Did you know there are numerous Round Dance videos posted on YouTube? Some feature demonstration dances from various major Round Dance events while others feature everyday dancers at their regular club sessions. There are also short teaching videos for particular Round Dance figures.
First it might be helpful to give a brief introduction to YouTube.
Anyone with a free Google account automatically has a YouTube account where they can upload videos and allow them to be viewed publicly. If they have a particular field of interest, like Round Dancing for example, they can also create a “Channel” on YouTube and upload their Round Dance videos to their Channel. To view these videos you don’t need a Google account but if you do have one, you can subscribe to a channel and you’ll be kept up-to date on new uploaded videos. Videos uploaded to a Channel can be organized into “Playlists”which are created by the Channel owner to put videos into groupings with a common theme. A Round Dance Channel might have several Playlists which group videos by their rhythm, choreographer, dance club or demonstration dance couple (Worlocks, Hurds) for example. Many YouTube channels can be searched individually for dance titles. This is in addition to the general YouTube search which searches all YouTube videos and unfortunately often doesn’t do the best job. If you want to try the YouTube general search to look for a particular dance title, try using the following link which I’ve customized to locate Round Dance videos YouTube Search
The search box will be partially filled waiting for you to enter the title of the dance you are interested in after the word “intitle:”. The dance title doesn’t need to be exact. Sometimes it’s better to use just two or three keywords from the title. Once you’ve hit return to execute the search take a look at the first few videos displayed and hopefully your dance is listed.
(A note of interest that both our current Wednesday and Thursday teaches, Carnival and Lady Marmalade can be found using this search.)
Now here’s a list of YouTube Round Dance Channels with a short description and a customized link which will take you directly to each one.
Note: To search within a channel for a dance title click on the small grey magnifying glass at the right hand end of the channel menu. (Shown inside the red box below.)
TNT Rounds
Created by Terri & Tim Wilaby who run a phase 2-4 Dance Club in Pensacola, Florida. This channel is an excellent source of high quality demonstration dances performed at the Florida State and National Square & Round Dance Conventions. It contains several well organized Playlists.
Jim Miller This channel has numerous videos from club dances in Pennsylvania with various cuers. A number of dances feature Steve Bradt cuing. (Please note that Mr Miller has combined a few of his other interests on his channel so you may come across videos not related to dancing.)
River City Rounds is a Phase 2 – 5 dance club in St. Louis, Missouri and has videos from club dances.
GB Rounds has videos from some of their club dances.
MrBob2039 has some teach videos of various Foxtrot and West Coast Swing figures. (Please note that Mr Bob has combined a few of his other interests on his channel so you may come across videos not related to dancing.)
Hilton Rounds has a few demo videos, some club dance videos and some basic waltz figure instructional videos.
Ahart Dancing created by Tony & Carolyn Ahart, cuers from Springfield, Missouri has a number of videos taken of club dances.
You’ll notice as you view various videos, YouTube will begin to suggest other dance videos and channels you might be interested in, learning from your viewing history. These suggestions are often helpful and can lead to even more Dance Channels.
I hope you’ll find this article useful and it will assist you in using YouTube as an additional dance resource.
Submitted by Mike Cosham