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

Browse Items (189 total)

  • Collection: Southern Appalachian
Document

Rural Square Dances in East Tennessee: A Personal Account of Visits to Four Communities

This article appeared (1981) in the scholarly journal published by Country Dance and Song Society. The author describes four East Tennessee square dance communities, including discussion of typical… View item
Sound

Sally Goodin (clip) - Carl Myles

One wonders where the caller picked up his pronunciation of the title in this dance. Everywhere else we hear Sally GOOD-in, but here it's Sally Good-EEN. He is credited as the square dance caller in… View item
Document

Set Runnin' in Eastern Kentucky

Description from 1949 by Patrick Napier of traditional square dances in eastern Kentucky. View item
Website

Set Running - Cecil Sharp in America

The name "running set" comes to us from the work of the great English song collector Cecil Sharp, founder of the English Folk Dance Society and, in 1915, what became Country Dance and Song Society.… View item
Moving Image

Set Running - Berea Country Dancers

In a voiceover at the start of the clip, the group's director, John Ramsay, speaks about the history of the dance and share some of his philosophy about dance bringing people together.Other "set… View item
Moving Image

Shoo-Fly Swing - dance - Phil Jamison

Phil Jamison led a workshop session on square dances from the southern Appalachians, focusing on dances from different communities in that region. He described this figure as an ending figure that can… View item
Moving Image

Shoo-Fly Swing (instruction) - Phil Jamison

See the notes elsewhere comparing this dance with La Boulangère, the only dance mentioned by name by Jane Austen. Phil Jamison led a workshop session on square dances from the southern… View item
Document

Shoo-Fly Swing and La Boulangère

Compilation of sources that reveal the similarity between La Boulangère, a European dance around 1800 and the only dance mentioned by name by Jane Austen, and the Shoo-Fly Swing, its American… View item
Sound

Shoot the Owl - Beth Molaro

Augusta Dance Heritage, Elkins, West Virginia, 1997; the band is the Volo Bogtrotters. View item
Moving Image

Shoot the Owl - Phil Jamison

Phil Jamison calls one version of the traditional Shoot the Owl square dance figure at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC.… View item
Document

Smoky Mountain Square Dance Collection

In his later years, Tennessee caller David Hendrix was working on an expanded version of his Smoky Mountain Square Dances, complete with diagrams and professional photographs. After his death, his… View item
Document

Soco Gap Dancers at the White House

This is the program for the evening entertainment provided for the visiting King and Queen of England at the White House, Thursday, June 8, 1939. Among the performers (see page 5) were the Soco Gap… View item