This week we have photos from the folk-dance festivals that were held at the University of Idaho in the 1960s, along with photos of women doing folk dances.

A little background on folk dancing: “Folk dances are usually danced at social gatherings…that can but are not required to have a particular dancing stage and are almost always so simple to dance that new dancers and amateurs are encouraged to start dancing with everyone else. Such dances almost never have an official governing body that is keeping the development of folk dance in check. Instead of that, the morphing of the folk dances in their countries and local regions happens spontaneously by the changes with local traditions. Modern dances that have developed spontaneously such as hip hop are not regarded as folk dance, and they are often called ‘street dances.’”¹

In 1989, Idaho became the tenth state of a total of 28 that officially chose the square dance as an official state dance. Idaho law declared that “the folk dance, known as the square dance, is hereby designated as the American folk dance of Idaho.”²

Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Women’s Recreation Wednesday!

Sources

Photos courtesy of UG 69 (University of Idaho Women’s Recreation Association Photographs)