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

Browse Items (1950 total)

Sound

Grand Square - Bob Osgood

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Moving Image

Ed Durlacher - Central Park Newsreel

Newsreel footage of square dancing in Central Park, New York City, in the 1940s. Ed Durlacher called to crowds in the thousands. (You can read Durlacher's description of the dances in Sets in Order,… View item
Website

Sets in Order archive

The complete collection of Sets in Order (which changed its name to Square Dancing in 1968) is available online through the University of Denver. A duplicate set is now housed on the Internet Archive.… View item
Document

Kentucky Square Dance

The author describes in general terms what he prefers to call the Kentucky Square Dance:"The Kentucky Square Dance (Sharp’s original “running set”) is a four couple square formation… View item
Moving Image

Easter Festival, Örebro Sweden

This video is from the annual Easter dance weekend Påskfestivalen i Örebro on March 21-23, 2008. The callers on the video are Jet Roberts (the short guy on the right) and two Swedish callers, Tomas… View item
Moving Image

Lancers

Dance Discovery, a St Louis, Missouri troupe, dances all five figures at a Lincoln program given at Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville on November 25, 2007. The dance is… View item
Moving Image

Eleanor Roosevelt square dancing

Newsreel footage of Eleanor Roosevelt dancing in Arthurdale, West Virginia, 1940 View item
Moving Image

Eddie Mayall - hash

Modern square dance, Plus program. Videotaped by Tim Stanger at the Papoose Pond square dance weekend, N. Waterford, Maine, 1994. View item
Moving Image

Auctioneer - Tony Parkes

Tony Parkes, caller.This song was originally recorded by Leroy Van Dyke in 1956, and the dance was made famous by Marshall Flippo, who recorded it twice. The calls Tony uses here are from Flippo's… View item
Sound

Auctioneer (1958 original - clip) - Marshall Flippo

This is an audio clip of the first of three recordings Marshall Flippo made of this tune; this is the recording that launched his career as a square dance caller. Transcription provided by Jeff… View item
Moving Image

Trail Of The Lonesome Pine - Rich Sbardella

Called by Rich and Lynn Sbardella at Ralph Sweet's Powder Mill Barn, Hazardville, CT. Dance was hosted by the South Windsor MWSDC. Ralph Sweet, who owns this barn, is in the middle square. The singing… View item
Sound

Auctioneer (remake - clip) - Marshall Flippo

This is a remake in the 1970s by Marshall Flippo of his big hit. For this version, he changed the choreography to reflect changes in MWSD, and the music also has a very different sound. This is Blue… View item