Square dancers; photo by culbertson11 on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).
Official State American Folk Dance of North Dakota
North Dakota designated the square dance as the official state American folk dance in 1995. Twenty-two states have passed legislation to declare the square dance as the state folk dance and more than thirty bills have been introduced at the federal level proposing the square dance as the national (folk) dance of the United States. All State Dances
Folk customs give people a special sense of identity and belonging to a group. The square dance provided pioneers with recreation and social contact with neighbors - and is still doing that today! The square dance is uniquely American - comprised of parts from foreign dances such as French quadrilles, Irish jigs, English reels, and Spanish fandangos, blended with American folkways and customs.