Across Europe, common participatory dance traditions are found, such as the chain and circle dances, the couple dances and the 19th century round dances. These music-dance families share common heritage through similar ethnographic, rhythmical and structural elements having a strong participatory character.  

In Europe, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, participatory dances, spontaneously danced on various occasions, became the basis for creating performance-oriented dances. These were used as a political national tool, and they have continued to coexist to this day. To ensure that participation remained at the centre of dancing, countries developed safeguarding strategies.   

In the second half of the 20th century, a number of safeguarding movements spread across Europe. For instance, in Hungary, the first Táncház was organised in 1972, a method that has been selected for the UNESCO Register. The Táncház (‘dance-house’) model of teaching folk dance and music combines traditional forms of learning with modern pedagogical and academic methods. It has spread to neighbouring countries and to America and Asia. In Greece, it inspired the emerging movement of dance in public squares and in France, it gave rise to the Balfolk movement, which also has participation at its core. Balfolk has also inspired several European dance communities in Poland, Flanders and North America. In Norway, the movements gave inspiration to dance projects for youths, and the Dancing Museum project to facilitate more than 30 museums and archives to arrange participatory dance parties on a permanent basis.