Who knew but New Jersey has an official state dance…drum roll…the square dance! Really, the Square Dance was designated as the American Folk Dance of the State of New Jersey by Joint Resolution No. 1, 1983.
According to NJ 101.5 you can thank Nan and Frank Habersberger for this honor. Sadly, Nan and Frank are no longer with us and at one point moved to Colorado but as stated in Frank’s obituary, “Frank and Nan’s social life was spent almost entirely in square dancing and Scottish country dancing. They did this for most of the 64 years of married life. They became presidents of three square dance clubs and two square dance associations. In 1989 and 1991, they were co-presidents of the national Organization, United Square Dancers of America.”
In further research (I am thorough), it seems like quite a few states have square dancing as their state dance followed by the polka. I don’t know about you, but I think we may want to modernize these choices. I’m not really sure what the polka dance entails…wasn’t it featured on the Lawrence Welk show? I know polka dots are always in vogue!
What do you think? Some choices could be: hip hop, swing, tap, contemporary. Let us know in the comments section, but whatever you do…keep on dancin!
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