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
Moving Image

Eleanor Roosevelt square dancing

Newsreel footage of Eleanor Roosevelt dancing in Arthurdale, West Virginia, 1940 View item
Moving Image

Monday Night Fever - Minneapolis square dance

This is an excerpt from "Monday Night Fever," a Minneapolis community television program produced in 1986 by Bruce Davis, who provides the narration. The film is an introduction to the… View item
Document

"Dancing to the Music: Domestic Square Dances and Community in Southcentral Kentucky (1880-1940)"

This detailed examination of the role of square dances in south central Kentucky is written by a folklorist, who based his findings on interviews with 20 musicians, dancers, and callers in that… 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
Moving Image

Cabool, Missouri - Square dance with Bob Holt

This is the last of 11 clips filmed at a 1997 dance in Cabool, Missouri, featuring fiddler Bob Holt, a National Heritage Fellowship recipient. Calling is done by dancers in the squares, different… View item
Document

Gym Classes in Square Dancing

This article describes the author's experiences teaching square dancing at Vanderbilt University. In addition to describing how the program developed, Prof. Chadwick concludes on an uplifting… View item
Document

Let's Square Dance – Claude Chadwick

This 24 page booklet was produced by Claude S. Chadwick, a Texas native and a professor of biology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He begins with an overview of the activity: "All we need for… View item
Document

Tennessee Star - David Hendrix, 1951

East Tennessee caller D. B., Hendrix provides directions for this big set variation of the Texas Star. A biography of the author can be found at the related item, "Smoky Mountain Square… View item
Document

Bird in the Cage - D. B. Hendrix, 1952

This is third of three articles from Progressive Farmer featuring East Tennessee caller D. B., Hendrix. Here he provides directions forhis version of a classic square dance figure. A biography of the… View item
Document

A Tennessee Square Dance

Caller David Hendrix presents a overview of typical figures that he would use in a "square dance" in his region of East Tennessee.He notes that the dances in his region are related to the… View item
Document

D. B. Hendrix correspondence

A Selection from the Papers of David B. Hendrix, Smoky Mountain Square Dance Callerby Bob DalsemerIn 1999 the John C. Campbell Folk School received a donation of several boxes of papers from the… View item
Document

"The Square Dance" - David Hendrix, 1951

East Tennessee caller D. B., Hendrix provides a general introduction to square dancing. He writes, "Square dancing is easy to learn. Anyone who can march or keep time to music can learn it. in… View item