DCHP-1 Online
dance house 
among Indians and Eskimos, a large structure where communal dancing is performed.
See also: dance hall (def. 2) dancing lodge singing house snowhouse (def. 2)
- 1853 It is rare to find a village without its accompanying dance-house . . . a building erected by the united efforts of the whole community, and constructed on the same plan as the common dwellings, but larger, and, the floor being raised some three feet from the ground, more free from wet.
- 1948 . . . the whole population of the village quickly gathered together in the large village dance house to discuss the matter.
- 1964 The dance houses are large barn-like structures with dirt floors and tiers of benches round the walls, heated by two large bonfires.
- 1965 Lack of any definite organization . . . did not deprive the Eskimos of a social and religious life. . . . It centred on the dance-house, which in Hudson Bay, and probably also in Labrador, was no more than an enlarged snow hut that provided a home for two or three families, and possessed a forecourt into which other families could squeeze for conversation, dances, and religious ceremonies.
- 1853 It is rare to find a village without its accompanying dance-house . . . a building erected by the united efforts of the whole community, and constructed on the same plan as the common dwellings, but larger, and, the floor being raised some three feet from the ground, more free from wet.