Browse Items (111 total)
- Subject is exactly "Traditional Western (pre-1940)"
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"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 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 itemDocument
A Look at Square Dancing in Colorado
"Square dancing evolved a western version probably sometime in the late 1800s when the pioneers moved to settle the states west of the Mississippi. It was a square dance form that was much… View itemDocument
Western Square Dances at Fox Creek, Colorado (ca. 1880-1930)
Article based on conversations with Bessie Stafford from the San Luis Valley, western Colorado. "In these early days, the dances were held outside on the hard dirt, the music being supplied by… View itemDocument
American Country Dancing on Colorado's West Slope
The article is based on oral history collected in 1979, though no footnotes or direct quotations are included. Instead, it is a generalized summary of the author's findings. "Depending on… 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 itemDocument
Texas Cowboys - dance poems and lore
A collection of pieces related to square dance in southwest cowboy culture, published in 1925 View itemDocument
Cowboys' Christmas Ball - Anson, Texas
Poem written in 1890 describing the Cowboys' Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas. For more information about the author, see this website on cowboy poetry. The Ball continues, following the original rules… View itemDocument
"The Texas Cattle Country and Cowboy Square Dance" – Olcutt Sanders
This article, scholarly yet accessible, provides an excellent look at square dancing in west Texas in the late 1800s. He starts with a look at the conditions that set this region apart from… View itemDocument
1940 Texas Square Dance Contest
Newspaper accounts of a square dance competition won by Bob Sumrall's Abilene set. The story goes into detail about each of the six competing teams,naming each of the dancers, the judges, and… View itemDocument
Bob Sumrall - Olcutt Sanders correspondence, 1939
These letters between Bob Sumrall and J. Olcutt Sanders provide a glimpse into Texas square dances in the late 1930s. Sanders was a serious student of square dance history, part of a group of… View item
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