Browse Items (930 total)
Square dance - Ary, KY - 1963 (big set)
The caller is Corbett Grigsby, with music provided by fiddler Marion Sumner and guitarists Martin Young and Roscoe Holcomb. Grigsby introduces the figure as "around behind, lady in the lead."This footage was recorded by filmmaker George Pickow at the…
Henry Ford’s Dance Revival and Fiddle Contests:
Myth and Reality
Square dance enthusiasts generally know something of the important role played by Henry Ford in encouraging an American square dance revival. This lengthy article by Paul M. Gifford examines this story in more detail and provides a more nuanced view…
Hoodoo Religion and American Dance Traditions: Rethinking the Ring Shout
Article by Katrina Hazzard-Donald looks at the relationship between African-American churches and traditional dance. As the article's summary puts it: "When one considers the history of American dance traditions one rarely thinks about its possible…
The Afro-American Transformation of European Set Dances and Dance Suites
Scholarly article that looks at the way that European set dances such as the quadrille became changed by African Americans. The article looks in detail at the quadrille tradition in the Caribbean islands as well as on the US mainland:"It is well…
Haynes Family manuscript - Oregon
This manuscript of sixty-five dance tunes was handed down through several generations of the Haynes, Shuck, and Adams families who came West over the Oregon Trail from Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa and Missouri between 1847 and 1853. Many of the family…
Peter Beemer manuscript - Idaho
This is a collection of mid-19th century dance tunes from a remote Idaho location; as such, it is a useful record of the music being used for dances of the period. This website also contains background information on dancing in the mining community…
Washington Fiddlers Project Panel Discussion
This is an edited transcript of the panel discussion at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunesl, Port Townsend, Washington, July 2, 1986, as a part of the Washington Fiddlers Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, and initially…
Lucky Strike cigarettes - commercial
Television commercial featuring animated cigarettes doing square dance figures, with caller's patter describing the cigarette's many virtues.
Square Dance in advertisements
These magazine ads, mostly from the late 1940s and early 1950s, illustrate the widespread presence of square dance in American popular culture. Beech-Nut chewing gum Life April 21, 1952beer (beverage of moderation) McCall's September, 1952Brach's…
Gene Gowing - Polly Wolly Doodle (clip)
This dance uses the familiar children's song as the basis for a singing square. It's unclear whether caller Gene Gowing is singing the song at the beginning; the quality of the voice certainly differs from Gowing's delivery of the calls.
Glenn Pease - dance posters
Two posters advertising dances called by Orford, NH, caller Glenn Pease. (He did spell his name with "nn," despite one of the posters.) The Huntington Pavilion poster dates from 1946; that dance venue no longer operates. The Painted Barn poster is…