Canadian Barn Dance

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

CANADIAN BARN DANCE (M16) Round The Room
Round the room dance, couples facing anticlockwise (Ladies on partners right)

1- 4 Starting with outside foot walk forward for three steps and hop, walk backwards for three steps and hop
5- 8 Skip sideways away from partner (Men towards the centre, Ladies outwards) for two steps and clap, return to partner in waltz hold.
9-12 Skip sideways to the Man's left for two steps and back
13-16 Polka anticlockwise round the room

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Dance Notes

There is also a progressive version with the following modification:

5-6 M travel diagonally backward while moving away from partner, L diagonally forward.

7-8 M travel diagonally forward to new partner, L diagonally backward. New partner is L originally behind partner for the M, M originally in front of partner for the L.

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

Canadian Barn Dance Keith Rose's Diagram

Canadian Barn Dance - Full Size And Key To Symbols

Dance Instruction Videos

Canadian Barn Dance - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

A barn dance is any kind of dance involving traditional or folk music with 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 will, therefore, generally use easy dances so that everyone can join in.

A barn dance can be a ceilidh, with traditional Irish or 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.

Canadian Barn, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

This page contains both original content, which is copyrighted, and excerpts from Wikipedia and other sources using the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Text from this original Barn Dance article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Relic38, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Additional search terms: Ceilidh Dance, Canadien.

Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Canadian Barn Dance' page