Modern Western square dance

There are no dance competitions, and apart from fun events, no prizes are ever offered or sought for 'best dancer' or 'best square'.

Particularly at the 'challenge' levels there is large degree of personal satisfaction to be gained from the problem solving element of completing a dance.

The main centers are where United States military servicemen spread the dance during the 1950s through 1980s.

Modern square dancing is found in such diverse counties as Japan, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Spain, Germany and Australia.

The individual calls are categorized as belonging to a particular dance program, or level of difficulty.

The caller restores the original order of the square both at the end of the hash and the singing call.

This style of dress developed when square dancing's popularity in the United States increased after World War II, and began soaring during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Dress code is more relaxed in the UK than in North America, and to some extent than in Northern Europe.

Square dance attire for men includes long-sleeved western and western-style shirts, dress slacks, scarf or string ties (bolos) or kerchiefs, metal tips on shirt collars and boot tips, and sometimes cowboy hats and boots.

Traditional square dance attire for women include gingham or polka-spotted dresses with wide skirts or a wide gingham or patterned skirt in a strong dark color with a white puff-sleeve blouse.

Often dancers wear specially-made square dance outfits, with multiple layers of crinolines, petticoats, or pettipants.

There are many additions to or variations from standard square dancing, which have gained headway over the years.

Common flourishes include replacing the dosado with a "highland fling" move, or twirling at the end of a promenade.

Dancers may object to flourishes due to being unfamiliar, physically challenging, or inappropriate for the music.

At higher dance levels, differences in body flow due to a flourish can interfere with proper execution of a call.

For example, the response "Pink Lemonade" mirrors rhythmically and rhymes with the call "Triple Trade".

Playing games without the permission of the entire square (and often the caller) can be considered extremely rude[by whom?

These dance styles were brought to the United States by European colonists in the 19th century.

By the early twentieth century, square dance was declining in popularity, lacking a new generation of young dancers to continue the practice.

Ford believed that this plot could be counteracted by returning America to dances and musical styles that he saw as traditional and white.

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 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.