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

Browse Items (33 total)

  • Tags: cheyenne mountain dancers
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Square Dance Revival Due To Shaw’s Dreams in the 1920’s

This newspaper essay by Dorothy Stott Shaw describes, in her usual poetic manner, the rise of square dancing as seen through Lloyd Shaw and his experiences at Cheyenne Mountain School. There are more… View item
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"So They Gave Up Football"

This full-page article and layout of photographs was created by the Associated Press, drawing attention to Lloyd Shaw and the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. The top right photo shows the bus in which the… View item
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The Visible Anthem

This 1972 documentary, half an hour in length, describes the work of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation. It includes footage of Dorothy Shaw speaking to participants at a gathering of the Lloyd Shaw… View item
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"So They Gave Up Football"

These two articles were written by Erna Egender, a member of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers for that group's first trip east, in 1939. The title relates to a ful-page layout created by the Associated… View item
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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
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Pappy's Kids - SIO, 1948

The Cheyenne Mountain Dancers were featured on the cover and the lead story of the first issue ofSets in Order, published to coincide with the appearance of the group in southern California.The… View item
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Mary Jo (Bradford) Brearley - interview

Teenager Mary Jo (Bradford) Brearley and her younger brother John were the first teems to attend Lloyd Shaw's summer institute in Colorado. Her mother, also Mary Jo, was a physical education… View item
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Cheyenne Mountain Dancers - California, 1948

These photographs, taken during the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers trip to California in November of 1948, illustrate different aspects of the dancers' performance. Today, we associate them with the… View item
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Cheyenne Mountain Dancers - death in La Jolla

Tragedy hit the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers on one of their trips. On Thursday, November 4, 1948. dancer Tommy Collins died when he was swept into the Pacific Ocean near La Jolla, California. After… View item
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Pam McKeever and the Flying Squares, 1981

Demonstration of the sort of exhibition dancing created by Lloyd Shaw in the 1930s and popularized by his Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. The dancers are: Jim Bollman, Karen Atkins, Ernie Spence,… View item
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A Look at Square Dancing in Colorado

"Square dancing evolved a western version probably sometime in the late 1800s when the pioneers moved to settle the states west of the Mississippi. It was a square dance form that was much… View item
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Pam McKeever - Cheyenne Mountain Dancers demo, 1990

Pam McKeever is the caller; the dancers are demonstrating a routine like that used by Lloyd Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers in the late 1930s and 1940s. You'll note a series of dramatic aerial… View item