International Square and Round Dance Convention

The International Square and Round Dance Convention is a unique cooperative event. 2014 was the 54th and last year that this convention was put on by callers and dancers from the plains states and provinces of the U.S. and Canada. It grew out of the Atlantic Convention that was started in New England in 1955. The Atlantic Convention moved after the second year to Washington, DC and in 1959 to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At that Convention Earle Park was the first Canadian caller to be invited to be on the staff. The Parks were impressed with the idea of a convention and, in the fall of 1959, called together a group of Canadian and American dancers and callers to organize a similar event in the prairie region. The first of those conventions was held in Estevan, Saskatchewan on June 10 and 11 of 1960.

The new convention grew from 280 attendees the first year to 1,640 in 1983, the best attendance year. Over more than five decades this convention was staffed by invitation with some of the most popular and prominent callers from that area. The program shows that these callers served as Masters of Ceremony with calling and cueing of rounds done by other leaders from the area. The first year calling staff included 7 from Canada and 6 from the U.S. In 1983 the calling staff included 4 from Canada and 4 from the U.S. Among them were Earle Park and Corky Birt, both of whom were on the staff of the first convention, and Norm Cross, who would become a Chairman of CALLERLAB and Martin Mallard, who served several years on the CALLERLAB Board of Governors.

While there are several square dance conventions in Europe that are run cooperatively by dancers from more than one country, we think this one is unique in North America, the homeland of square dancing. The convention is described in a set of 5 scrap books that are in the collection of the Bismark, ND Heritage Center. The scrap book history was started in 1962 by Mac McKensie who continued to maintain it until he passed away in 1973. The maintenance of the scrap books was then taken over until 1999 by Al and Irene Roth. Al was a staff caller for several of the Conventions. From 1999 to 2012 the books were maintained by Mel and Joan Dier. We are indebted to Ray and Rose Hall for maintaining them for the final two years and for photographing the entire 5 book set.

Book 1 of the scrapbooks appears in the window here. You can look at or download PDFs of the other 4 books by clicking below the Additional Files heading.