Bush dance

What it is

Bush dance is a broad name for social dancing in Australia, especially when a bush band supplies the music. The figures are largely inherited from folk dancing in the United Kingdom, Ireland and central Europe, and they arrived with settlers and with people who came during the gold rushes. Two loose styles sit under the name. One is bush dance itself, which cares less about fussy footwork and more about everyone reaching the right place, and is danced in everyday clothes. The other is colonial dance, which asks for precise footwork, often uses period costume, and includes many dances found only in Australia.

Origins and history

From 1770, settlers arriving in Australia brought the dances of their home countries with them. During the gold rushes of the 1850s, miners added dances from Europe, some of which had travelled by way of the American goldfields. Through the pastoral years, roughly 1860 to 1950, dances were held in rural woolsheds and in local halls. Collectors and enthusiasts began recording and performing the old dances in the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep them in use. From the 1970s bush dancing spread more widely again, and many social clubs started holding Bushy Balls regularly.

Formations and sets

Dances are often grouped by the shape the dancers make. Big circle dances put dancers in a ring or a horseshoe, with men and women alternating; Stockyards is one. Longways sets place three to eight couples in two facing lines, the top couple nearest the band on its left, as in the Galopede. Sicilian circle dances have couples facing one another at right angles to the direction the dance travels, often as a progressive figure, and Cottages is an example. Four couples on the sides of a square make a quadrille, such as the Colonial's Quadrille. Short lines of three also occur, as in the Dashing White Sergeant. Closed couples may dance in a ballroom hold arranged around the room.

Music and instruments

A bush band supplies the music, and most of its tunes are old ones from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Players who know the session repertoire of Britain, Ireland and the United States would recognise variations on many of them. Common rhythms are the reel, the jig, the march, the waltz and the hornpipe. Fiddle, piano, accordion, concertina, tin whistle, guitar and banjo all feature, along with a bush bass and percussion that can include the lagerphone. Amplified instruments such as the electric guitar and the electric bass have been used since the 1970s.

Today and change

Bush dance has something in common with American line dancing and square dancing: the dancers already know the figures and carry them out as a group, and partners often change during a dance. Some dances are taught or simply assumed, among them The Ninepins Quadrille, which The Bushwackers nicknamed The Drongo. In that dance a person left without a partner is set apart and lightly mocked by the others. The Heel-Toe Polka, also called the Brown Jug Polka, is a simpler progressive dance often used with children, in which partners slap their own knees and hands and then each other's hands.

How Bush dance is kept

A dance begins with everyone taking their places, whether in a circle, in two long lines or in a square. A bush band plays from the front, and in a longways set the top couple stands on the band's left. Dancers either know the figure already or are taught it as they go. Partners are often swapped partway through a dance. Progressive dances move couples around the room so that they meet new partners, and then the sets re-form for the next tune. Polished footwork is not the aim; being in the right place at the right moment is.

When and where

Bush dance is not tied to a season, a saint's day or a religious calendar. Dances take place across the year in woolsheds, local halls and clubs, and many social clubs hold Bushy Balls on a regular basis.

Bush dance belongs to Australia. It is strongest in country districts and rural towns, where dances were once held in woolsheds and in local halls, and it also continues in the cities through folk and social clubs. The figures come from the United Kingdom, Ireland and central Europe, and most tunes from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

What Bush dance means

For the people who keep it, bush dancing is a shared social pleasure rather than a performance for an audience. Its point is doing something together: the dancers know the figures, take their places, and the set works because each person plays a part. The dances also hold a thread of memory, since many came from the countries settlers left and were shaped by Australian halls and woolsheds. Collectors in the mid twentieth century thought them worth recording and passing on.

Questions people ask about Bush dance

See also

Irish traditional musicA living folk practice of dance tunes, airs, songs and communal pub sessionsDragon danceA long dragon puppet on poles, danced by a team at Chinese New Year and other festivalsMorris danceA rhythmic English folk dance performed in costume with bells, sticks and handkerchiefsIrish stepdanceA percussive dance form with swift, intricate footwork and an upright torso

Good reading and sources

• Bush dance on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.