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 Dancing in the 1800s

Fred Feild is a long-time caller and square dance enthusiast; now living in Tucson, he was instrumental in creating the Chicago Barn Dance Company in the mid-1970s. In recent years, he has started… View item
Website

Square Dancing in the Kentucky Foothills

Based on extensive interviews, audio files and video recordings, the author has compiled a detailed look at dancing in the area around Berea, Kentucky. Her introduction provides a broad look at the… View item
Document

Square Dancing in the Park

Short article describing the start of Ed Durlacher's program of teaching square dancing in Riverside Park in New York City. The Additional File ("Youth and the Squares") will provide a… View item
Sound

Square Dancing in Western New York

The New York Folklore Society produced a number of five-minute radio documentaries featuring the folklife (skills, traditions, stories, music, dance, folk art and material items) found in New York… View item
Document

Square Dancing Is Fun, But--Teach An Easy One First! (1940 article)

Article from 1940 promoting the virtues of square dancing and pointing out the necessity of teaching simple dances first. The author suggests: "The art of imitation must be used in teaching… View item
Document

Square Dancing Is NOT Out of This World

This is the text of a presentation by Joe Lewis at the 1959 National Square Dance Convention, part of a discussion of the future of square dancing.Lewis points out that the majority of dancers at the… View item
Moving Image

Square Dancing on Pike's Peak - 1963

Square dancing at 14,000' — footage put online by the Pikes Peak Library. The actual dance footage starts at 1:17 in the footage, and lasts for about a minute. The added sound track is… View item
Document

Square Dancing Standard and Experimental Guidelines

A flood of new calls in the early 1970s led a group called Square Dance Systems to publish a catalogue of calls, an attempt to bring order to an increasingly-complex universe of new figures. Square… View item
Moving Image

Square Dancing with Joe Lewis - Australia, 1952

A unique heritage clip of the Australian visit of American 'Hall of Fame' Square Dance Caller, Joe Lewis, on arrival at Essendon airport, Melbourne, in 1952, with commentary by Australian square dance… View item
Moving Image

Square dancing, Berea, KY - c. 1950 style

The footage was taken and posted by John Ramsay, who writes: "The Jackson family in Berea, Kentucky got a group together to demonstrate the type of square dancing which was danced by local citizens… View item
Document

Square-Dance Figures from Northern New York State, 1931

Maud Karpeles was a close associate of Cecil Sharp, the English folksong collector and founder of the English Folk Dance Society. While in Appalachia in 1917, Sharp and Karpeles had their first… View item
Moving Image

Squareback Reel - Tony Parkes

Tony Parkes calls this composition by Roger Whynot at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. The tune is "Red Apple… View item