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

Browse Items (48 total)

  • Search: Les Gotcher
Document

Texas Dance Memories

This booklet was compiled by Betty Casey; it presents an overview of Texas square dance history. The booklet features short profiles of 14 "first pacesetters," figures who are important in the history… View item
Document

Bill Litchman - Rocky Mountain Square Dancing

This overview of square dance history focuses on two major groups of square dance. One group (northern, Eastern, Maritime, etc.) relies on quadrille-style figures, with couples interacting across the… View item
Website

Square Dance Articles - Buddy Weaver resources page

Buddy Weaver has collected on his website a series of transcriptions and printed essays by numerous well-respected square dance callers. On this site, you'll find pieces by Doc Alumbaugh, Ed… View item
Sound

Sally Goodin (clip) - Carl Myles

One wonders where the caller picked up his pronunciation of the title in this dance. Everywhere else we hear Sally GOOD-in, but here it's Sally Good-EEN. He is credited as the square dance caller in… View item
Sound

Ed Gilmore - Q&A, 1962 - part 1

This is a discussion with noted California caller Ed Gilmore, recorded October 21, 1962, at a meeting of the Tri-State Callers Association, an organization of professional MWSD callers from Maine, New… View item
Document

Ed Gilmore - Caller's Institute

This is a transcription of a presentation made by Ed Gilmore to a group of callers. He starts by outlining his own credentials to be leading such a session, and mentions in passing "that for the last… View item
Document

Foot 'n' Fiddle  (Texas)

This journal was started in 1946 by Marlys Swenson (later Marlys Waller) and Anne Pittman, joined by Olcutt Sanders as another editor. It is among the earliest square dance magazines—Rod… View item
Website

SDFNE 1960's Era Recordings

Jim Mayo undertook a project to use the Square Dance Foundation of New England's audio archives and locate representative samples of square dance calling from the time period when Modern Western… View item
Document

SDFNE 1960's Era Recordings, part II

Several years ago the Square Dance Foundation of New England arranged an on-line link to a set of clips from early modern square dances. These clips were from the SDFNE collection of tapes of live… View item
Sound

Do Paso What (clip) - Les Gotcher

sample of Les Gotcher's calling style, in this case building a dance from a break sequence Black Mountain 128 View item
Document

Les Gotcher - Square Dancin'

Published in 1950, the book contains directions to 100 dances, as well as photographs illustrating basic moves for beginners. Among those are Do-Ci-Do, Docey, Do-Sa-Do, and Do-Paso. (see the Contents… View item
Sound

Wheel and Deal (clip) - Les Gotcher

excerpt from a live recording in the early 1960s View item