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

Browse Items (1926 total)

Document

Glencoe Promenade

Description of a square dance figure from south-central New Mexico; the figure probably goes back to the late 1800s. View item
Document

Old Time Square Dancing on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

Author Bob Dalsemer discovers a long tradition of the "big circle" square dance on this island off the North Carolina coast, far from the Appalachian Mountains where it is usually… View item
Document

The Independence (PA) Lancers

For moving images of the dance, click here and hereThis is Bob Dalsemer's account of discovering an old dance form maintained in a rural Pennsylvania community:"On two occasions in 1979, I had the… View item
Document

The Buzzards' Glory Barn Dance 1928–1966

In the early 1970s, Bob Dalsemer heard about a dance series in Albanstown, northern Baltimore County, Maryland; the dances were no longer being held so he interviewed two sources to create this… View item
Sound

Uncle Steve's Quadrille (recording)

The first audo file contains instructions for the dance; it is followed by two music files with calls for the first and second figures.Detailed information about this dance, as published in Elizabeth… View item
Document

Uncle Steve's Quadrille (description)

This dance was published in Elizabeth Burchenal's Folk-Dances from Old Homelands (1922). This is the first dance iin the book, one of two American dances, along with Old Dan Tucker. (See the moving… View item
Still Image

Henry Ford - record album

Album cover and record label View item
Sound

Life on the Ocean Wave (clip) - Benjamin Lovett

Benjamin Lovett, the noted dancing master who was hired by Henry Ford to promote social dancing, leads Life on the Ocean Wave, also known as the Head Two Ladies Cross Over. The musicians are the Henry… View item
Document

Allemande Alphabet

This look at the "allemande alphabet" is by Dick Pasvolsky, writing in The American Dance Circle, quarterly publication of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. A concise listing of the figures can be found… View item
Website

Chuck Jones - square dance adventures

Famed animator Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, and many more) was an ardent square dance enthusiast, part of the southern California boom in squares in the early… View item
Still Image

American Squares Summer School, 3 (photos)

A series of photographs taken at an American Squares summer camp session, plus one postcard View item
Document

American Squares Summer School, 2

More material from the American Squares summer camps: • A report on the 1950 camps • A roster of participants from the 1950 Minnesota camp • Diploma awarded to a camper View item