View source for Barn dance

{{Short description|Type of dance}}
{{About||a 1929 short film|The Barn Dance}}
{{About||the traffic signaling option sometimes called "Barnes Dance"|Pedestrian scramble}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2011}}
[[File:Brueghel the Younger's wedding dance in a barn.JPG|thumb|right|[[Pieter Breughel the Younger]], ''Wedding Dance in a Barn'' ({{circa|1616}})]]
[[File:Colonial Ball program 2016 Albert Hall Canberra list of dances.jpg|thumb|Dance program including the barn dance. Traditional dancing (2016)]]
A '''barn dance''' is any kind of [[dance]] involving traditional or [[folk music]] with [[Folk dance|traditional dancing]], occasionally held in a [[barn]], but, these days, much more likely to be in any suitable building.  

The term “barn dance” is usually associated with family-oriented or community-oriented events, usually for people who do not normally dance.  The [[Caller (dance)|caller]] will, therefore, generally use easy dances so that everyone can join in.

A barn dance can be a [[Céilí|ceilidh]], with traditional [[Irish dance|Irish]] or [[Scottish country dance|Scottish dancing]], and people unfamiliar with either format often confuse the two terms. However, a barn dance can also feature [[square dancing]], [[contra dancing]], [[English country dance]], dancing to [[country and western]] music, or any other kind of dancing, often with a live band and a [[Caller (dancing)|caller]]. [[Modern western square dance]] is often confused with barn dancing in Britain.

Barn dances, as social dances, were popular in Ireland until the 1950s, and were typically danced to tunes with {{music|time|4|4}} rhythms.<ref>Vallely, F. (1999). The Companion to Traditional Irish Music. New York University Press: New York, p. 25</ref>

==Radio adaptations==
{{See also|Opry}}
[[File:USBarnDanceShows.png|thumb|Barn dance shows in the United States]]

[[WLS (AM)|WLS]] in Chicago is credited with developing the “barn dance” radio format, which was in large part responsible for the advent of [[country music]] in the United States. The [[National Barn Dance]] began as a program of old-time fiddling on April 19, 1924, with [[George D. Hay]] as the show's host and announcer.  A year-and-a-half later, Hay moved to [[Nashville, Tennessee]] and brought in an old-time fiddler to launch the  ''[[WSM (AM)|WSM]] Barn Dance''; this show is now known as the [[Grand Ole Opry]] and remains on the air to this day. Dozens of similar programs cropped up on [[AM radio]] stations all across the United States, from New England to Los Angeles, including the [[WWVA Jamboree]] in Wheeling, West Virginia (1933), the [[Renfro Valley Barn Dance]] in Kentucky (1939), the [[Louisiana Hayride]] (1948), [https://web.archive.org/web/20081205120313/http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2008/hanson/1a.htm the Tennessee Jamboree] (1953) and [[Ozark Jubilee]] (1954). Television adaptations (often under the guise of early [[variety show]]s) were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s but eventually faded out of style.

==See also==
*[[Barn theatre]]
*[[Fest Noz]]
*[[Noze looan]]
*[[Twmpath]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

*[https://barnbuskers.co.uk/the-dances/ The role of the caller]
*[[:de:Liste von Barn Dance Shows|List of barn dance shows]] (German Wikipedia)
* The Barn Dance from [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/collectiondisplay.php?pageNum_collection=19&totalRows_collection=50&Record_Type=PBG&title=The%20People%27s%20Ball%20Room%20Guide People's Ballroom Guide], James Scott Skinner 1905, described as a [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/video.shtml precursor] of the Canadian Barn Dance.
* [https://www.webfeet.org/faq/barn-dance.html Barn Dance FAQ] UK, Folk Dance, perspective
* [http://midlandsbarndances.co.uk/#Popular Some popular English barn dances] The instructions and suitable sound recordings for some well-known English dances.

{{Music of Ireland}}
{{Scottish folk music}}
{{Welsh folk music}}
{{Cape Breton folk music}}

[[Category:European folk dances]]
[[Category:Rural culture in the United States]]