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New England Contras from a Western Caller's Point of View
This is the third in a series by Jack McKay, California square dance caller. Written in 1952, it's an attempt to look at the challenges of calling New England contras compared to Western squares,… View itemDocument
Cowpuncher's Square Dance Call
Poem that appears to be square dance patter from traditional western square dancing View itemDocument
Country Dancing in Central and Western New York State
This overview of different forms of country dancing in upper New York State starts in the early 1800s. The author looks at quadrilles and squares, longways and round dances, "from rural house parties… View itemMoving Image
Florilla Perkins Ames, Vermont
Florilla Perkins Ames was 102 years old when she recorded this interview. She lives in northern Vermont, and remembers her father calling dances. Before that, her mother's grandfather used to… View itemDocument
Square Dance Contests - Texas debate, 1948
In the 1920s and 1930s, continuing a little into the 1940s, Texas had numerous square dance competitions. These two essays from Foot 'n' Fiddle magazine debate the merits of such events.In the first… View itemMoving Image
Let's Square Dance - instructional films, 1950s
In the mid-1950s, Janet R. MacLean, a professor in the Indiana University Department of Recreation, produced a series of six instructional films to introduce square dancing. The films, each… View itemMoving Image
Seated Square Dance, Janine Smith
Caller Janine Smith (MD) calling a seated (sitting) square dance in a video created during the pandemic lockdown when dancing in person was impossible. Janine got her inspiration for this form of… View itemDocument
Revival Squares - video and web links
Recent years have seen the appearance of a new audience for square dances. One important starting point was a series of dances in the Portland, Oregon, area, led bycaller Bill Martinand the Foghorn… View itemDocument
Emergence and Development of the Cotillon
Jean-Michel Guilcher is a pre-eminent scholar of French dance. This is an excerpt from his book, La contredanse: un tournant dans l'histoire française de la danse, translated for the Square… View itemWebsite
Contemporary Accounts of Dance From the American West in the Nineteenth Century
Doctoral dissertation based on primary sources; includes a look at dances on the pioneer trails, in logging camps in mining camps, rural social life and urban social life. From the author's… View item
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