ROUND DANCING

Round dancing is choreographed and cued ballroom dancing. We dance most of the popular ballroom rhythms, such as foxtrot and waltz, cha-cha and rumba, and many others. The exciting difference between round dancing and free-style, social, ballroom dancing is that each round dance has been fully choreographed ahead of time. A beautiful piece of music is selected, and the different steps or figures are chosen to fit the music exactly. If the music swells and pauses briefly, then a dance step that rises and stretches is put into that place. If there is a little syncopation in another part of the song, then a quick little step is inserted.

Secondly, there is a cuer or leader at the front of the ballroom who tells the dancers what steps to do. As the music plays, and just ahead of the beat, so the dancers have time to respond, the cuer names each dance figure in the choreography. The cueing lets us dance lots and lots of dances without having to memorize the choreography. You may recognize that this is the way square dancing is done, with a caller telling the couples what to do: "swing your partner, do-si-do." In round dancing, the cuer might say: "open telemark, pick up, and diamond turn."

What we offer here are some short examples of round dance music and round dance cueing. (Some clips are uncued.) If you would like to learn more about round dancing, visit the links at the bottom of the page or email any question you might have.

If you would like to learn more, visit our Round Dance Instruction Manual or Chris & Terri's Dance Page.

Harold and Meredith Sears, Boulder, CO