North Texas Square and Round Dance Association<\/a> attended. Established in 1961, the association oversees several local clubs in the North Texas area and hosts several major dances a year.<\/p>\n![\"People]()
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People dance together near silos at the 75th National Square Dance Convention on June 24, 2026 in Waco.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Vince Matej<\/p>\n
The association defines square dancing as an American folk dance involving a mixture of dance steps based on style, timing and form. Dancers perform with four pairs, totaling eight people, in a square formation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the fun things about the convention is you have callers that come in from not just the United States but around the world that\u2019ll convene right here to dance,\u201d said Vince Matej, outgoing president of the association. \u201cI enjoy going out and just meeting new friends, and this is the best place to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A key component of square dancing is the \u201ccaller,\u201d who announces moves to the dancers through patterned instructions or song, said Donna Miller, the association\u2019s incoming president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How square dancing came to Texas<\/p>\n
Keeton said square dancing can be traced back to European court and folk dances brought to America, where the dances evolved into an American folk tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dance saw a revival during the early 20th century, Keeton said, partially due to educator Lloyd Shaw, whose teacher workshops and summer camps helped institute square dancing in schools\u2019 physical education curriculum.<\/p>\n
While traditional square dancing is typically performed with country music, Matej said modern square dancing now includes a wider range of music, such as pop and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Matej said some of the best ways to learn more about square dancing is to visit various clubs to hear different callers and meet more experienced square dancers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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People dance together at the 75th National Square Dance Convention on June 25, 2026 in Waco.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Vince Matej<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it helps with the new dancers to see some of the experienced dancers mess up while they\u2019re dancing. That way they know that it\u2019s not just them,\u201d Matej said. \u201cIf you can walk and count to four, you can square dance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Miller said taking square dance lessons is the best way to learn, as instructors can teach the basic 60 calls the callers use at square dancing events. She added that square dancing lessons typically run for 12-14 weeks, with several dance clubs hosting training throughout the year in the North Texas area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more you dance, the more you fall in love with it,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
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Square dancing today<\/p>\n
Keeton said she is one of the remaining few dance educators teaching square dancing at TWU, noting most students today do not even know what square dancing really is.<\/p>\n
Matej said the COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in attendance for some North Texas square dance clubs, but many members still attend long after they stop dancing. He added that one Houston club regularly welcomes several longtime members who are no longer able to square dance, but simply come to visit with friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnically the purpose of coming to the dance is to dance, but the caller feels it\u2019s important \u2026 because those people will come just to meet each other and visit,\u201d Matej said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about the dance \u2026 It\u2019s about the get-together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People dance together at the Texas State Federation of Square and Round Dancers Festival on June 6 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[107860,114586,78438,430,17921,27,29,28,69,89512,88643,126537,89217],"class_list":["post-355678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-arts-entertainment-things-to-do","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-july-4th","tag-north-texas","tag-service","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-fort-worth","tag-tp-fourth-of-july","tag-tp-tarrant-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}