History

In 2006, Brian Gallagher attended a dance weekend in Wisconsin. He arrived at the weekend and quickly realized that at age 23, he was the youngest person there. There were only three other people under the age of 35 at the weekend. Yikes! Brian and Carol Ormand (a Wisconsin-based caller, and one of the other people under age 35 at the weekend) spent lots of time that weekend discussing the generation gap at dance weekends. Together, they came up with the idea of having a dance weekend specifically aimed at younger dancers. Out of this discussion, Youth Dance Weekend was born. Carol passed the torch off to Brian, who contacted some of his skilled young dance-organizer friends. Hence, the original YDW Committee was Brian, Magdalen Zander, Julia Nickles, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, Rebecca Lay, and Sarah Pilzer. The first Youth Dance Weekend happened in 2008.

Nearly two decades, one global pandemic and many Committee members later, YDW is still going strong and maintains the same goal of connecting the next generation of dancers from across North America and inspiring them to develop skills for participating and leading in all aspects of our vibrant dance community.

The first three YDWs were held at Timberlake Camp at Field and Wilderness in Plymouth, Vermont. YDW moved to Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont in 2011 after Hurricane Irene damaged the Timberlake venue, and has remained there since. 

The event we know today as the Community Conversation – a unique aspect of YDW that brings attendees together on Saturday afternoon to discuss issues facing the dance community – originated in 2011 as “Bread and Butter,” a time where attendees could voice their thoughts on youth involvement in traditional dance. It was revamped in 2013 as “the BIG conversation” and touched on a number of issues, including our individual roles in the dance community, tradition vs. innovation, recruitment, and “what to do with English?”

YDW has for the most part remained annual, but had to be canceled in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned in 2022 with a brand new Committee and new COVID precautions

We’ve danced in many styles over the years, including contra, English, singing squares, swing & blues, fusion, balfolk, percussive dance and international dance.

Many of the traditions that started early on, including Money Musk, Softly Good Tummas, techno contras, shape-note singing, and tabletop discussion topics are still essential elements of YDW today!

For more details about past weekends, visit our YDW Archive.