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

Browse Items (1924 total)

Document

Wisconsiana: Here and There (1949)

Short mention of the booming interest in square dancing in Wisconsin: "North, South, East, and West are resounding to the 'shuffiing' of the Square Dance which is sweeping in increasing… View item
Document

Cowboys' Christmas Ball - Anson, Texas

Poem written in 1890 describing the Cowboys' Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas. For more information about the author, see this website on cowboy poetry. The Ball continues, following the original rules… View item
Document

Willamette Valley Caller

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Document

Push Your Pa and Shove Your Ma

PUSH YOUR PA AND SHOVE YOUR MA P.53From Wes McVicar’s 75 More Square DancesMusic: Doc Boyd's jigThird changeINTRODUCTIONThe first couple balance The first couple swing.FIGUREGo down the center split… View item
Still Image

Utah Square Dance History (JPG)

The June 28, 1973 issue of the Deseret News (a Mormon-owned daily newspaper published in Salt Lake City) contained a supplement on the 22nd National Square Dance Convention. The article on Utah square… View item
Document

Calls 'N' Cues (DC)

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Document

Hillbillies Win in New York (Billboard, 1944)

To read a copy of the full story, see Additional Files below.This 1944 news story, written in the usual flashy style ofBillboard magazine, documents a surge of interest in "hillbilly music" in New… 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

Glenn F. Pease - Old-Time Barn Dance Caller

Glenn F. Pease: Old-Time Barn Dance Caller From just after WW II to the early 1970s, one of the places to be on a summer Saturday night in a small corner of west-central New Hampshire was at a… View item
Website

Notes on Singing Squares - Walter Lenk

A collection of favorite singing square calls, with some musical examples, created by Walter Lenk. His site also includes a valuable transcription of singing calls in the repertoire of Chip… View item
Moving Image

Just Because - Walter Lenk

Caller Walter Lenk, backed up by Tony Parkes, leads dancers through the singing square Just Because. Recorded at the Saturday night Grand Dance, January 1988, at the first Ralph Page Dance Legacy… View item
Website

Frank Fortune and the Bradford (NH) Barn Dance

Back in the 1930s and 1940s in many of the villages of New England were held dances referred to as "Barn Dances" or "Round and Square Dances" or "Eastern Barn Dance Style Square Dances". As people did… View item