What is Square Dancing?

Modern Square Dancing

Square Dance is a dance for four couples. At the start of each dance these four couples stand on the lines of an imaginary square facing each other forming the so called “square”. Hence the name: Square Dance. 

What makes square dancing different from other dance forms is that instead of learning a dance, dancers learn individual dance moves called out to the dancers by the caller. It’s spontaneous, as dancers don’t know what the next call is going to be.

A wide variety of music is used in square dancing these days, from traditional country western songs to Broadway show tunes and World music. Anything with a steady beat is fair game.   

But of course this dance is not for eight persons only. Most of the time several squares are dancing at the same time but independently of each other. A caller cues the dancers through a sequence of steps to the beat of the music, all movements smoothly flowing into each other. 

While dancing the dancers constantly change their positions and their partners until, at the end of a sequence, they are (or should be) back where and with whom they have started. The order in which the specific dance movements, the calls, have to be danced is up to the caller, so the dancers don't know what the next call will be, making every dance a new challenge for each group of eight dancers. 

This is what makes Square Dance a dance full of fun and variety, that stimulates your concentrativeness and reactions. The fact that you are not only dancing with one partner, but with a new partner for each dance and with three other couples in a square makes it easy to get to know the other dancers. Best conditions for singles and those of you who like to dance but your partner doesn’t. 

An International Activity

Originally, square dance calls varied by region in the US, making it difficult to dance away from home.  Since the 1970s, calls have been standardized by Callerlab, the International Association of Square Dance Callers. As a result, after learning to dance at a particular level, you may visit other clubs and feel comfortable dancing that level throughout the world. American square dancing is popular in many European countries, especially Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK, as well as Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. 

• This description was created from information gathered from squaredance.net & chitownsquares.org

A dance round (also called “a tip”) consists of two parts, that is two dances. In the first dance the caller speaks the calls rhythmically to the sound of instrumental music. This part usually contains more challenging figures to be practiced. The choreography often seems unstructured, what makes it challenging for the dancers. This is followed by the singing call. The caller sings the instructions as part of the lyrics of a song and the dancers have to listen closely to discriminate one from the other.  

These videos are of dancers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Square Dance Club: The Tech Squares.  Caller is Ted Lizotte 

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