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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Sound

Two Leaf Clover - teaching

The audio recording is from a dance at the Ballard Eagles in Washington state. The full audio (two sides of a 45-minute cassette) can be heard on the Internet Archive.Fred Park described the figure… View item
Moving Image

Butterfly Whirl- Fred Feild

Fred Feild calls a traditional square dance, held at the home of Marion Waudby in Tucson, Arizona, May, 1999. Other dances filmed during this session are:Grapevine Twist (two couple)Grapevine… View item
Document

Ralph Page – Swing Your Partners

This short essay by Ralph Page (1939) is interesting for several reasons. First, he's writing for a publication of the New Hampshire Planning and Development Commission, and Page cites the economic… View item
Document

Jesse Cosby, African-American caller

Article in Ebony magazine profiling African-American square dance caller Jesse Cosby, Waterloo, Iowa. The article references examples of racial discrimination:"Once racial discrimination stymied his… View item
Document

Review of Cowboy Dances

This review of Lloyd Shaw's book comes from Douglas Kennedy, director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society from 1924 (after Cecil Sharp's death) until 1961. Kennedy had teveled to the… View item
Still Image

Bill Miles, fiddler

Bill Miles was the fiddler on Dick Kraus's series of square dance recordings. Kraus is playing guitar in photo 3. Kraus obviously thought highly of his fiddler--see photo 4.Terry Bell writes: "He was… View item
Document

How Do They Swing?

A brief look at styles of swinging, c. 1954 View item
Document

The Dos-a-Dos

The author looks starts by examining the pronunciation and different spellings of this figure. He then explores variations, all of which involve a handhold: Southern Highland or Mountaineer… View item
Sound

Convention Time in Texas

Tis recording, S.I.O.-DAL 1954, was released by Sets in Order to celebrate the 3rd annual National Square Dance Convention, held in Dallas, TX, April 8–10, 1954. Set to the tune of Roundup Time in… View item
Still Image

Silver Spurs publicity poster

The poster is from a 1962 performance of the Silver Spurs (Spokane, WA) in Victoria, British Columbia. It illustrates the many varieties of dance presented by the youth group, dances that are still… View item
Website

Canadian Olde Tyme Square Dance Association

The Canadian Olde Tyme Square Dance Association was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1954 by a group of callers interested in preserving, and promoting the traditional Canadian style of square… View item
Document

Four dances from Gaspé

This is a detailed description in French of the four dances documented in the Grand Chain - Grande Chaîne video. It was created by Hélène Gaulin, the caller in the video. View item