Yesterday, at the Huntsman World Senior Games 2002, there was a square dance competition. I couldn’t find any rules or procedures for the event on the web site.

At the 2002 California State Square Dance Convention, there was a youth square dance competition. Sixteen dancers participated, and they used a format similar to that used by the Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Competition: each square’s actual dance time is tracked, and the square that danced the most wins.

I think this fits the idea of MWSD better than some competition based on style, appearance, and tricky pre-planned choreography (although that’s certainly how most other dance contests are judged). I personally dislike practicing the same thing over and over to make it look perfect, but I like the idea of practicing problem-solving so that dancers can cope with whatever the caller calls.

Canadians seem much more into square dance competitions…maybe that’s why they have more teenagers who square dance or maybe they have more competitions because they have more teenagers who square dance (chicken and egg?). I had an article that mentioned a square dance competition at Guelph University. I also found this page on a square dance competition for a Quebec Young Farmers group. The Pacific Northwest Teen event is often held in Canada.

This whole article was brought on by an article at CircleLeft by Bud Wolkins: Where Do We Go From Here on why we should introduce competition into MWSD. Although I’m not a particularly competitive person, I agree that competition might help attract more people to square dancing, although I disagree with Bud’s judging criteria: “Judging could be done on correct moves (goodbye Hungarian Swing), dancing attire, facial expression (are they having a good time?), are they dancing to the beat of the music, and dancing the correct number of beats for each move. (Anyone remember how many beats for Grand Square?)” All of these things are important, but the major difference between MWSD and other dance forms is the dancers’ ability to solve choreographic puzzles in real time, and I’d like to see that added to the judging.