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

Browse Items (1924 total)

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
Moving Image

Square Dancing in Sudbury, Ontario

This film, made in 1959 by members of the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Union Local 598 in Sudbury, Ontario, illustrates the wide range of programming that the union provided for the community.… View item
Document

Silver Spurs of Spokane, Washington

This article from Sets in Order celebrates Red Henderson and his Silver Spurs performing group of teenagers in Spokane. Henderson attended an early workshop by Lloyd Shaw in Colorado Springs and… View item
Document

Easy Key Handbook of Square Dance Fundamentals

In the 1950s, square dancing in many locations was changing from traditional to modern squares, moving away from a complete set of patterns to a system in which dancers would learn basic figures that… View item
Document

Oak Grove Barn

This newspaper article takes a detailed look back at a well-loved venue, the Old Grove Barn in San Antonio. The hall hosted dances from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. Events included a high school… View item
Sound

Two Little Hoboes

Two Little Hoboes is a common figure in Ozark square dancing. Here it's called by L.D. Keller, with fiddling by Tommy Jackson. We include the introduction and the first time through the dance, an… View item
Document

Southern California Square Dance "Gold Rush"

This essay, from the program booklet of the 1976 National Square Dance Convention, provides an overview of early square dancing in southern California. That year's NSDC was held in Anaheim, CA,… View item
Sound

Tunnel Through - Handley's Oldtimers

A photograph of the band from the late 1940s is available here.This is an excerpt from the full audio file, available here.Piano - Melody Handley Accordion - Roger Handley Banjo - Lloyd Handley Bass… View item
Website

Square Dance collection at University of Denver

The archives at the University of Denver (DU) hold a vast collection of square dance material. DU is the repository for two vast archives, those of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation and the personal… View item
Document

Square Dance Timing for Callers: Philosophy

New England caller Dick Leger, "the man with the guitar," believed strongly in fitting calls to the musical phrase. In this, he was sometimes an outlier in the modern square dance community… View item
Still Image

Buffalo Boy Go Round the Outside

Lawrence Loy is the caller, working with Carson Robison and his Old Timers. (Click on the Additional Files link to hear the audio clip.) You can also download the cover or the instructions from inside… View item
Moving Image

Mr. Pastry Dances the Lancers

Richard Hearne (aka "Mr. Pastry") was an English vaudeville performer and a regular performer in children's shows on the BBC starting in the 1950s.Here he mimes being part of a set dancing the… View item