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
Challenge square dance with more than 400 calls. C4 dancers typically know at least 700 calls. Challenge square dancing not only involves knowing many more calls, but is typified by the extensive use of Concepts, abstract and physical formations, "Phantom" dancers, and call deconstruction (such as Fractionalization). Some square dance calls are more complex than others, involving more series of actions and more abstract identifications of whom to do the action with. Challenge lists include more of these complex calls, but none are by themselves more complex than calls at the Advanced level. Much of Challenge dancing uses basic calls (such as "Right