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

Browse Items (1925 total)

Sound

Cut Away 6, 4, 2 (clip) - Fred Townsend

Canadian caller, born 1900, who was the caller for Don Messer's bands on its many cross-country trips. A three-LP boxed set of his dance calls (Let's Square Dance) was released (Doncaster DS-3-102).… View item
Website

Seated Square Dance Resources

Massachusetts caller Fred Wersan has compiled a comprehensive list of square dance figures adapted for seated dancers.On his website Fred says, " I learned about sitting square dances from Rick Hill… View item
Document

Cowboy Dance Tunes – excerpt

This was first published as a separate booklet in 1940 to accompany Lloyd Shaw's Cowboy Dances, which appeared in 1939. Shaw provides an introduction.Jim Saxe notes, "The same tune collection,… View item
Still Image

Square Dance with Soul

See the accompanying booklet for the text that was included with this record, released by Folkways in 1969. View item
Document

Square Dance with Soul, booklet

Liner notes and dance descriptions, the booklet that came with the LP recording View item
Sound

Square Dance With Soul

Two audio excerpts from the album Square Dancing With Soul by Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, originally released on the Folkways label in 1969. The comments are from the booklet released with the… View item
Document

Square Dance—A Social Recreation Aid (1937 article)

Article explaining the basics of square dance, the importance of the caller, the structure of a set, appropriate music, two methods for how to swing, and sample dances. Dance directions are given for… View item
Still Image

Stu Jamieson

The biographical information comed from The Old-Time Herald. The line drawing portrait is by Margot Mayo and appeared in Promenade magazine published by Mayo's American Square Dance Group (Vol 5; No… View item
Still Image

Doonesbury - square dance

...in which Zonker, a character in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury, presents a common view of one social activity... This "Doonesbury Flashback" appeared March 20, 2012, a… View item
Website

Square Dance, Oakland, CA - 1919

This silent newsreel footage from Gaumont News, a French company, shows several sets of dancers doing a quadrille in an outdoor setting. The brief title before the action reads: "Choose… View item
Sound

Wedding Quadrille (clip) - Gene Gowing

This short clip includes just one time through the figure. The tune is Haste to the Wedding. Gowing does each couple in turn, then two head couples, two side couples, and finally all couples going at… View item
Sound

Crooked Stovepipe (clip) - Gene Gowing

This is the start of Gene Gowing's recording of a classic New England singing square. Gowing half sings, half chants the figures, in somewhat the same manner-- though less melodiously-- as his… View item