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

Browse Items (499 total)

  • Collection: MWSD
Moving Image

Jon Jones - CALLERLAB history

This CALLERLAB History / Heritage / Tradition session in 2005 included comments from Herb Egender, who was one of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers with Lloyd Shaw. Jim Mayo was the second speaker,… View item
Document

Carl Sims - Milestone Award

Other entries in this archive discuss the establishment and early years of American square dancing in Japan. Caller Carl Sims played a significant role in developing modern square dancing there,… View item
Still Image

Joseph Fadler photographs

Joseph Fadler took hundreds of photographs for Sets in Order magazine. This is a selection from the Fadler Collection at the University of Denver. It includes photos of dancing, women's attire, and a… View item
Still Image

Sets in Order - office people

This series of photographs shows some of the people involved with producingSets in Ordermagazine. The first picture shows Bob Osgood in the center at what appears to be an editorial meeting. Artist… View item
Moving Image

The Great American Folk Dance

The caller featured in many sequences is Bob Van Antwerp. This film was produced by KBYU, Provo, Utah, produced in cooperation with the Associated Square Dance Clubs of Utah. The original film had… View item
Moving Image

Larry Edelman - square thru variations

Larry Edelman writes, "It’s a drill that I picked up from an issue of SIO, probably from 1959 or so. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t note which issue or year. If it had an author attributed to it, I… View item
Sound

Chicken Plucker - Lee Helsel

This is an excerpt of a 1957 recording (Sets in Order #1102) by Lee Helsel that was the first recording of the Chicken Plucker routine created by Bill Shymkus. The dance figures appeared in the… View item
Sound

Captain Jinks / Divide the Ring - Leonard Hurst

Two clips from Colorado caller Leonard Hurst, who came to Australia in 1951 to do a series of radio broadcasts. He played an important role in spreading square dance to that area. More information… View item
Sound

Do Paso What (clip) - Les Gotcher

sample of Les Gotcher's calling style, in this case building a dance from a break sequence Black Mountain 128 View item
Document

Les Gotcher - Square Dancin'

Published in 1950, the book contains directions to 100 dances, as well as photographs illustrating basic moves for beginners. Among those are Do-Ci-Do, Docey, Do-Sa-Do, and Do-Paso. (see the Contents… View item
Sound

Wheel and Deal (clip) - Les Gotcher

excerpt from a live recording in the early 1960s View item
Sound

Hashing the Breaks (clip) - Les Gotche

Les Gotcher was the self-proclaimed king of hash. Here's an example of his calling. Square dance enthusiasts who followed him from dance to dance in New England in the 1950s noticed, though, that… View item