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

Browse Items (1926 total)

Moving Image

Jubilee Promenaders 1

The dancers had received national acclaim as the Lake of the Ozarks Dancers in appearances on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour (see Related Item). Their fast tempo, fancy jig steps, and lively performances… View item
Still Image

Joseph Fadler photographs

Joseph Fadler took hundreds of photographs for Sets in Order magazine. This is a selection from the Fadler Collection at the University of Denver. It includes photos of dancing, women's attire, and a… View item
Moving Image

Jon Jones - CALLERLAB history

This CALLERLAB History / Heritage / Tradition session in 2005 included comments from Herb Egender, who was one of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers with Lloyd Shaw. Jim Mayo was the second speaker,… View item
Sound

Johnny Barbour - Hash, live recording, 1958

Johnny Barbour 1958 – Track 1 Comment by Jim Mayo This tip is, I believe, from a group of files shared with the Square Dance Foundation of New England by Stig Malmo from Denmark. Stig has been… View item
Document

John Ramsay - Set Running, a Southern Folk Dance

This article, written in 1987 and updated in 2013 by longtime dancer, caller, and organizer John Ramsay, presents his views on what has been termed "set running," a style of dance that was… View item
Still Image

John Putnam, Black fiddler and caller

John Putnam (c. 1817–1895) was born into slavery and by the 1850s was living in Greenfield, MA, where he worked as a barber. He played left-handed fiddle and Putnam's Orchestra played for dances… View item
Sound

John Newton - Vermont - 5 squares

John Newton was a Vermont teacher and square dance caller. Included here are five examples of his calling. The first three were recorded by Steve Green in 1984 at John's home (with music by… View item
Still Image

John Newton - Turkey Mountain Window Smashers

Photographs, band logo and other ephemera related to John Newton's band The first photograph shows the big family version of the Turkey Mountain Window Smashers, about 1989. Members are, L to… View item
Sound

John Brown's Body (clip) - Jim Vickers-Willis

Live recording of the popular Australian caller who spearheaded a huge surge of interest there in American square dance in the 1950s. See additional newsreel footage and references on this website. View item
Still Image

John Bradford photos

John Bradford and his sister were the youngest participants at the early Lloyd Shaw seminars in Colorado. John went on to call for many decades. The photos here date from his teen years up through a… View item
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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
Still Image

John and Mary Josy Bradford

John Bradford (age 13) and his sister Mary Jo (16), also known as Mary Josy to differentiate her from her mother, Mary Jo Bradford, went for the first time to Shaw's summer dance class in 1947,… View item