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

Browse Items (1935 total)

Document

The Square Dance Caller

This is one of the most successful efforts to describe in detail just what is involved in being a good square dance caller. (Tony Parkes, in his Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century,"… View item
Website

Buddy Weaver Podcast - Vintage MSD- Joel Pepper with Jack Barbour at Sunny Hills Barn

A live recording done at Sunny Hills Barn in Fullerton, California. From 1948 to 1962, it was the largest square dance hall in America boasting a dance floor that would hold 150 squares. Ed Smith,… View item
Sound

Gib Gilbert - Colorado caller

We're fortunate to have these live recordings from a 1979 dance called by Gib Gilbert with Yankee Ingenuity. In his introduction to the Boston area crowd, Tony Parkes comments, "All I'm going to say… View item
Document

History timeline - square dance and CALLERLAB

At the annual CALLERLAB convention, in April 2025, caller Clark Baker was asked to lead a workshop on the history of square dance and of CALLERLAB. Clark has been calling nearly 50 years, mostly at… View item
Moving Image

Square Dance - George Balanchine ballet

This video documents the marriage of square dance with ballet. According to the George Balachine Trust's website: "InSquare Dance, Balanchine joined the traditions of American folk dance with… View item
Sound

La Grande Chaine

This recording comes from La Famille Beaudoin / The Beaudoin Family, a 1976 album on the Philo label. It features the fiddling of Louis Beaudoin with calls by Fred Beaudoin. It illustrates the… View item
Website

Dancing for Busy People by Cal Campbell

Cal Campbell published "Dancing for Busy People" in 1995 to provide enjoyable dance materials that are accessible to dancers who have not taken Modern Western Square Dance classes. View item
Moving Image

Baltimore Square Dance

Beginning in 2013 the Baltimore Square Dance is a key event in the vibrant Baltimore Old Time Music scene. Monthly dances are attended by all ages, featuring bands and callers from around the region… View item
Still Image

Ed Durlacher - World's Fair, 1940

The description on this publiicity photo from the 1940 New York World's Fair reads: FAIR STAGES WORLD'S BIGGEST BARN DANCE More than 700 square dancers, hill billy bands and square… View item
Document

Keeler Calling

This three-disk set of 78rpm records features caller Elisha Keeler and the band with whom he recorded, Mac Ceppos and his Country Rhythm Boys: Mac Ceppos, violin Eddie Smith, accordion Bill Horan,… View item
Still Image

Frank Messina

Frank Messina and the Mavericks recorded hundreds of titles for the Mac Gregor label, providing music for Fenton "Jonesy" Jones, Bob Van Antwerp, Arnie Kronenberger, Jerry Helt, and more. View item
Document

The Li'l Abner Official Square Dance Handbook

This book clearly is riding the wave of square dance popularity at that time. Linking square dance with the popular comic strip figures, the book even more explicitly illustrates the way that the… View item