Browse Items (111 total)
- Subject is exactly "Traditional Western (pre-1940)"
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Frontier Dances - Bob Cook
A native of Colorado, Bob Cook's dancing experiences go back to the time when he was a seventh grader at the Cheyenne Mountain School. He was a member of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers from 1939 to… View itemDocument
Abilene Lift - Rickey Holden
An early description by Rickey Holden of the so-called "Abilene lift," a distinctive style of incorporating a two-steps into square dance movement. View itemMoving Image
Texan Whirl - Rickey Holden
Rickey Holden calling the Texan Whirl figure attributed to caller Bob Sumrall, an influential caller starting in the 1930s in Abilene and other West Texas communities. The distinctive part has the… View itemMoving Image
"Abilene lift" - Rickey Holden
Caller Rickey Holden calls and dances the "Abilene lift," a style of movement created and popularized by west Texas caller Bob Sumrall. The 1-2-3 shuffle of feet gave the dancers a smooth movement;… View itemDocument
Texas Square Dances - Rickey Holden
This is a detailed description of three Texas squares, presented by Rickey Holden as an exhibition dance at the fourth annual New England Folk Festival, November 15–16, 1947. Holden based much of his… View itemDocument
Oak Grove Barn
This newspaper article takes a detailed look back at a well-loved venue, the Old Grove Barn in San Antonio. The hall hosted dances from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. Events included a high school… View itemMoving Image
Pam McKeever and the Flying Squares, 1981
Demonstration of the sort of exhibition dancing created by Lloyd Shaw in the 1930s and popularized by his Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. The dancers are: Jim Bollman, Karen Atkins, Ernie Spence,… View itemDocument
Swing yore partner round 'n round (The Desert Magazine, 1944)
Author Oren Arnold describes square dancing in Arizona in the early 1940s: "...A rock fireplace big enough to stand in was at one end of the room, and its blaze made dancing shadows… View itemDocument
"Partners To Your Places
This 1949 chapter by Olcutt Sanders is a significantly expanded version of his short piece fromFoot 'n' Fiddle in 1947. Here it's complete with scholarly footnotes, making it more useful to… View itemDocument
Ladies to the Center
This short article by Texas dance historian Olcutt Sanders looks at the role played by women in that state's dance history. Sanders notes the early absence of women: "A scarcity of woman… View itemDocument
Round Dances
Olcutt Sanders was a Texas dance historian. He writes, "The round dances that are included quite generally on square dance programs these days originated in Europe in the late Eighteenth and… View item
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