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

Browse Items (1950 total)

Website

Kentucky Square Dances

An early (1928) collection of figures collected "from callers in Kentucky who are familiar with the old square dances as they are danced in the Kentucky Mountains and elsewhere in the state."This is… View item
Document

It's Fun To Square Dance

This booklet is profusely illustrated with photographs and diagrams, making the dance figures easy to understand. Lunsford was the founder in 1928 of the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville,… View item
Document

Honor Your Partner - table of contents

Ed Durlacher was among America's most famous and influential square dance callers. In 1949, Durlacher published his book of 81 square, circle, and contra dances, as well as his set of recordings to… View item
Document

Foot 'n' Fiddle  (Texas)

This journal was started in 1946 by Marlys Swenson (later Marlys Waller) and Anne Pittman, joined by Olcutt Sanders as another editor. It is among the earliest square dance magazines—Rod… View item
Document

Foot 'n Fiddle – Marlys Waller recollections

Marlys Waller was one of the people involved in the Texas square dance activities of the late 1940s. With several colleagues, in 1946 she helped found Foot 'n Fiddle, one of the earliest of the square… View item
Moving Image

Fifty Miles from Times Square

This is an excerpt from John Cohen's 1972 film, used here by permission of the filmmaker. caller: Herb Strickland musicians: Bud Snow, Jay Ungar, Lyn Hardy, Abby Newton, Tom Allen Fiddler… View item
Document

Farmhouse Fiddlers: Music & Dance Traditional in the Rural Midwest

This is an excerpt from a detailed and loving look at what the author terms "house-party music." His focus is Wisconsin, and he based the book on interviews with nearly 100 musicians and dancers.… View item