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

Browse Items (101 total)

  • Subject is exactly "Traditional Western (pre-1940)"
Moving Image

Sally Goodin walkthrough - Bill Litchman - Traditional Western Square Dances 5a

Dance: "Sally Goodin with a Docey-do," devised by Marvin Shilling, Walsenburg, Colorado (based on the traditional dance "Sally Goodin") This is the walkthrough; a separate video… View item
Moving Image

Sally Goodin and a Docey Doe - Bill Litchman - Traditional Western Square Dances 5b

Caller: Bill Litchman. This clip shows the actual dance; a separate video shows the walkthrough. Once the dance gets going, Bill throws in patter using lyrics to the song Mountain Dew. Bill Litchman… View item
Sound

Sally Goodin - Eddie Carol & his Corn Cobbers

Eddie Carol, called by some "the greatest authority on the American square dance In Australia," was a leading Australia caller who specialized in a singing patter style of calling after… View item
Document

Rural Leaders' Guide for Square and Group Dances, 1951

From the forward: "This circular is designed to assist rural leaders in teaching square and group dancing and in conducting organized recreational dancing activities." After several pages of… View item
Document

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
Moving Image

Push Ol' Pa and Push Ol' Ma - Bill Litchman

Bill Litchman calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. The usual pattern for the figure is for the active gent to lead… View item
Still Image

Pioneer Promenaders - Denver University

These newspaper clippings and photographs document the Denver University Pioneer Promenaders Square Dance Club as they travel to Washington, DC, for the 1940 National Folk Festival and a separate trip… View item
Document

Pappy's Pupils

Article in View item
Moving 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 item
Website

Learn To Dance and Call Square Dances the Foster Way

Two sets of instructional cards are available online. Each set contains 35 two-sided cards, with descriptions of basic figures as well as complete dance routines.Some original sets are available for… View item
Document

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 item
Still Image

Jimmy Clossin - photos

This selection of photographs comes from the Jimmy Clossin Papers, held in the Archives of the University of Denver. View item