Good exercise, good music and good spirits
New Style Square Dance sparkles with dynamism and high spirits, and for most people the Square Dance evening becomes the funniest evening of the week.
In a matter of very few years New Style Square Dance has become an incredibly popular form of exercise for all age groups. To the beat of exciting country music you get professional instruction by Preben Klitgaard, wonderful fellowship with the other dancers, and lots of fun hours in a cosy environment in Klitgaarden.

Everybody can join
New Style Square Dance is very easy to learn, and if you are a rookie, you of course get a free trial lesson, so that you can convince yourself, that we speak the truth.
We dance in squares with 4 couples in each square – but you don't necessarily have to bring a partner to sign up, or just to try.

PLAN FOR THE SEASON 2006-2007

Square Dance outside of Aalborg

Square Dance is not Square Dance

For your information there are no less than 3 styles of Square Dance:

Traditional Square Dance (the oldest form of Square Dance)
Modern Western Square Dance (the second oldest form of Square Dance)
New Style Square Dance (the newest form of Square Dance)

In short, the differences between the 3 styles of Square Dance are:

Traditional Square Dance
The dance style is best compared to folk dance. The dancers learn set dances and formations. The music and the attire is very faithful to the original. As a consequence the music is not played with modern musical instruments etc.

Modern Western and New Style Square Dance
(common features)
The two dance styles have a lot in common. Only the actual way the dance is performed, is different. In both styles the dancers do not learn set dances, on the contrary they learn various formations (calls) that the dance leader (the caller) puts together as he/she feels like, and as it occurs to the caller here and now.
When the dancers enter the dance floor they therefore only know that they are about to dance square dance, but they don't in any way know in which sequence they are commanded to execute the acquired calls.
That is what in particular makes it so incredibly exciting and challenging for both the dancers as well as the caller.
The number of calls and the sequence in which they are taught, is the same whether you dance Modern Western or New Style. In both dance styles Callerlab's definitions and recommended teaching order is utilized

The differences between Modern Western and New Style Square Dance
Modern Western Square Dancers move around the floor in a walking motion.
When you dance New Style, as we do in Klitgaarden, you skip around the floor i a much more free, speedy and unrestrained manner.
Among the New Style dancers the exercise and the high spirits  is much more important than the style.

New Style dancers have their own logo, which incidentally is designed by Preben Klitgaard.

HOW IT ALL STARTED...

This is the story of the arrival of Square Dance in Denmark

Ups and downs in USA
As most of you probably know, the Square Dance was "born" in USA as a mix of many European folk dances. In USA the Square Dance has however had both its ups and downs. Just before World War II the Square Dance was on the brink of dying out, but the need to congregate around something optimistic after the war breathed new life into the dance, which today is appointed as USA's national dance.

Up-to-date version in Denmark
In the period after World War II there was also made attempts to get the Square Dance off the ground in Denmark, but only when Henny and Preben Klitgaard in 1981 introduced a "new and up-to-date version" of the American Square Dance, things really got going.

Henny and Preben Klitgaard got acquainted with Square Dance via their connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church), where they in the start of the sixties danced their first Square Dance. In 1970 they started to teach Square Dance themselves, and formed already at that point a small show group. But only after four years in Greenland they launched a purposeful effort to get all of Denmark to dance Square Dance.

A coincidence started it all
Towards the end of the seventies Henny and Preben went to Greenland, and it was here that the idea of putting more tempo into the Square Dance was conceived by a coincidence.

The music was in most cases festive and full of tempo, and on that background it often seemed dull and uninspiring to have to "walk around" to the sparkling and optimistic music, which most of all inspired you to jump and gambol out of pure joy.

New Style in Denmark
When they returned to Denmark in 1981, they therefore decided to introduce Square Dance in Denmark with skip-steps instead of walk-steps, so that more speed and life was put into the dance.

In the winter of 1981-82 the dance style was tried out on an evening class in Aalborg, and in the summer of 1982 and 1983 it was introduced to the vacationists around the country, e.g. in the holiday villages of Dansk Folkeferie.

It was a thundering success, and the brisk style of Square Dance has later been named New Style Square Dance.

From hobby to full-time-job
In 1982 Henny quit her job and formed the firm Dansk Square Dance. The primary purpose of the firm was then, as it is now, to help the Danes begin dancing Square Dance.

Anybody who had coincidentally tried this festive style of Square Dance wanted to begin dancing right away, no matter where in the country they lived. Consequently Henny and Preben published the DIY book "Square Dance for begyndere" (Square Dance for Beginners) with an accompanying tape, and later "Square Dance håndbogen" (The Square Dance Handbook), which describes Callerlab's recommended Basic and Mainstream calls, plus a few others that are fun to dance.

Courses from Skagen to Gedser
Henny after this gave courses everywhere in Denmark and especially in the country's "Amtscentraler" ("County Center for Educational Material" which also arrange courses for the teachers in the county) the festive and inspiring courses became immensely popular with both the games masters as well as the music teachers.

Consequently the first issue of 3,000 copies of the beginner's book was rapidly sold out, and since then the spreading and knowledge of New Style Square Dance has expanded greatly.

Modern Western followed in the wake
At a very early stage Henny and Preben got in touch with Karin Strand-Holm and got her started with the Square Dance in Sjælland (Zealand), where she has done a tremendous effort, and has a good deal of credit for the many square dancers that exist in Zealand today.

In the wake of the increasing interest in the population for Square Dance in general, and especially the mention of Square Dance in and out of season in the press of Northern Jutland, an opportunity was created  for the Square Dance as a whole to bloom. Traditional Square Dance under the leadership of Margot Gunsenhauser now also got an opportunity to be more broadly known, and the American way of dancing Modern Western Square Dance was promoted especially with Nørresundby and Tove and Gerner Nielsen as a starting point.

Europe's first Square Dance Center
In 1986 Henny and Preben Klitgaard built Europe's first proper Square Dance Center in Aalborg, which was named Klitgaarden.

The place has since been the center for numerous caller courses, and is the daily base for approximately 600 square dancers and line dancers from Aalborg and environs.

When you study the map of Danish Square Dance Clubs, it is therefore not so odd that the Square Dance is especially widespread in Northern Jutland – but eventually the rest of the country will no doubt follow suit.

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Latest update: 20-08-2009.