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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Document

Chicago Syllabus - Ralph Page, 1959

This is the square dance portion of a syllabus prepared by Ralph Page for a 1959 institute in Chicago. It's smaller than similar syllabi prepared by Page since the opening section of the syllabus… View item
Document

The Value of Square Dancing - Ralph Maxhimer

In this essay, Ralph Maxhimer explains why he sees square dancing as a vital social/recreational activity. He was a founding member, along with his wife, Eve, of the National Square Dance Convention… View item
Document

Pappy's Kids - SIO, 1948

The Cheyenne Mountain Dancers were featured on the cover and the lead story of the first issue ofSets in Order, published to coincide with the appearance of the group in southern California.The… View item
Document

Quadrilles and Cotillions

This is a collection of e-mails in 1997 from the Fiddle-L discussion group, with participants offering thoughts about tunes and dances. Although the information can be found on a website, we're… View item
Moving Image

Patter Call - A1 - Vic Ceder

FIlmed CSCTA ( Czechoslovak Callers and Teachers Association Convention + Rainbow Prague, Czech Republic View item
Sound

Bird in the Cage - Roy Rogers

Music by Spade Cooley and his Buckle Busters; the album is Decca 226, "Roy Rogers Calling Cowboy Square Dances." The full title is Birdie in the Cage and Three Rail Pen, fancy talk for a circle of… View item
Document

"Partners To Your Places

This 1949 chapter by Olcutt Sanders is a significantly expanded version of his short piece fromFoot 'n' Fiddle in 1947. Here it's complete with scholarly footnotes, making it more useful to… View item
Document

Bob Osgood on Lee Kopman

This piece fromSquare Dancing(later title of what had been Sets in Order)describes the appearance on the Phil Donahue Show of caller Lee Kopman and a group of square dancers. View item
Moving Image

Bob Osgood - television program #2

A later broadcast of Osgood's television show, this time featuring his first guest caller (2:25), Ray Shaw, the brother of Lloyd Shaw. Ray Shaw was one of the few square dance callers in the Los… View item
Moving Image

Cotillon - Dezais

This performance shows one of fourcotillons described by Jaques Dezais in his 1725Premier livre de contre-dances. View item
Website

Cotillon website

These detailed website pages are created by Moira Goff, a self-described "baroque dance specialist." They document her research into various dances of the period with a special look at thecotillon,… View item
Website

Larry Edelman Collection - 78 rpm recordings

This large collection (1,358 items) of 78 rpm records is comprised mostly of square dance calling and music, and couples dancing music. It is an extensive assortment of recordings, all of which have… View item