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

Browse Items (1930 total)

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A Past To Remember - NSDC 1976

This half-hour video documents the 1976 National Square Dance Convention, held in Anaheim, CA. It was the largest NSDC in history, coming at the time of the Bicentennial. It included an elaborate… View item
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A Night at Sunny Hills

Album cover, inside text, and a related record label. This recording, from 1951, illustrates what was considered appropriate material for experienced square dancers at that time in southern… View item
Document

A Look at Square Dancing in Colorado

"Square dancing evolved a western version probably sometime in the late 1800s when the pioneers moved to settle the states west of the Mississippi. It was a square dance form that was much… View item
Website

A Look at Southern Squares

Bill Martin writes: "These many pages represent all the information I could find about Southern mountain square dancing. Over the years I continue to find errors and clueless guesswork here and there.… View item
Document

A Few Square Dance Calls from Bill McAdoo

Editor Larry Edelman writes: "I collected these figures in the mid-1980’s at the Independence Grange Hall Dance in Independence, Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania. During my visits,… 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
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A Better Missouri - square dance, 1937

This dance sequence is an excerpt from "A Better Missouri," a documentary film from 1937. The film was produced for the Work Projects Administration, and focuses on public works projects created by… View item
Website

78-rpm Recordings of Southern Dance Callers (1924-33)

This collection of nearly 100 old recordings was created by Phil Jamison to accompany the publication of his book, Hoedowns, Reels and Frolics (2015). The book tells the story behind the square… View item
Website

50 Years of Square Dancing in Germany

The first square dance was held in Bremen on July 16, 1949, called by Paul Hartman and attended by five squares, mostly American servicemen and their guests. The event was a success and Hartman began… View item
Document

5 Steps to Better Dancing

The "5 Steps" of the title can be taken literally; this tiny handout, illustrated with stick figures, is all about how to move on the dance floor: 1. Keep both feet on the floor,… View item
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3 Contredanses françaises

These three dances date to the late 18th century. They are reconstructed from the Manuscrit de Trois-Rivières, the earliest dance manuscript in Canada; click here for more information about the… View item
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1988 Calgary Olympics - costume

This is a costume worn by dancers at the gala square dance that formed part of the opening ceremony at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. See the related item for video footage of that dance routine… View item