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International Day of Square Dance
"🎶 Ace of Diamonds, Jack of Spades,
Meet your partner & promenade ..."
Square dancing is a joyful social tradition with deep English, French, and Scottish-Irish roots. Typically, four couples form a square, each pair facing inward toward the center, ready to weave and turn in lively patterns.
This tartan was designed to honor the enduring legacy of square dance, tracing back to the Gaelic-speaking settlers of Mabou, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Its colors reflect the very spirit of the dance: red for the boundless energy dancers bring to the floor, black for the dark wood of the fiddles—whose jigs set the pace for the first two figures and whose reels drive the third—and three white lines to symbolize the dancers themselves, constantly meeting, changing places, and interlinking arms through the three figures.
Square dance has blossomed into many forms across the world. In Canada’s Maritime provinces, traditional Cape Breton and Acadian square sets are often driven by the fiddle and may or may not use a caller, relying instead on the dancers’ shared knowledge of the figures. In the United States, Modern Western Square Dance is almost always led by a caller, who gives rhythmic prompts to guide dancers through intricate sequences. In Ireland and Scotland, set dances and country dances thrive, with some traditions using a caller or leader, while others rely on local custom and long practice.
Wherever you find this form of dance, when the music strikes up, the calls ring out (or not!), take a partner and join the set! ❤️ 🤍 🖤 🎶 🕺 💃
A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances are part of a broad spectrum of dances known by various names: country dances, traditional dances, folk dances, barn dances, ceilidh dances, contra dances, Playford dances, etc. These dances appear in over 100 different formations, of which the Square and the Longways Set are by far the most popular formations.
Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances including English country dances, which were first documented in 17th-century England, and 18th-century French quadrilles and cotillions; square dancing travelled to North America with the European settlers and developed significantly there.
Square dancing is done in many different styles all around the world. In some countries and regions, through preservation and repetition, square dances have attained the status of a folk dance. Square dancing is strongly associated with the United States, in part due to its association with the romanticized image of the American cowboy in the 20th century, and 31 states have designated it as their official state dance. The main North American types of square dances include traditional square dance and modern western square dance, which is widely known and danced worldwide.
Other main types popular in England, Ireland, and Scotland include Playford dances, regional folk dances, ceili, Irish set dances, and Scottish country dances!
For more about Scottish and Cape Breton Dance Traditions, click the square dancing couple!