Square dance Square dance A square dance is a dance for four couples (eight dancers in total) arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances were first documented in 16th-century England but were also quite common in France and throughout Europe. They came to North America with the European settlers and have undergone considerable development there. In some countries and regions, through preservation and repetition, square dances have attained the status of a folk dance. The Western American square dance may be the most widely known form worldwide, possibly due to its
Traditional square dance tradition, descended from the 18th-century cotillion and the 19th-century quadrille, comprises primarily figures in which the action is initiated by a facing pair of couples, either the heads or sides. Many of the basic movements (such as "ladies chain" and "right and left") that make up the figures are common to the entire Northeastern repertoire. As in its ancestors the cotillion and quadrille, the movements in this style of square dance are synchronized with the phrases of the music. If the dancers know a particular dance by heart, they can execute it without calls, and indeed some communities that dance