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

Browse Items (160 total)

  • Collection: Traditional western
Sound

Arizona Double Star (clip) - Johnny Melton

Johnny Melton calls the Arizona Double Star, with the tune Nobody's Business played by Roy Sexton and others. The clip illustrates southwestern calling style, moving dancers along without necessarily… View item
Sound

Arkansas Traveler (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

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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
Document

Ballroom & the Barn: Dr. Lloyd Shaw, Dean Edwards & the Western Square Dance Revival in Colorado Springs

This article presents a look at square dancing in Colorado Springs from the perspective of Dean Edwards; it appears that the author adopted his views about Lloyd Shaw and to some extent misrepresented… View item
Document

Bar Nothin' Squares - record ad

This ad for Bar Nothin' Squares, the live album recorded with Bud Udick calling, proclaims proudly, "DON'T USE MONOTONOUS RECORDS WHERE ALL THE COUPLES DO THE SAME THING."… View item
Moving Image

Bill Litchman - oral history

This is an interview conducted with Bill Litchman as part of the research into preparing a 2018 exhibit on "Square Dancing in the American West" at the University of Denver. Litchman discusses his own… View item
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

Blue Bonnet Set - 1939

This 1939 newspaper pictoral spread looks at Herb Greggerson's Blue Bonnet Set, the team that won the Texas square dancing championship in March that year. Before that, the prize was often taken… View item
Sound

Bluebonnet Squares with Melton Luttrell

These are recordings of two sessions led by Melton Luttrell at the 1987 National Square Dance Convention in Houston, Texas. The focus of his sessions was square dancing as led by Herb Greggerson in… View item
Document

Bob Sumrall

Bob Sumrall (born Virgil Giles Sumrall) was the leader of the Abilene Set, a group that he started around 1938 (when he was 20); this group of Texas square dancers won the Texas square dance… View item
Still Image

Bob Sumrall - newspaper clippings

Two newspaper clippings about Texas caller Bob Sumrall. The first, from January 14, 1947, focuses on a new square dance team that he formed and that will be performing at the Inaugural Ball for the… View item
Document

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