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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Square Dance Caller's Workshop - Larry Edelman

Starting in 1988, Larry Edelman led a series of classes for square dance callers at weekend and week-long dance camps. This is the basic text for that course, included with his permission. The 52-page… View item
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Dance to the Music and Listen to the Calls: The Square Dances and Calling of Jerry Goodwin

Larry Edelman produced this video in 1987 while studying square dance calling with Jerry Goodwin. The apprenticeship was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the… View item
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Peek-a-Boo Square Dance called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. In addition to the basic figure, which he demonstrates at the start,… View item
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Calico Top square dance walkthrough

Larry Edelman leads the walkthrough for this dance at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. Elsewhere on this site you can see… View item
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Calico Top square dance called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. An accompanying video on this website shows Larry's walkthrough… View item
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Milagro Square called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman calls his version of Herb Greggerson's Milagro Square (sometimes known as Take Three Swings) at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk… View item
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Double Birdie called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman calls a variation of Birdie in the Cage and Seven Hands Around at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown,… View item
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Silly Threesome called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman leads the walkthrough and calls the figures at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. The trio mixer Silly… View item
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Harlem Rosette Mixer called by Larry Edelman

Larry Edelman calls this scatter mixer at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. He introduces the "Harlem Rosette" figure that… View item
Document

Old Time Dance Calls (1919)

It's interesting that two of the early manuals describing square dancing-- not formal quadrilles-- come from Iowa, this one and the 1925 booklet by Dunlavy and Boyd (see Related Item).We'll let Tony… View item
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Camp Becket - child's view of square dance camp

Camp Becket in western Massachusetts was the regular venue for square dance camps. Caller Herbie Gaudreau, who named many of his dances for locations in his dance universe, created the Becket Reel.… View item
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Paddock Parade - Don Armstrong

Recorded at the York Contra Holiday, November, 1996; Don Armstrong, caller. His instructions for the dance can be found here. (If that website is unavailable, they are also reprinted below.) From a… View item