'Snake dance' is a term used to refer to a parade before or during a high school or a related event like a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

game. The parade includes floats built by each high school class,

marching bands A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, often ...

, students, and alumni. Snake dance may also be more narrowly used to describe a student parade, a line of students celebrating, or a parade starting in a central business district or school location and ending with an evening bonfire and pep rally near the school. The

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and grad ...

archives refer to snake dance as early as 1922. A 1911

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

dispatch covering Philadelphia fans celebrating the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

victory in Game 2 of the

1911 World Series The 1911 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1911 season. The eighth edition of the World Series, it matched the American League (AL) champion Philadelphia Athletics against the National League (NL) champion ...

reported, "Staid business and professional men joined their office boys and ragged urchins in a snake dance around city hall".

References

External links

*Tarleton College Homecoming Schedule with Snake Danc

*University of Northern Iowa Homecoming Archive

*Carleton College "Freshman Snake Dance Between Football Game

American culture School dances {{US-stub