Island Dance

Forms or types of Square dance

North to South

Upper Vancouver Island - Region 8 or UVANIS (of BC Square and Round Dance Federation) (MWSD) Many community activities all along the Island. Lots of club nights, Squares & Rounds. Campbell River, Comox, Courtenay, Lantzville, Nanaimo, Parksville, Powell River, Qualicum Beach.

Southern Vancouver Island - Region 1 (of BC Square and Round Dance Federation) (MWSD) - Square, Round, Clog & Contra Dancing

Victoria area events

OldTime Valentine’s Square Dance! St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Kirk Hall, 680 Courtney St, Victoria BC. Doors 7pm, tix $10 at Solstice Cafe, $15 at door. Music - The Sweet Low Down

Victoria Experimental Contry Dance Party & Urban Barn Dance - Summer series (Thursdays July 2011) may host a few squares and certainly lots of other fun called dances (Trad)

Regional/National Square Dance Groups

BC Square & Round Dance Federation (MWSD) with Round dances of the month index, biennial BC festivals and more. See their site for their Twitter feed.

Canadian Squares and Round Dance Society (MWSD) offers Canada Wide Support to dancers of Squares, Round, Line, Contra, and Clog Dancing.

Events, Camps, Weekends

Many are listed in the above group listings. Others will be added here as you submit them

Square & Round Dance Resources

History of Square Dance @ CDSS.org the Country Dance and Song Society

Square Dance Caller Resources @ CDSS.org the Country Dance and Song Society

SquareDancing.com™ - "The most useful Square Dance site on the Internet"

Folk Dance Association - appears to be a privately operated endeavour, much like this, with a wider and broader remit.

Dare To Be Square - Traditional Square Dance Caller’s Workshop (Trad) (D2BS is a term used by a number of groups for events, i.e. non-exclusive)

Vic and Debbie Ceder's - Square Dance Resource Net (MWSD)

Western Square Dancing - DOSADO.com and their Canadian listings (MWSD)

Types of Square Dance, or "what is this MWSD or Trad. tag?"

(I wrote this and for it's purpose it will serve, so I'll leave it here. I then discovered the CDSS History of Square Dance entry)

There are generally a couple of forms of Square Dance.

Modern Western Square Dance, MWSD, is reasonably visible. Overly briefly -- this grew from the organisation of the dance form around the period of WWII and since. Much, indeed most of it, is conducted through clubs, dancers having acquired a knowledge of dance figures numbering in the tens (i.e. 60, 70 "calls") before going to a dance. This requires study, currency of skills, placing of dancers and dance events in categories or levels. Callers for MWSD also need to know many figures to "hash" call in varying sequences which gives the dancers what they expect. Something quick, non-predictable, etc. My mathematician friends love this. Proponents of MWSD may make the point that Calling is making up a dance while Cueing is reminding dancers of the dance. Much use is made of recorded music. Mostly couple based.

The root form of the dance is sometimes called traditional square dancing. If one encounters square dances or dancing related to Contra or other Contry or Country dance it is likely of this form. Possibly the easiest way to describe this would be non-club square, non-MWSD or, for many, Traditional Squares or simply Square dancing -- you may see how a common term may mean different things. Much of it is danced to live music and there is little to no emphasis on "having a partner" to bring and dance with. The norm is to dance with anyone who is there. This form has never died, however, being a bit more hidden away or pushed aside by MUC (Modern Urban Contra), it is enjoying a resurgence with such events as Dare To Be Square.

I'll add MWSD or Trad. to make it a bit easier to differentiate between entries. It's all fun, just a tad different.

This piece is titled, "Explaining Traditional Squares and Contras to MWSD folks" however it may help dancers of Contra or other Contry/Country dance understand MWSD.