Welcome to SquareDanceHistory.org
This web site is a work in progress. In time, this site will provide access to a rich collection of information about the history of American square dancing and its many forms. Eventually, this will include moving images, audio clips, text, interviews, and photographs.
For a more detailed look at our plans, please read the accompanying project overview. In addition to the financial support we have already received, we are also seeking major grant support. Obtaining the rights to old footage can be expensive, let alone the cost of digitizing the images on film.
At this time, six organizations are cooperating in this project:
- Country Dance and Song Society
- Square Dance resources
- Bob Dalsemer, West Virginia Square Dances
- Ted Sannella, Calling Traditional New England Squares
- Square Dance Foundation of New England
- 1960s era live recordings
- Bob Brundage interviews with square dance callers
This links to the transcriptions; also available on the site are the audio files. Be patient; the site is slow to load. - Additional on-line resources
- CALLERLAB – The International Association of Square Dance Callers
- The Lloyd Shaw Foundation
- ARTS: Alliance of Round, Traditional and Square-Dance
- University of New Hampshire, Special Collections
Helping guide this project is a group of experienced dance callers plus scholars, archivists, and digital specialists at the University of New Hampshire. All the dance consultants participated in Dare To Be Square at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC; this major square dance event (November 18-20, 2011) showcased a wide variety of squares: New England, southern Appalachian, traditional western, modern, and singing squares. That weekend attracted 70 dancers—three-quarters of whom were callers!—from around the country. With CDSS financial support for videotaping the event, 100 video clips from Dare To Be Square have been made available. (See VIDEOS tab above for more information and links.)
Over the past two years, we have been searching archives and collections throughout North America. If you have or know of good movie footage that shows square dancing, please contact us at millstone@valley.net with more specific information.