Square Dance History Project
The rich story of North American square dance finally has a home in the digital age.

Browse Items (376 total)

  • Temporal Coverage is exactly "2000 -"
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Royal Lancers Quadrille

A "Royal Lancers," according to the notes of the historical pageant presented at the eighth National Square Dance Convention (Denver, 1959), is "any square dance that is doubled -… View item
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Duluth Stomp

Square dance figure originally created by Lloyd Yesberger (Duluth, MN) and published in Sets in Order, March, 1953. Caller Jim Saxe took the dance and modified it, keeping the key figure, the series… View item
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Classic Squares of 1960 - CALLERLAB demonstration

This is the handout of a workshop held at CALLERLAB's 2001 convention. The goal was to illustrate square dancing in 1960, a time when modern square dancing was branching off in new directions. This… View item
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Chinese Fan - Lisa Greenleaf

This clip only shows the actual Chinese Fan part of the dance. Omitted are the opening figures, breaks, and the ending. The dance is usually done with dancers linking elbows; here, the caller simply… View item
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Dorothy Stott Shaw

This is a compilation of several articles written by Cal Campbell and originally published inThe American Dance Circle, the quarterly journal of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. Although Lloyd Shaw is the… View item
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Duck for the Oyster - origins

This discussion of Duck for the Oyster was an e-mail from the author, Tony Parkes, to the coordinator of the Square Dance History Project. A search on this site for "oyster" will bring back numerous… View item
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Lee Kopman calls

This "Wordle" is an illustration of how frequently calls written by Lee Kopman appear in modern square dance calling. The size correlates with the frequency of the call's use, Readers interested in… View item
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Musical and Mathematical Design of Square Dance Singing Calls

These videos record a lengthy and detailed talk by caller Guy Steele. He's not addressing a square dance audience, so it's an interesting presentation of technical aspects of how a singing… View item
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1976 Square Dance Historical Pageant

Cal Campbell provides this account of the production of the historical pageant at the 1976 National Square Dance Convention. View item
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Square Dance History display panels

The panels in this set trace the history of square dancing over some 500 years, going back to early origins in England and France. They were assembled by Dick Severance, an early president of the… View item
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Big Set - Berea Country Dancers, 2011

The Berea Country Dancers perform a version of the southern mountain Big Set. (Searching for that term will bring up several dozen additional Related Items.) Paul Adkins called the dance from the… View item
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Parisian Varieties Quadrille

Mid-19th century quadrille, five figures, with music including waltz, polka, and mazurka.Les Variétés ParisiennesA new Quadrille, composed by the "Société Académique… View item