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

Aggie Haylofters - Colorado

Author Cal Campbell shares his memories of dancing with the Aggie Haylofters, a square dance group at Colorado State University. (CSU was Colorado A&M until it changed its name in the 1950s;… View item
Moving Image

African-American quadrille, 1914 (#2)

This comes from the Prelinger Archives and the footage appears to be from the same reel as another itemin our collection. The first part of the footage shows common quadrille figures: opposite couples… View item
Moving Image

African-American quadrille, 1914 (#1)

SIlent movie footage from 1914 showing African-American dancers in square formation. Referring to the couple dance later in the footage, a comment on a YouTube posting of the same clip says, "They are… View item
Website

Advanced Square Dance Figures of the West and Southwest

Electronic copy of 1950 book by Lee Owens, with music arranged by Viola Ruth. Excellent resource made available through the Internet Archive. The book can be read online, downloaded as a PDF file, or… View item
Document

Adirondack Square Dancing

The author describes her experiences traditional square dancing in the Adirondacks from 1918 to 1965, when she began modern squares. This story appeared in the final edition of Ralph Page's Northern… View item
Moving Image

Adam Boyce - Virginia Reel

Traditional American dance, recorded in West Newbury, VT, on July 24, 2010. The caller and fiddler is Adam Boyce, accompanied by piano player Donna Weston. With seven couples in the set, the dance… View item
Moving Image

Adam Boyce - Forward Six and Back

This video shows several times through the dance, called by Adam Boyce, a traditional Vermont caller who learned from Harold Luce of the Ed Larkin Dancers. Luce himself can be heard on this audio… View item
Document

Abilene Lift - Rickey Holden

An early description by Rickey Holden of the so-called "Abilene lift," a distinctive style of incorporating a two-steps into square dance movement. View item
Sound

Abe Kanegson - live recordings, 1953 and 1955

These are four audio files from live recordings made in Dover, New Hampshire, in the 1950s. They feature caller Abe Kanegson. Notes (by Jim Mayo) on the choreography of the audio files: #1: In the… View item
Document

ABC's of Square Dancing

This informal guide to square dancing is aimed at beginners, an easy-to-ready pamphlet that a caller could distribute to dancers in a class. It strikes a friendly tone: --- So you wanta'… View item
Document

A Tennessee Square Dance

Caller David Hendrix presents a overview of typical figures that he would use in a "square dance" in his region of East Tennessee.He notes that the dances in his region are related to the… View item
Document

A Square Dance Pioneer: Jimmy Clossin

This summary of an interview with Jimmy Clossin by Miriam Gray appeared in 1960. More than 50 years later, it is impressive the ways in which he anticipated the challenges facing the square dance… View item