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

Karl Byarski - Michigan fiddle and dance recordings

Paul Gifford is a researcher and musician with a particular focus on tradition Michigan fiddling. He writes:---I put up a large collection of home recordings of fiddling made by Karl Byarski, of… View item
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Yee Haw! A Curious Stroll Down Square Dancing’s Memory Lane

A quirky and informative movie of how square dancing has been portrayed in historical, non-theatrical motion pictures aggregated from The Internet Archive. The collection illustrates some of the ways… View item
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Clark Baker 1991 - Easy C4

This clip and its companion document a calling trip Clark Baker made to Japan in 1991. View item
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Clark Baker 1991 C4

Clark Baker made a calling trip to Japan in 1991 to share his interest in Challenge squares. Two videos on the SDHP site come from that experience.In this video, starting with the couple whose back is… View item
Document

The Calling Computer

In the late 1980s, Don Beck programmed his Macintosh computer to be able to call modern square dances, automatically selecting calls according to a programmed set of rules. Beck had been associated… View item
Moving Image

Great Chicago Crossfire, gay fly-in, 1989

Television coverage (The 10% Show, a gay-focused channel) of The Great Chicago Crossfire, 1989, a square dance fly-in hosted by the Chi-Town Squares, a gay square dance club. Among the callers shown… View item
Moving Image

Tri-State History Panel, 1988

This presentation by three of the early “Modern” square dance callers in New England is a personal look at the transition from traditional New England square dancing into what is known… 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
Moving Image

Don Beck - patter

Recorded December 1985 at Bay Path Barn, West Boylston, MA. The caller had been one of the founders of Tech Squares at MIT and was that club's first caller, in 1967. Another clip on YouTube, recorded… View item
Moving Image

Lonesome Me - Don Beck

Recorded December 1985 at Bay Path Barn, West Boylston, MA. The caller had been one of the founders of Tech Squares at MIT and was that club's first caller, in 1967. Another clip on YouTube, recorded… View item
Sound

Deuce Williams - teaching Curlique

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Sound

Deuce Williams - Patter

These are two clips of Deuce Williams calling. The first we think was recorded in New England in the late 1960s - 1970s; the second is a California recording from 1977. Jim Mayo writes: "Deuce… View item