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)"
Document

Bill Litchman - Rocky Mountain Square Dancing

This overview of square dance history focuses on two major groups of square dance. One group (northern, Eastern, Maritime, etc.) relies on quadrille-style figures, with couples interacting across the… View item
Still Image

Herb Greggerson - Herb's Blue Bonnet Calls

Greggerson's book, originally published in 1937, contains more than 50 dances, supplemented with photographs and diagrams. The full text is available at the Internet Archive.After a brief foreward… View item
Moving Image

Bachelor Mill square dance

Bill Litchman calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. This is Bill's version of the dance, which is also known… 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
Sound

Cheat or Swing (clip) - Sandy Bradley

Sandy Bradley calling with the Arm and Hammer String Band (Vermont): Pete Sutherland, fiddle; Joel Eckhaus, guitar; Hilary Woodruff, bass; Sid Blum, banjo; from Potluck & Dance Tonite, Alcazar… 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
Moving Image

California Heritage Dancers exhibition

The video shows the California Heritage Dance Group in a demonstration at the California State Square Dance Convention in San Diego, CA in April 2011. The demonstration shows the Spanish influence on… View item
Moving Image

High Country Dancers

California State Square Dance Convention in San Diego at Balboa Park April 8-10 2011. This clip is of the High Country (Colorado) Dancers, a square dance exhibition team and The Heritage Dancers… View item
Moving Image

Goin' Uptown - 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. Musicians are Steve Hickman and Claudio Buchwald, fiddles; Jim… View item
Website

Utah Square Dance History

The June 28, 1973 issue of the Deseret News (a Mormon-owned daily newspaper published in Salt Lake City) contained a supplement on the 22nd National Square Dance Convention. The article on Utah square… 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
Moving Image

Cheyenne Mountain Dancers - Star by the Right

First in a series of three silent films made to accompany Shaw's 1947 recordings with the "Duel in the Sun" Orchestra. Working from an incomplete copy of the footage, we have attempted to create an… View item