms, KRS is usually danced in square sets of 4 couples, but it can accommodate other numbers. Nowadays, with judicious choice of figures, it is often danced in "big set" formation. When danced at social events, each couple will choose their own figure to dance and each set has its own caller. At workshops, the caller will teach and call figures for the whole room.
We are organising a number of KRS workshops in villages around Leamington Spa (South Warwickshire). We are also available to teach KRS elsewhere, if anyone would like to invite us.