Editing Modern Western square dance (section)

== History of modern western square dance ==
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=== Traditional western square dance ===
Square dance originates from [[Country dance|country dances]] practiced in Great Britain and Ireland dating as far back as the 17th century. Several of the dances included in the 1651 book [[The Dancing Master]] by John Playford are square dances. These dance styles were brought to the United States by European colonists in the 19th century. The distinctive call format of square dance was invented by black slaves, and when combined with European styles, evolved into [[traditional square dance]], most popular in New England and the Appalachians. When people from these regions began settling the West, these evolved into the [[cowboy dance]], a direct predecessor to modern western square dance.

=== Preserving the heritage ===
By the early twentieth century, square dance was declining in popularity, lacking a new generation of young dancers to continue the practice. [[Lloyd Pappy Shaw]], wishing to preserve square dance, traveled the country to record the calls used at the time, and compiled the steps in his book ''Cowboy Dances''.

Another heavy promoter of square dance was the industrialist [[Henry Ford]]. Ford believed that [[Jews]] invented [[jazz]] as a plot to corrupt society. Ford believed that this plot could be counteracted by returning America to dances and musical styles that he saw as traditional and [[white supremacist|white]]. As a result, he used his wealth to promote square dancing, through books and square dancing events. Ford also promoted square dance classes in public school, which were present in half of all American schools in 1928 as part of the standard physical education curriculum.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Pennacchia|first=Robyn|date=December 12, 2017|title=America's wholesome square dancing tradition is a tool of white supremacy|url=https://qz.com/1153516/americas-wholesome-square-dancing-tradition-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy/|access-date=2019-06-16|website=Quartz|language=en|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Modern western square dance evolved in square dance events funded by Ford, using direction and guidance prepared by Shaw.

=== The square dance boom ===
During the height of the square dance craze, there were multiple efforts to designate it as the national dance of the United States. Square dance proponents successfully designated square dance as the official dance of 28 states. The effort to designate it as a national dance began in 1965, with more than 30 bills introduced in Congress. This succeeded in 1982, when it was a bill passed by Congress and the Senate designated it a national dance from 1982 until it expired in 1983. This was criticized as preferring square dance over numerous other American styles of dance, as well as square dancing having no relevance to urban and minority populations in the United States.<ref name=":0" />

Modern western square dance was brought to many countries through Square Dance clubs on American forces bases, where local community involvement often began to occur. This was particularly common in Britain where this legacy is seen with square dance clubs such as Alconbury Anglo-American SDC, originally based at [[RAF Alconbury]], and Heyford Hoofers, originally at [[RAF Upper Heyford]]. The club based on the USA base in [[Tehran]] -The Tehran Twirlers - relocated briefly to [[RAF Alconbury]] following the 1979 Revolution in Iran.

=== Square dance's maturity ===
Since the 1960s, popularity of square dance has declined, as the square dance audience got older without young dancers to replace them. Square dance has also been gradually removed from public school curriculums.

In the 1970s, the [[Callerlab]] organization was established that standardized dance calls.

The 1970s and 1980s also found new audiences for square dance, most notably [[gay square dance]] and [[youth square dance]].

Square Dancing in the UK has seen diminishing numbers of dancers since the 1990s as the activity has failed to attract sufficient numbers of younger dancers. There is a great deal of debate as to how to arrest this decline, or even if the decline should be addressed and accepted as inevitable. British dancers tend to be older people - this is in contrast to countries such as Denmark and Germany where there are flourishing numbers of teenage, student, and family dancers.