The only male I danced with until 8th grade was my father. I was in Catholic school in 6th grade. I don’t recall refusing a dance, because I thought that it was impolite.
Now they have boy-girl school dances in sixth grade?
Sixth grade (11-12 years old) is still considered primary school. In my day parents would not approve either dating or “going steady” for their sixth grade kids.
The earliest school dance we had was in 7th grade, and it was an afternoon dance for the Junior High kids (7-9th grade).