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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Moving Image

The Route - Rickey Holden

Rickey Holden calling a classic square dance figure, alternately called The Rout or The Route. Rather than a full walkthrough, he gives only a general introduction, setting up the dancers for some… View item
Sound

Alamo Style

This 1949 description of "Alamo style" balances comes from Rickey Holden, who coined the term to describe the figure. Holden points out that the action itself had been around for a while.… View item
Moving Image

Texas Whirlwind - Rickey Holden

Holden teaches the figures, starting with a review of Catch All Eight, a traditional figure from West Texas that became part of modern square dance: right hand turn halfway around, then left hand turn… View item
Moving Image

Suzy Q - Grand Cuttyshaw - Rickey Holden

Holden's name for this dance was the Grand Cuttyshaw, which he published as "traditional New Mexico" in his 1992 booklet, "Square Dances of West Texas." A note there reads, "This traditional figure,… View item
Document

Syllabus of Square Dances, Rickey Holden 1949

This is a syllabus created by Rickey Holden for a callers' workshop held in San Antonio in 1949. The course was 2-1/2 hours each night for five days. It's a useful primary source document showing the… View item
Document

Song of the HIGH-LEVEL Dancer - poem

The push for "high level dancing" appeared in the 1950s as square dancing took off. Some dancers wanted ever-more-challenging programs and they were often reluctant to dance with less-skilled dancers.… View item
Document

How Do They Swing?

A brief look at styles of swinging, c. 1954 View item
Sound

Rickey Holden - interview & three dances

This item starts with an interview conducted by Mildred Buhler with Rickey Holden and his wife, Marti, in San Antonio, Texas. At that time, Holden was a Square Dance Consultant with the San Antonio… View item
Document

A Brief History of "Hash"

This is a chapter from Instant Hash that appeared in American Squares magazine. Litman and Holden define hash as "a mixture of figures which come one after another so quickly that often there is no… View item
Sound

Spinning Wheel - description and audio

This figure appears here in two formats. The written description comes from Betty Casey in Foot 'n' Fiddle managzine; Casey published several collections of square dance figures and decades later… View item
Sound

Daisy Alamo patter - Robby Robertson

This is a live recording of Robby Robertson teaching a "Daisy Alamo" combination of a Daisy Chain and an Alamo Style progression, followed by calling a dance with those figures. (The dance itself… View item
Document

Frontier Dances - Bob Cook

A native of Colorado, Bob Cook's dancing experiences go back to the time when he was a seventh grader at the Cheyenne Mountain School. He was a member of the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers from 1939 to… View item