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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Website

"Square Dance in the 1950s Rural West: An Oral History"

Interviews with two older dancers in the author's family. One describes dancing in Garden Valley, Idaho, including stories of all-night dancing in the middle of the road in mid-winter, a literal… View item
Sound

Cut Off Six - Tiny Clark

Recorded in the early 1940s; music by Mr. and Mrs. Siller. Compare the calls for this dance with others in the collection doing the same figures. The liner notes to his album on Asch Records 344… View item
Moving Image

Tiny Clark - three singing squares

Tiny Clark was one of the callers holding forth at the Village Barn in Greenwich VIllage, New York City. In this 1946 film, he and his band, dubbed the Cactus Cowboys, present three singing squares:… View item
Moving Image

Crooked Stovepipe - Tod Whittemore

The caller is Tod Whittemore; musicians are Randy Miller, fiddle; Peter Siegel, mandolin; and Bob McQuillen, piano. Danced during a Retrospective session at the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend,… View item
Moving Image

Trail of the Lonesome Pine - Tod Whittemore

Tod Whittemore is the caller; music is provided by Bob McQuillen, piano; Randy Miller, fiddle, and Peter Siegel, mandolin. This was part of a dance workshop on singing squares, recorded on January 15,… View item
Moving Image

Just Because - Tod Whittemore

Tod Whittemore is the caller; music is provided by Bob McQuillen, piano; Randy Miller, fiddle, and Peter Siegel, mandolin. This was part of a dance workshop on singing squares, recorded on January 15,… View item
Moving Image

Smoke on the Water - Tod Whittemore

Tod Whittemore is the caller; music is provided by Bob McQuillen, piano; Randy Miller, fiddle, and Peter Siegel, mandolin. This was part of a dance workshop on singing squares, recorded on January 15,… View item
Moving Image

Maple Sugar Gal - Tod Whittemore

Singing square, called by Tod Whittemore at the 24th annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in Durham, NH.The musicians are Bob McQuillen, piano; Randy Miller, fiddle; Peter Siegel, mandolin. The late… View item
Moving Image

Chime Bells - Tod Whittemore

Tod Whittemore calling at his dance series at the VFW, Cambridge, MA, December, 1985. The first half of the footage shows dancers, and then the camera is turned toward the caller. Tod Whittemore is… View item
Moving Image

Tod Whittemore - Grand Colonel

Tod Whittemore calling at his dance series at the VFW, Cambridge, MA, December, 1985. Musicians: New England Tradition (Bob McQuillen, piano; April Limber, fiddle; Pete Colby, banjo). Videotaped by… View item
Moving Image

Two singing squares - Tod Whittemore, 1986

Tod Whittemore provides the instructions and calls the figures at these two singing squares: Maple Sugar Gal and Smoke on the Water. Music is by Allan Block on fiddle and Peter Barnes on piano.… View item
Moving Image

Grandma Slid Down the Mountain - Tod Whittemore

Caller Tod Whittemore with his yodeling square dance, "Grandma Slid Down the Mountain." As Tod says in his introduction, "This is a dance by Ted Sannella... but he never called it exactly like this."… View item