Editing Square dance (section)

== History ==
[[File:Square Dance diagram from Playford's English Dancing Master.jpg|thumb|right|A square dance diagram from ''[[The Dancing Master|The English Dancing Master]]'' (First published in 1651) ]]
The origins of Square dances can be traced back to steps and figures used in traditional folk dances and social dances from many countries. One of the earliest influences may have been the [[Morris dance]], an English dance for six men involving a line formation and energetic steps.<ref name=":1">Shaw, Dorothy, Bob Osgood, and Kenny Reese (2000). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040409113940/http://eaasdc.de/history/shehisto.pdf History and Heritage of Modern American Square Dancing].'' www.eaasdc.de. pp. 3-4, 7, 27-28. Retrieved 2020-10-09.</ref> This dance is closely related to another ancestor of square dancing, [[English country dance]], which included a variety of dances for groups of couples arranged in circles, lines, or squares.<ref name=":1" /> In 1651, [[John Playford]] published 105 of these dances in ''[[The Dancing Master|The English Dancing Master]]'', eight of which are square dances exhibiting concepts still in use, such as the head couples performing an action and the side couples repeating it.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://playforddances.com/dances/newcastle/ | title=Newcastle – Playford's Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide }}</ref> Three of the dances, such as "Dull Sir John", specifically use the term ''square dance'' in the phrase, "A Square Dance for eight thus".<ref>Playford, John (1651). ''The English dancing master: or, Plaine and easie rules for the dancing of country dances, with the tune to each dance''. London: Printed by Thomas Harper. Accessed through ProQuest Database: Early Modern Books. p. 81.</ref> In the early 1800s, English country dances merged with French dances to form the [[quadrille]], a dance for four couples in a square.<ref name=":1" />

These dances further evolved in America, where they arrived with European settlers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Jamison|first=Philip A.|date=2003|title=Square Dance Calling: The African-American Connection|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41446577|journal=Journal of Appalachian Studies|volume=9|issue=2|pages=387–398|jstor=41446577|issn=1082-7161}}</ref> After the American Revolution, the quadrille became especially popular.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Eschner|first=Kat|date=2017-11-29|title=Square Dancing is Uniquely American|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/square-dancing-uniquely-american-180967329/|access-date=2020-10-10|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref> Quadrilles were originally danced from memorized steps and sequences, but as African American slaves played music for the dances, they began calling out the steps.<ref name=":0" /> This practice became common by the early 1900s and gave rise to the modern caller.<ref name=":0" /> Between 1940 and 1960, modern western square dance evolved from the western style of traditional square dance that had formed in the United States. Traditional western square dancing was promoted beginning in the 1930s by [[Lloyd Shaw (educator)|Lloyd Shaw]], who solicited definitions from callers across the country in order to preserve that dance form and make it available to other teachers.<ref name=":2">Friedland, LeeEllen (1998). "Square Dancing". In Cohen, Selma Jeanne (ed). ''International Encyclopedia of Dance'', vol. 5. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 685-89.</ref> The [[American folk music revival]] in New York City in the 1950s was rooted in the resurgent interest in square dancing and folk dancing there in the 1940s, which gave musicians such as [[Pete Seeger]] popular exposure.<ref>Szwed, John, [https://books.google.com/books?id=sV48asr7T4MC ''Alan Lomax: The Man who Recorded Music''], Penguin, 2010. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sV48asr7T4MC&q=margot+mayo p.144]: "[[Margot Mayo]] was a Texan who pioneered folk music in New York and spearheaded the revival of folk dancing and square dancing there in the 1940s"</ref><ref>Cf. Cantwell, Robert, ''When We Were Good'' (1996), Harvard University Press,  [https://archive.org/details/whenweweregoodfo00cant <!-- quote=margot mayo. --> pp. 110, 253].</ref><ref>[[iarchive:to hear your banjo play|"To Hear Your Banjo Play"]], film short, 1947 with Pete Seeger, [[Woody Guthrie]], [[Sonny Terry]], [[Margot Mayo]]'s American Square Dance Group and others. Written by [[Alan Lomax]] and narrated by Pete Seeger.</ref>

Starting in the 1970s, many [[U.S. state]]s adopted square dance as their [[List of U.S. state dances|state dance]], the result of a campaign by square dancers to make it the national dance.<ref name="AP Square">{{cite news |last1=Sampson |first1=Pamela |title=Critics Claim Square Dance Conspiracy Confuses Culture with Hobby |url=https://apnews.com/article/fc13cfcfd440118a481e9ba345c69933 |access-date=October 11, 2021 |work=[[Associated Press]] |date=October 22, 1996 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813122535/https://apnews.com/article/fc13cfcfd440118a481e9ba345c69933 |archive-date=August 13, 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>