Lancaster Dances...
Lancaster dances are strange occurrences that are the embodiment of much tradition. A Lancaster dance cannot truly be understood until it has one has attended it. The CANON is a collection of songs that are traditionally played at the dances, and was semi-fluidic until '95 when the first CANON CD was made and included the fourteen songs that are still recognized as CANON. One of the longest standing traditions at Lancaster is the playing of American Pie as the last song. During slow CANON songs, many groups form into large circles of people swaying to the beat and singing along with the song. The first dance of each session is memorable because it is when the returners begin to teach the squirrels about the CANON and the dance traditions. The last dance is even more memorable, but more because of the sadness that the session is nearly over, then happiness that the squirrels have learned the CANON and are almost no longer squirrels.
The current CANON consists of fourteen songs (listed below), and was solidified when the first CANON CD was made by Louis Gerbarg and Tarpy. They decided to give the Lancaster site a copy of CD because earlier the site lost it's copy of Forever Young, resulting in members of Digi-Clan siting in a circle and screaming all the way through American Pie. The songs placed on this CD were chosen from a draft list of about 50 songs, which was narrowed through heavy discussion by Digi-Clan and LLRT. Before the first CANON CD, the CANON was more fluidic, but there were songs that the DJ's were expected to play at each dance. These were recognized as early as '89, and included: Rock Lobster, Oh L'Amour, Bizzare Love Triangle, Time Warp, Stairway To Heaven, Forever Young, and American Pie.
