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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Moving Image

Adam Boyce - Forward Six and Back

This video shows several times through the dance, called by Adam Boyce, a traditional Vermont caller who learned from Harold Luce of the Ed Larkin Dancers. Luce himself can be heard on this audio… View item
Document

The Rural Square Dance in the Northeastern United States: A Continuity of Tradition

This doctoral thesis in folklore is based on a study of square dances in New York state, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Especially interesting are the descriptions of traditional dances, based on the… View item
Document

Smoky Mountain Square Dances

NOTE: This is a large file and might take a while to load.To read the actual booklet, choose the DOWNLOAD link or select the source file located by scrolling to Additional Files.This collection,… 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

Green Mountain Land - Vermont square, 1950

This square dance sequence is part of a 1950 film, "Green Mountain Land," produced by Robert Flaherty and directed by David Flaherty. The narrator is caller Ted Glabach, from Dummerston,… View item
Moving Image

This Land Is Your Land - Bob Howell

The caller is Bob Howell; is is a clip from the "Joy of Dancing" video issued by the Kentucky Dance Foundation and used with permission. Kentucky Dance Foundation, c/o Folk Dancer Record… View item
Sound

Me and My Shadow - Dave Taylor, 1965

View item
Sound

Dave Taylor - Patter, 1965

from CALLERLAB, February 16, 2017 Dave Taylor - 1927-2017Dave passed away February 12, 2017 in Spring Hill, Florida. Dave was a founding member of CALLERLAB, serving several years on the Board of… View item
Document

Henry Ford and Benjamin Lovett

Dave Taylor and Al Brundage called a dance in Lovett Hall in Dearborn, Michigan, around 1980. This article is Taylor's effort to tell some of the story of that venue. [Editor's note: some of the… View item
Website

Quadrille Mania - website

An overview of the history of the quadrille. View item
Moving Image

Royal Lancers Quadrille

A "Royal Lancers," according to the notes of the historical pageant presented at the eighth National Square Dance Convention (Denver, 1959), is "any square dance that is doubled -… View item
Document

Les Quatre Berceaux - related documents

This item gathers together various documents related to the videotaped performance of the dance, Les Quatre Berceaux:• Instructions, as interpreted and explained by John Ramsay with assistance… View item