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

Browse Items (180 total)

  • Subject is exactly "General - Dance and Culture"
Document

Square Dances for White Collars (1941 article)

Article in Time magazine (1941) describing popularity of square dancing, evidenced by record sales (Victor, Columbia, Decca) and the work of teacher and caller Lawrence Loy. View item
Sound

Al Brundage - dance history

Note: The audio file sometimes takes a while to load, so be patient.This recording documents a presentation by Al Brundage about the history of square dancing. The tape label has no information about… View item
Document

Al Brundage recollections

Al Brundage wrote these recollections of his experiences growing up in Connecticut and the growth of square dancing. His story includes discovering square dance as a boy, followed by the whole… View item
Website

Square dance tunes and calls

Audio recording of interview by Alan Lomax with Alan Robertson in the Mississippi Delta View item
Moving Image

Call & Answer - Amanda Lovelee

Minneapolis based artist, Amanda Lovelee believes finding, preserving and constructing a space for physical connection is an urgent issue. As a society that faces the collapse of communities how do we… View item
Document

Hipsters and Traditional/Old-Time Square Dance

The author looks at the rising popularity of square dance among young hipsters and sees in it, and its Appalachian roots, a desire for a homeplace:"For one such group, the ill-defined, often contested… View item
Document

Circle Up Zine (Volume 1) - A collection of square dances and thoughts towards promoting inclusivity

This is a square dance calling resource that features inclusive square dance adaptations, in the form of a printed zine. When caller/dancer/organizer Becky Hill envisioned the project, she enlisted 17… View item
Moving Image

Using squares at a contra dance - Beth Molaro

Caller Beth Molaro, of Asheville, NC, is a well-known caller who loves calling both contras and squares. In this clip, talking with Dennis Merritt, she explains some of her thinking that goes into… View item
Moving Image

Squares at a Contra Dance

Beth Molaro, Asheville, NC, discusses calling squares in the context of a contra dance. In the early 2000s, many contra dancers were not fans of squares, so she offers advice about what kinds of… View item
Document

Feature Square Dancer - Nebraska, 1956

These are excerpts from two early issues (Vol. 1, #1 and #4, both 1956) of the Feature Square Dancer, a newspaper published by Bill Shilling, brother of Colorado caller Marvin Shilling. To see similar… View item
Document

Princess Elizabeth square dancing - details

When Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip squared danced during a visit to Ottawa in 1951, photographs from the event created a sensation and led to a rapid upsurge of interest in square dancing in… View item
Document

Square Dancing at Maryland Line

Bob Dalsemer describes old time square dancing at the Maryland Line Fire Hall in the town of Maryland Line, MD as he encountered it in 1974.You may also be interested in a similar article describing… View item