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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Sound

Half Sashay - Butch Nelson (clip)

"Pull up your pants and tighten the tracesAll join hands, we're off to the races."With opening patter like this, we know we're in traditional western square dance territory. Thirty seconds later, when… View item
Document

Square Dances of the Southwest

This 1951 booklet, by caller Butch Nelson, is a useful collection of calls from that region. You can hear Nelson calling Oklahoma Cyclone here.The Related Items provide audio or video clips, called by… View item
Sound

Oklahoma Cyclone (clip) - Butch Nelson

Butch Nelson was a regular caller at the Lighted Lantern dance camp in Colorado. View item
Moving Image

Square Dance Tonight - with Elisha Keeler

This 1949 film features caller Elisha Keeler of South Salem, NY. Keeler was featured in The New Yorker in a brief "Talk of the Town" piece in 1949 and then was given a lengthy profile (some 5,000… View item
Document

"Dancing to the Music: Domestic Square Dances and Community in Southcentral Kentucky (1880-1940)"

This detailed examination of the role of square dances in south central Kentucky is written by a folklorist, who based his findings on interviews with 20 musicians, dancers, and callers in that… View item
Document

1940 Texas Square Dance Contest

Newspaper accounts of a square dance competition won by Bob Sumrall's Abilene set. The story goes into detail about each of the six competing teams,naming each of the dancers, the judges, and… View item
Website

Buddy Weaver Music Podcast

Caller and record producer Buddy Weaver hosts a regular podcast that features modern square dance recordings going back to the 1950s. (Weaver cleaned up and digitized the complete five hours of the… View item
Website

Square Dance Articles - Buddy Weaver resources page

Buddy Weaver has collected on his website a series of transcriptions and printed essays by numerous well-respected square dance callers. On this site, you'll find pieces by Doc Alumbaugh, Ed… View item
Sound

Bud Udick - Hash #2

This 1949 audio clip features Bud Udick calling with "Cactus" Tait's Orchestra, recorded live "at the regular weekly square dances at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel" in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A… View item
Sound

Bud Udick - Hash #1

This 1949 audio clip features Bud Udick calling with "Cactus" Tait's Orchestra, recorded live "at the regular weekly square dances at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel" in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A… View item
Moving Image

Computer training for dancers - C4

In 1975 Bruce Roe, a circuit designer who worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories and a long time Chicago-area challenge square dancer dancer, developed a dancer training tool to assist in learning new… View item
Sound

Bruce Johnson interview

This interview with a young Bruce Johnson-- he's 25 at the time-- was conducted by Mildred Buhler as part of her "Calling All Folk Dancers" radio program in 1950-1951. (The illustration is from 20… View item