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

Browse Items (503 total)

  • Collection: MWSD
Moving Image

Sweet Home Alabama - Ted Lizotte - Tech Squares

Caller, Ted Lizotte. Recorded March 5, 2011, at a Tech Squares weekend, East Hill Farm, Troy, NH. Ted Lizotte is the club caller for Tech Squares, the MWSD club on the campus of Massachusetts… View item
Moving Image

Patter - Ted Lizotte - Tech Squares

Caller, Ted Lizotte. Recorded March 5, 2011, at a Tech Squares weekend, East Hill Farm, Troy, NH. Tech Squares is the MWSD club on the campus of Mass Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. This… View item
Still Image

Square Dance Camps - 1957

This is a listing of square dance camps in 1957. Interested viewers can compare it with the Sets in Ordereditorial from 1951. View item
Website

Stan Winchester - C4 Singing Squares

Stan Winchester was a MWSD dancer who created a large body of singing squares for the C4 community. These dancers sometimes share a series of recorded audiotapes with prerecorded calls, and Winchester… View item
Document

Hand position in MWSD

The formation of CALLERLAB in 1974 established definitions and helped modern square dancing become more standardized. This does not mean that everything fell neatly into place! The cover illustration… View item
Document

Square Dancing Standard and Experimental Guidelines

A flood of new calls in the early 1970s led a group called Square Dance Systems to publish a catalogue of calls, an attempt to bring order to an increasingly-complex universe of new figures. Square… View item
Still Image

Square Dance equipment

This collection of photographs illustrates some of the electronic equipment used by square dance callers-- speakers, speaker stands, record players, tape decks, microphones with different… View item
Document

Chaney scrapbook & photo album

Duane and Shirley Chaney (Council Bluffs, Iowa) were enthusiastic square dancers in the early 1950s. They attended Square Dance Institutes with Les Gotcher at Kirkwood Lodge (Osage Beach, Missouri) in… View item
Document

Basic Movements of Square Dancing

This early handbook from Sets in Order provides detailed instructions for 20 basic figures, "the foundation movements for most square dancing." As such, it offers an overview of what was considered… View item
Sound

Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Selmer Hovland

This singing square is based on a popular song of the day. Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was written in 1952 and appeared in several country versions and a #1 hit in a pop version by… View item
Sound

Spinning Wheel - Selmer Hovland, 1954

Excerpt from another live recording of Selmer Hovland at Kirkwood Lodge View item
Sound

Middle of the Mound - Selmer Hovland, patter

This is a live recording of Selmer Hovland, from Wagon Mound, New Mexico, calling at Kirkwood Lodge, Missouri. Hovland was a staff member at a Square Dance Institute that featured Les Gotcher. (One of… View item