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

La boulangère - dance of French Revolution

Dance from the period of the French Revolution. La Boulangère was the only dance mentioned by name by Jane Austen, and it is related to an American dance figure of the south called the Shoo-Fly Swing. View item
Document

La naissance du cotillon et du quadrille, contredanses françaises

Article (in French) by Simonne Voyer, who is the author of La danse traditionnelle dans l'est du Canada: quadrilles et cotillons. For a translation in English by Susan Kevra, click here. View item
Moving Image

La Nouvelle Carel, French cotillion 1762

Cotillion, La Nouvelle Carel, Le Repertoires de Bals, de la Cuisse, Paris, 1762Here is another dance from the same collection, performed by a different group. View item
Moving Image

La Strasbourgoise Cotillion -Regency era

Demonstration of a period cotillion at a Napoleonic Ball View item
Moving Image

La-Bouchette

This square dance was filmed for a Quebec, Canadian television series called Soirée Canadienne that aired between 1960 and 1983. The show was hosted by Louis Bilodeau. View item
Sound

Labor Day Quadrille (clip) - Ted Sannella

This clip is part of a series of eight square dances called by Ted Sannella at the Chesapeake Spring Dance Weekend, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. (Ted called another four or… View item
Moving Image

Lac-Bouchette

Crooked tune alert! - careful listeners will note that the B part of this tune has seven bars instead of the usual eight! This square dance was filmed for a Quebec, Canadian television series… View item
Sound

Ladies Chain Through the Stars - Bob Hunt

Bob Hunt was a prominent Australia caller, based in Victoria, who in the 1950s was calling six nights a week. View item