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

Browse Items (195 total)

  • Contributor is exactly "David Millstone"
Moving Image

Square Dance - Dolores Heagy, 1986

Portion of a square dance called at Tod Whittemore's contra dance series at the VFW in Cambridge, MA. Tod introduced Dolores Heagy by saying how much he values having contra dancers become… View item
Moving Image

Two singing squares - Tod Whittemore, 1986

Tod Whittemore provides the instructions and calls the figures at these two singing squares: Maple Sugar Gal and Smoke on the Water. Music is by Allan Block on fiddle and Peter Barnes on piano.… View item
Document

Community Swing - 1945

This article in a recreation journal describes the growth of interest in square dancing in one Midwestern town in the mid-1940s. It's a portrait that was repeated in many communities across the… View item
Moving Image

Roll the Barrel - Pistol Packin' Mama

Singing square called by Frank Kendall, Gassetts, Vermont. The Gassetts Grange hosts a monthly dance with a mix of round dances and traditional Eastern singing squares, with live music provided by… View item
Moving Image

Dancing in Westport Point, MA

This video documents a gathering of summer and year-round residents of Westport Point, MA. The community has hosted a summer dance series since the 1930s, originally led by Lyle Ring and then, in… View item
Moving Image

Foxtrot - couple dance

The Old Grey Goose provided the music and Doug Protsik gave a brief introduction as dancers enjoyed a little foxtrot among other country dances. This was part of the Retrospective session led by… View item
Moving Image

Rye Waltz - couple dance

The Rye Waltz is an adaptation of Comin’ Through the Rye and The Highland Schottische, and intersperses a schottische step with a waltz. Music by The Latter Day Lizards and guests; the Lizards are… View item
Moving Image

Jessie Polka - couple dance

Sometimes danced as a couple, and sometimes (as here) in a larger group, here is a trio young dancers doing the Jessie Polka. The tune is Down Yonder, featuring Sky Bartlett (L) and Ernie Duffy (R) on… View item
Moving Image

Les Lanciers de Quebec - Quebec Lancers

This video illustrates the first two figures of a Quebecois version of the Lancers Quadrille, danced at the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in January, 2009. The tune and the name for the first figure… View item
Moving Image

Starline - walkthrough

This short clip shows caller Tony Parkes leading the walk-thru for the most challenging part of Ed Gilmore's "Starline" dance, the section where the leading couples are involved in… View item
Moving Image

Starline

This dance, an Ed Gilmore composition published in Sets in Order Year Book No. 3, was part of a workshop of "Jigsaw & Origami Squares" led by Tony Parkes at the annual Star Hampshire Weekend of… View item
Still Image

Vermont square dance festival - large groups

These are photographs of school groups participating in the big square dance festivals held in Vermont in the 1950s in Northfield and Montpelier. View item