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 partially filled by real dancers. Challenge dancers must learn to do their part of a call in a particular formation even though many of the other dancers – possibly all of them – are missing. This requires both a clear understanding of the call definition and the ability to remember where the positions of the formation are without the usual visual and tactile cues. Calls which cause the dancers to change from one formation to another ("shape-changers") are especially challenging to dance with phantoms because the positions themselves will be changing and the entire formation may have to move to