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

Browse Items (1925 total)

Website

Arkie Woodchopper

A biography of this colorful performer, from the Hillbilly-Music.com website. Also see the Wikipedia article View item
Moving Image

Paine's First Set Quadrille (1815) - Quadrille Club

Danced by the Quadrille Club, under the direction of Ellis Rogers. The fourth figure (Trenis) has been omitted here.For comparison, this collection also includes the same dance performed by Nederlands… View item
Moving Image

Lancers, 5th figure

The music for this group of dancers is by Spare Parts, from their compact disc, The Civil War Ballroom. View item
Moving Image

Quadrille Club at The Royal Pavilion

Videotaped excerpts from a series of dances: Jacky Tarr, a three-couple English country dance from a collection by Wilson 1816 02:55 Thethird figure, `La Poule' from a set of five in a quadrille.… View item
Moving Image

Waltz Cotillion & Prince Imperial Quadrille

The Quadrille Club and others dancing at a Ball in Richmond, England. The Waltz Quadrille is the first item of three in this video; the Prince Imperial Quadrille begins about 05:53. View item
Moving Image

John Bill Allen - Big set, Berea, 1975

Note: The first minute of the video has garbled sound, but then it clears up. Notes from John Ramsay: Documentary of local square dancing in Berea, Kentucky circa 1975. The caller, John Bill Allen,… View item
Moving Image

Appalachian Big Set - Berea- 1993

The Berea Festival Dancers, with caller Teresa Lowder, perform an Appalachian Big Set demonstration at the 1993 Mountain Folk Festival, Berea, Kentucky. The group is introduced by their director, John… View item
Moving Image

Kentucky Set Running - 1993

Notes by John Ramsay: "The Kids From The Country, a country dance team from Silver Creek School in Berea, Kentucky demonstrate "running a set" or Set Running. Their music teacher, Mr. Barton, is the… View item
Sound

Marching Through Georgia - Worley Gardner

(Note: This site also contains a video clip of the dance as called by New England caller Dudley Laufman.)from the chapter on Morgantown, WV, in West Virginia Square Dances, by Bob DalsemerSinging… View item
Website

West Virginia Square Dances by Robert G. Dalsemer

Dalsemer describes dance figures as done in five rural West Virginia communities in the mid- to late 1970s and reports on their regular dance events, including programming, type of audience, price and… View item
Website

50 Years of Square Dancing in Germany

The first square dance was held in Bremen on July 16, 1949, called by Paul Hartman and attended by five squares, mostly American servicemen and their guests. The event was a success and Hartman began… View item
Moving Image

Grand Colonel Spin - demonstration

The Grand Spin call is no longer on the standard lists of MWSD calls. The dancers here are tapping but the figure itself can be clearly seen, starting at :35. The dancers are the Air Cap Tappers at… View item