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

Browse Items (1940 total)

Moving Image

Maple Sugar - Don Messer and His Islanders

No calls, just a choreographed routine from Messer's popular television show. The dances on the Don Messer show were choreographed by Gunter Buchta; he created two new dances each week for the show.… View item
Sound

Kentucky Set Running - 1917 firsthand account

After graduation from Vassar and a summer holiday with family, Marguerite Butler, at age 22, headed for Pine Mountain Settlement School in a remote area of eastern Kentucky to try to make some… View item
Document

Class Notes - Jim Mayo, 1963

Unlike traditional square dance, modern SD is based on a series of classes that teach the basic figures. As the activity has increased its vocabulary of figures, the number of suggested classes has… View item
Document

Rickey Holden Interviews

These are six interviews conducted with Rickey Holden— dance caller, organizer, author, editor and publisher. He was the author (or co-author) of several important books: The Square Dance Caller… View item
Document

West Texas Square Dances - Index

This is the cover and index of the booklet published by Jimmy Clossin and Carl Hertzog, showing dances that were common to that region around 1950. The book offers a dictionary, "Around-the-Ring… View item
Document

1954 National Square Dance program - Dallas

This is the program for the 3rd National Square Dance Convention, held April 8–10, 1954. View item
Document

Lines About Squares - Western Square Dancing

In this article, part of his long-running column, the author looks at the typical programs of Western square dancing in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He discusses the different kinds of patter,… View item
Sound

The Girl I Left Behind Me (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

In his brief look at the development of singing calls, Tony Parkes cites the publication of this dance in 1925 as "the earliest description of a singing square I've found so far (in fairly shallow… View item
Sound

Cowboy Loop (clip) - Lee Bedford, jr.

This dance was called by Mildred Blakey at the big 1950 Santa Monica dance. View item
Sound

Arkansas Traveler (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

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Sound

Four In Line You Travel (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

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Still Image

Square Dances With Calls - Lee Bedford, Jr.

In 1949, Texas caller Lee Bedford released on Imperial Records a four-album set of recordings with music provided by The Big D Ranch Hands. The liner notes, written by Paul Erfer, start by noting,… View item