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

Browse Items (1925 total)

Still Image

Blue Bonnet Set - 1939

This 1939 newspaper pictoral spread looks at Herb Greggerson's Blue Bonnet Set, the team that won the Texas square dancing championship in March that year. Before that, the prize was often taken… View item
Moving Image

Jessie Polka - couple dance

Sometimes danced as a couple, and sometimes (as here) in a larger group, here is a trio young dancers doing the Jessie Polka. The tune is Down Yonder, featuring Sky Bartlett (L) and Ernie Duffy (R) on… View item
Moving Image

Rye Waltz - couple dance

The Rye Waltz is an adaptation of Comin’ Through the Rye and The Highland Schottische, and intersperses a schottische step with a waltz. Music by The Latter Day Lizards and guests; the Lizards are… View item
Moving Image

Couple Dances at a Square Dance in Southwestern Pennsylvania 1985 - 1987

Dance caller, musician, and videographer Larry Edelman writes: "While studying traditional square dance calling and music in the 1980's in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, I found that there were as… View item
Moving Image

Hambo

Traditional square and contra dance series often include a variety of couple dances as part of their program. Depending on location and time, dancers might enjoy waltz, polka, or schottische, among… View item
Moving Image

Polka

Traditional square dance series and some contra series have often included couple dances as part of the evening program. This polka was recorded at the contra dance at the VFW, Cambridge, MA. You'll… View item
Moving Image

Gay Gordon's - couple dance

This couple dance was recorded at a Valentine's Day contra dance in Nelson, NH. Such couple dances—along with waltz, polka, schottische, hambo, and others—are frequently found in the program of… View item
Document

Texas Square Dance Contests

These are a series of newspaper clippings made by J. Olcutt Sanders, documenting Texas square dance competitions. (Unfortunately, most of them are undated.) We assume that these are from Fort Worth;… View item
Document

Bob Sumrall - Olcutt Sanders correspondence, 1939

These letters between Bob Sumrall and J. Olcutt Sanders provide a glimpse into Texas square dances in the late 1930s. Sanders was a serious student of square dance history, part of a group of… View item
Moving Image

The Route - Rickey Holden

Rickey Holden calling a classic square dance figure, alternately called The Rout or The Route. Rather than a full walkthrough, he gives only a general introduction, setting up the dancers for some… View item
Moving Image

Three Ladies Chain - Rickey Holden

Instead of the women chaining over and back within their own square, in this variation of Three Ladies Chain, caller Rickey Holden has the women leaving their square and chaining all the way over the… View item
Document

Old Square Dances of America

In his Square Dances of West Texas booklet and elsewhere, Rickey Holden makes frequent references to Iowa as a source of western dancing: --- There are, not counting the Southern Mountain clogging of… View item