Well, I'm curious about them anyway. My son got invited to one last weekend and declined to go. He said it was a multi-stake dance and they have them every three months or so. He also said a dance recommend was not required.

This is way different from when I was growing up. Stake dances were every 2nd Saturday night of each month and only single stake. Only about once a year did we have a multi-stake dance because they were way too crowded. The single stake dances were packed - even some non-LDS kids went. We all needed to get a dance recommend from the bishop to attend, although we could get visitor recommends if we wanted to invite friends. Non-LDS who attended on a regular monthly basis would get a regular dance recommend from the bishop - it wasn't a bishop interview. He'd just stop you in the hall and make sure you knew the rules about modesty, being sober, if you left before it was over you couldn't get back in etc. Then he'd hand over a pre-signed card. Low key - but they still kept an eye on things.

Anyway, I was wondering if the stake dances had been cut back in number like so many other things. And the fact my son said he though all stake dances were multi-stake makes it sound like not many kids go to the few dances they have. My son also told me that he was glad he didn't go because he heard in school that not a lot of kids he knew were there - many of them skipped. I always thought that the youth were one group the church invested money in - to get them convinced of Mormonism during their vulnerable years. But I keep hearing stories of fewer dances, shortened treks, mini YW camps of just two nights and Boy Scout camps that are just glorified campouts - no badges, no official camp etc. Sounds like stuff is rough all over - even amongst Mormon youth.

People were happy to come to the Palmdale, CA, stake dances, and we often had live music. It was so easy to invite investigators. Sometimes the band was a 1940s-50s dance band for some of the older folks, but sometimes it was a rock group. The local Antelope Valley favorites were a rock group called "The Others." We had a full-up kitchen turning out real food, and almost every dance was a jacket/tie affair.

Don't think they got nothin' like this today.

Even up to the early 80s we had fun dances, although rarely live music. We did have to wear Sunday dress that complied with the modesty standards.

We had LDS Corp sponsored dances in the 60s, but I don't remember having to get any 'dance recommend'. Just more control. It sounds like it's a way to get the people used to the idea of having to get 'recommends' to go access their temple compounds.

I expect there are as many different rules for stake dances as there are stakes. They are entirely at the discretion of the Stake President (despite guidelines being available in the handbook) and from my experience can change over time under the direction of different stake leaders, as well as from stake to stake.

Over here (UK) I have never even heard of a "dance recommend". We had stake YM/YW dances, multi-stake YM/YW dances, and often one national YM/YW dance each year at the annual "convention" (or "conference" or "EFY" depending on the era). Dress standards have always been fairly standard, but music standards vary considerably.

I was in high school from 1971 to 1975--and attended quite a few stake dances. We had 3 Saturdays a month and 4 stakes were involved. They rotated stake centers.

We had to get dance cards quarterly and I had the wonderful bishop who liked to ask about masturbation and necking and petting--and we didn't just stop him in the hall and get a dance card--we got another interview. Nonmos had to have the bishop interview, too. I don't know about other bishops, but our's was horrible.

We USUALLY had live music.

the stake dance was the place to be on Saturday nights--if you had a crush on someone, that is where you should be as they were usually there.

Oh yeah, and for a long while I used to DJ - and would turn the hall into a nightclub. Dark, lasers, strobe, UV lights, and pounding techno and house music (at least for some of the night).

Then a new Stake President decided to make it his personal mission to take all the fun out of my dances and make them as unappealing as possible. First he decided the pounding music had to go - anything with a four to the floor beat was out. Next went the UV lights (you could see some of the girls bras! tee-hee) and the strobe (satanic, obviously). Last to go was the dark - he actually bought some cheap IKEA uplighting and put one in each corner of the room.

IN the end - the end for me DJ-ing that is - we were playing cheesy pop music at half volume in fairly well lit cultural halls with a few flashing disco lights to 30 people (and most of those were outside making out round the back of the chapel, whilst the PH "leaders" were chaperoning the music selection).