Yvonne Newkirk, age 15, of Austin, Texas, for her question:

WHERE DID WE GET SQUARE DANCING?

Square dancing is strictly an American folk dance. The dance developed about 1825 out of the then fashionable cotillion and quadrille, stately French dances in square formation. To simplified figures from these dances were added elements from the faster moving contra dances of New England and "running" sets of Appalachia.

American square dancing also introduced the caller, who was free to improvise the order of the figures. The caller's prompting soon developed into rhythmic pattern calls with a characteristic, wry vocabulary and, by the 1870s, into singing calls.

Typical figures included the allemande (a quadrille term), dosido (from the French "back to back"), birdie in the cage (from the running set) and star (from contras).

In the 1860s the fast swinging of partners in ballroom dance position added further interest. Square dances developed regional variations in figures and style of calling and in Canada similar dances developed with French, Scottish and Irish influences.