Traditional square dance

Traditional square dance is a generic American term for any style of American square dance other than modern Western. The term can mean (1) any of the American regional styles (broadly, Northeastern, Southeastern, and Western) that existed before around 1950, when modern Western style began to develop out of a blend of those regional styles, or (2) any style (other than modern Western) that has survived, or been revived, since around 1950.

Traditional square dance can be distinguished from modern Western square dance by the following characteristics:

In addition, because there is no governing body to set standards for traditional square dancing, each caller decides which basic movements and dance figures he or she will use. There are regional variations in how dancers execute the basic movements, usually having to do with hand or arm position. The same dance figure may have different names in different regions; the same name may refer to different dance figures, or even (in the case of "do-si-do") different basic movements. This lack of standardization does not present a problem to the dancers, because at least one of two conditions is always true: either the caller walks the dancers through the figures before calling them to music, or the event is attended almost entirely by local people familiar with that caller's repertoire.

There are at least three broad categories of events that can be referred to as "traditional square dances".

Traditional square dances have been classified into three major types: Northeastern, Southeastern, and Western. The first two have distinctive and unique characteristics; the Western type is thought to be a blend of the two. There are many regional and local styles of square dancing; each has been adapted through the years from one or more of the three major types.

The Northeastern 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 quadrille-type squares do so without the aid of a caller.

Areas where Northeastern squares have been documented include Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, New England, Upstate New York, Michigan, and parts of Pennsylvania.

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