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

Browse Items (16 total)

  • Tags: cowboy
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"Meet Your Honey, Go Hog Wild"

This collection of anecdotes describes early dances and social norms in Texas cowboy country. View item
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"Partners To Your Places

This 1949 chapter by Olcutt Sanders is a significantly expanded version of his short piece fromFoot 'n' Fiddle in 1947. Here it's complete with scholarly footnotes, making it more useful to… View item
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"The Texas Cattle Country and Cowboy Square Dance" – Olcutt Sanders

This article, scholarly yet accessible, provides an excellent look at square dancing in west Texas in the late 1800s. He starts with a look at the conditions that set this region apart from… View item
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Cowboy Dance Tunes – excerpt

This was first published as a separate booklet in 1940 to accompany Lloyd Shaw's Cowboy Dances, which appeared in 1939. Shaw provides an introduction.Jim Saxe notes, "The same tune collection,… View item
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Cowboy Square Dances of West Texas

This booklet provides an introduction to West Texas square dances. After a detailed glossary, complete with diagrams, the author provides a sample of dances as they might be called. The patter is… View item
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At the Keith Ranch (1893)

SeeAdditional Filesfor the full story.This short story, published in 1893, focuses on events at a square dance at a Colorado ranch. Although the plot itself is melodramatic, the author includes… View item
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Cowboy Dance (1923 article)

This description of dances on the Texas frontier was included in a 1923 collection, Coffee in the Gourd, edited by J. Frank Dobie for the Texas Folk-Lore Society. The author paints a vivid picture of… View item
Moving Image

Cowboy Medley Square - Silver Spurs

Caller Red Henderson, who founded the Silver Spurs youth dance troupe, here calls a "cowboy square dance," mixing together figures based on traditional western square dances. The film dates… View item
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Cowboy Songs and Dances

This is an excerpt-- the dance part; a later song section is omitted-- from an article that includes the author's experiences at a cowboy dance in 1903. The author includes typical patter heard… View item
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Cowboys' Christmas Ball - Anson, Texas

Poem written in 1890 describing the Cowboys' Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas. For more information about the author, see this website on cowboy poetry. The Ball continues, following the original rules… View item
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Cowpuncher's Square Dance Call

Poem that appears to be square dance patter from traditional western square dancing View item
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Cowpuncher's Square Dance Call - response

Folklorist Sam Hinton has some fun with the poem. If it is to be taken literally as an example of a dance call, Hinton calculates that the cowboys are dancing at a speed greater than 20 miles per… View item