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

Browse Items (1926 total)

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Texan Whirl - Rickey Holden

Rickey Holden calling the Texan Whirl figure attributed to caller Bob Sumrall, an influential caller starting in the 1930s in Abilene and other West Texas communities. The distinctive part has the… View item
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Four in Line You Travel - Rickey Holden

Caller Rickey Holden teaches the figure for "Four in line you travel," and then calls a square dance using that figure. The figure is described in detail in the notes for Ed Gilmore's Square Dance… View item
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"Abilene lift" - Rickey Holden

Caller Rickey Holden calls and dances the "Abilene lift," a style of movement created and popularized by west Texas caller Bob Sumrall. The 1-2-3 shuffle of feet gave the dancers a smooth movement;… View item
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Four Poster Bed / goal post - Rickey Holden

Caller Rickey Holden calls the a variation of the goal post figures at a workshop in Taastrup, Denmark, August 19, 2005. Instead of having dancers immediately go around one, as in goal post, Holden… View item
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Denver Wagon Wheel / Triple Duck - Rickey Holden (dance)

Caller Rickey Holden teaches the "triple duck" figure, also known as the Denver Wagon Wheel. (In his "Square Dances of West Texas" book, Holden credits the figure to Joe Lang, of… View item
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Denver Wagon Wheel / Triple Duck - Rickey Holden (instr.)

Caller Rickey Holden teaches the "triple duck" figure, also known as the Denver Wagon Wheel. (In his "Square Dances of West Texas" booklet, Holden credits the figure to Joe Lang,… View item
Document

Six Styles of Square Dance - Rickey Holden

Trying to categorize the different varieties of square dance can be a challenging task. Noted caller and dance historian Rickey Holden published his thoughts in this 1955 article in his American… View item
Document

Texas Square Dances - Rickey Holden

This is a detailed description of three Texas squares, presented by Rickey Holden as an exhibition dance at the fourth annual New England Folk Festival, November 15–16, 1947. Holden based much of his… View item
Sound

Texas Whirlwind (clip) - Rickey Holden

Starting with a simply RH star in the center, Holden ups the complexity with a series of Catch All Eight calls around outside of the circle. === TEXAS WHIRLWIND (Folkraft 1073A) – Rickey… View item
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Warp and Weft - grid square

Grid square composed by Rick Mohr; dance directions on his website. Called here by Lisa Greenleaf; the tune is Julia Delaney, played by Daron Douglas (fiddle), Anna Patton (clarinet), and Karen… View item
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An Evening with Lloyd Shaw

Richard Marold was director of theCheyenne Mountain Heritage Centerat the time of this presentation. He developed this one man show in which he appears as Dr. Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw, speaking directly to… View item
Document

Square Dance in Our Schools

Writing in 1952, the author notes that a recent survey shows that square dance is a widely accepted part of school programs. "These certainly are striking figures. But they are not surprising in… View item