For the younger, unmarried people, barn dances were socially acceptable occasions for courting and mingling with members of the opposite sex. In today's terms, barn dances were not only an appropriate place to network, but also to innocently flirt. Such dances served the same functions in England and France, where they originated before the first European settlers brought them to North America. Many traditional dances survived by oral tradition alone, sometimes for two hundred years or more, until the they were finally written down in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The dances to be taught at the Garfield Farm Museum's barn dance are easily learned and open to all ages and levels of experience.
Singles are welcome as one is constantly changing partners during the dances.
One of the contra dances even requires 3 dancers to match up together. Other dances are performed as a group giving people a chance to meet each other. Additional barn dances are scheduled for July 17 and August 21, the third Friday night of the summer months. The Garfield Farm Museum is located on Garfield Road five miles west of Geneva off IL Route 38. Return to Main Garfield Farm Web Page .