Roxy Rollins, third from right, with the Vernon Star Country Squares is seen with a group of dancers at a recent event.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Roxy Rollins

Square dancing is experiencing a bit of a renaissance in the Okanagan and Kamloops after popularity of the social activity plunged during the COVID pandemic.

Square dance is considered American folk dancing which is based European dances like the quadrille. Four couples arrange themselves in a square and perform a series of steps to music as a caller announces them.

“If you can walk, you can square dance,” Roxy Rollins with Vernon’s Star Country Squares told iNFOnews.ca. “You can go anywhere in the world where they dance it and you'll have a family, immediate family.”

During the pandemic isolation, square dancing numbers hit a low in the region, Rollins said. But more and more people are rediscovering folk dancing as a way to connect with each other.

The Star Country Squares are growing in number with about 50 regulars attending the weekly dances, which include lessons on how to "do-si-do", "promenade", and "right and left grand".

While square dancing is considered a country and western activity, it's increasingly popular around the world even though the calls are in English.

“Even though maybe someone doesn't speak the language, it's still a universal phrasing and term that they can understand,” she said.

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Young people are staring to take up square dancing too.

“The younger dancers, they catch on so quickly, so they kind of leave most of us in the dust and they want to learn more and more,” Country Squares president Joe Marcotte said.

While voluminous crinoline skirts and puffy tops are welcome, nothing formal is necessary to join in the fun and casual wear is making its way on the dance floor. Jeans and a T-shirt are more than welcome when learning to promenade.

The music is becoming more current as well. As long as there's a beat, anyone can join in.

“I had so much fun dancing to Billy Idol,” Rollins said. “It just gave me like an extra surge because I mean, I used to be listening to that in the 80s.”

While there used to be 14 square dancing clubs in the BC Southern Interior, there are currently clubs in Vernon, Salmon Arm, Kamloops and Castlegar with an occasional pop up dance in Lumby.

“It's totally coming back,” she said. “I mean, you can touch hands. People are more cognitive too now, being careful, but that being said, everyone's out there hand to hand and do-si-do-ing and circling left and right.”

If you're interested in getting your square dance on, check out the Vernon Star Country Squares website here.

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