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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Document

Square Dance—A Social Recreation Aid (1937 article)

Article explaining the basics of square dance, the importance of the caller, the structure of a set, appropriate music, two methods for how to swing, and sample dances. Dance directions are given for… View item
Sound

Square Dance With Soul

Two audio excerpts from the album Square Dancing With Soul by Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, originally released on the Folkways label in 1969. The comments are from the booklet released with the… View item
Document

Square Dance with Soul, booklet

Liner notes and dance descriptions, the booklet that came with the LP recording View item
Still Image

Square Dance with Soul

See the accompanying booklet for the text that was included with this record, released by Folkways in 1969. View item
Document

Cowboy Dance Tunes – excerpt

This was first published as a separate booklet in 1940 to accompany Lloyd Shaw's Cowboy Dances, which appeared in 1939. Shaw provides an introduction.Jim Saxe notes, "The same tune collection,… View item
Website

Seated Square Dance Resources

Massachusetts caller Fred Wersan has compiled a comprehensive list of square dance figures adapted for seated dancers.On his website Fred says, " I learned about sitting square dances from Rick Hill… View item
Sound

Cut Away 6, 4, 2 (clip) - Fred Townsend

Canadian caller, born 1900, who was the caller for Don Messer's bands on its many cross-country trips. A three-LP boxed set of his dance calls (Let's Square Dance) was released (Doncaster DS-3-102).… View item
Moving Image

Two Leaf Clover - video

THis video illustrates the Two Leaf Clover figure that can be called as part of a big set. View item
Sound

Two Leaf Clover - teaching

The audio recording is from a dance at the Ballard Eagles in Washington state. The full audio (two sides of a 45-minute cassette) can be heard on the Internet Archive.Fred Park described the figure… View item
Sound

Take a Little Peek - Floyd Lockhart

We've been unable to locate information about caller Floyd Lockhart—please contact SDHP if you have any—but he's paired as a caller on the album on which this file appears with Jim Munyon,… View item
Document

The Li'l Abner Official Square Dance Handbook

This book clearly is riding the wave of square dance popularity at that time. Linking square dance with the popular comic strip figures, the book even more explicitly illustrates the way that the… View item
Moving Image

Butterfly Whirl- Fred Feild

Fred Feild calls a traditional square dance, held at the home of Marion Waudby in Tucson, Arizona, May, 1999. Other dances filmed during this session are:Grapevine Twist (two couple)Grapevine… View item