Western Montana Workshop, a Carousel Round Dance Club in Missoula, Montana: History of our Club

About Us

In 1961 a group of round dance instructors in Western Montana gathered together to discuss the possibility of hiring a well-known United States round dance instructor to come to Montana to teach a dance weekend. Dancers from around the State of Montana, as well as dancers from other states and Canada, would be invited to attend the weekend of dance instruction. This undertaking was quite a gamble, since there was no treasury to draw from to finance the weekend, but the local instructors extended requests for an instructor couple. Bob and Helen Smithwick of San Diego very graciously offered to be our instructors for that first weekend.

Annual Round-O-Rama

So on August 12th and 13th, 1961, Montana's 1st Annual Round-O-Rama was held in Butte at the beautiful Columbia Gardens. The annual event was held there for 13 years, until the Anaconda Copper Mining Company tore down the building to extend its mining operations into that area.

Round-O-Rama was held in various Montana locations until the 19th year, after which it was held at the Lolo Dance Center for the next 9 years. The 29th and 30th years' events were held at the Missoula Square & Round Dance Center, which was located on the Missoula County Fairgrounds. During the first 30 years of Round-O-Rama, most of the round dancing was done without cues. Dances were cued while they were being taught, and then memorized.

Annual Round-a-Vous

In 1991, cueing became a major part of the round dance program, and the round dance weekend was programmed with cues for the first time in order to encourage a wider range of participation from dancers. Since this was such an historic change in the structure of the program, the members decided that the name of the annual event should be changed from Round-O-Rama to Round-a-Vous. Cued dances are now standard for the annual weekend program, which is held at the Square & Round Dance Center in Lolo, Montana. The 17th annual Round-a-Vous will be held at the Lolo dance center on June 22, 23, and 24, 2006, featuring Ron & Mary Noble as instructors.