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 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
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

Ed Gilmore - Square Dance Callers Instruction Course - 1949

[Buddy Weaver has digitized an hour-long audio recording of Gilmore leading a callers' class. It can be found here.]This is the text of the syllabus of Ed Gilmore's class. It contains plenty of… View item
Still Image

Square Dance with Soul

See the accompanying booklet for the text that was included with this record, released by Folkways in 1969. View item
Document

Square Dance with Soul, booklet

Liner notes and dance descriptions, the booklet that came with the LP recording View item
Still Image

Old Folks' Frolic

This is a photograph from a news story in the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times of April 7, 1942. Caption: "These lively square dancers and other oldsters performing yesterday brought a Chautauqua salute… View item
Document

Dare To Be Square - Brasstown, 2011 - program

Program for the Dare To Be Square weekend held at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, and documented extensively on this site and elsewhere. View item
Moving Image

Silly Threesome called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman leads the walkthrough and calls the figures at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. The trio mixer Silly… View item
Document

Patter Calling - origins

Patter calling is a style of square dance calling in which the caller speaks the words or chants them on a musical pitch, hopefully in harmony with the tune. The classic form of patter is rhyming… View item
Still Image

Schlitz beer ad, 1950

Full page ad for Schlitz beer that appeared in Newsweek magazine, August 21, 1950, attesting to the popularity of square dance in popular culture. Modern Western square dancers were not pleased to… View item
Still Image

Doonesbury - square dance

...in which Zonker, a character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury, presents a common view of one social activity... This "Doonesbury Flashback" appeared March 20, 2012, a… View item
Document

Swing that Pretty Gal! - 1941 article

In the wake of the first trips by the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers, this 1941 article inThe Saturday Evening Post describesthe widespread passion for squares that is growing, and gives Lloyd Shaw credit… View item