A Qualitative Research About Y Town Square Dance Squads

Y Town Square Dance squads in Wuhan were the subjects for this study. To explore the reason why the square dance became so popular rapidly, I conducted thorough qualitative researches, including depth interviews and participant observation, and I found that:Firstly, Y Town Square dancing activities are organized voluntarily by a group of literary expertises, and the components of the dance team start from the initiators’own social networks to bigger crowds. Most of the initiators, who have immerse amount of free time but few recreational activities options, have some literary background and are in the state of retirement or idleness. Additionally, they are concerned about health, hoping to become healthier through dancing.Secondly, there are three persuasion modules for the size of dance team to grow Firstly, the interpersonal relationship and "face" play very important roles in the persuasion process. In order to convince others to join, the participants usually say" You and I are relatives/friends, and I care about your health, I want to dance with you," Secondly, using actual cases is also an important way of persuasion, participants usually put it in this way," square dance is conducive to health, and we became healthier as a benefit of the square dance, so I hope you could come to dance,". Finally, the collaboration with the government also help the dance team to gain recognition and prosper.Thirdly, the daily routine of the dance team include:dance workout, business performance, and shopping/play mahjong. Through the daily activities and interactions, a secondary group was formed, among which, Ms. Z and Ms. F are the core. In other words, it’s a small social circle. Ms. Z and Ms. F, respectively, play a different leader:Z lady is ideographic leader, coordinate between group members through its own charm; Ms. F is a technical leader, improve the level of community members through their own dancing techniques.Fourthly, the root cause of most of the dance team members participating in the dancing activities is the lack of self-identity, cause they play a role of housewife or " semi-professional women and semi-housewife " in the daily life, and the monotonous boring life worsen the situation. Dancing is something they like and have inherent power to do. Small portion of the members participated in the dance groups, for the purpose of pursue a higher level of self-identity in their retirement or spare time, hoping to become an important role in the dance team and get more attention.Fifth, the square dance provides a way for participants to build self-identity Through observation and interviews, I found that square dances make creativity possible, which have significant meaning for the people whose routine life is trivial and banal. In addition, The interpersonal interaction and internal discourse space also help to achieve self-identity. The participants are in constant contact with each other, encourage and support each other, which formed a harmonious interpersonal relationships and established a good discourse space; And they feel the difference from the outsiders, which also helps to obtain self-identity from other people’s " jealousies and appreciation ".