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

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
Sound

Texas Whirlwind (clip) - Rickey Holden

Starting with a simply RH star in the center, Holden ups the complexity with a series of Catch All Eight calls around outside of the circle. === TEXAS WHIRLWIND (Folkraft 1073A) – Rickey… View item
Sound

That's Where My Money Goes

PersonnelTed Glabach, PrompterRobinson's Orchestra Paul Robinson, Violin John Robinson, Banjo Bob Emerson, PianoNotes from Steve Green (1978): The following pieces were recorded from a homemade 78 rpm… View item
Document

The Afro-American Transformation of European Set Dances and Dance Suites

Scholarly article that looks at the way that European set dances such as the quadrille became changed by African Americans. The article looks in detail at the quadrille tradition in the Caribbean… View item
Document

The Barn Dance Returns! (1937 article)

Article in Recreation magazine giving detailed directions for holding a barn dance: "There is joy and laughter, rollicking rhythm, sociability and informality in barn and country dancing which… View item
Sound

The Basket - Ed Durlacher

Honor Your Partner was a series of rhythmic activities and dance albums, more than 20 in all, released by Ed Durlacher starting in 1949 and extending into the 1950s. This is the final dance on album… View item
Document

The Beginnings of Modern Square Dancing - Jim Mayo

Article by Jim Mayo looking at the transition from traditional to modern square dancing, a short version of the ideas presented at length in his book. View item
Document

The Birth of the Cotillion and the Quadrille, French Contredanses

This is a translation of Simonne Voyer's article, "La naissance du cotillon et du quadrille, contredanses françaises."The translation is by Susan Kevra, Senior Lecturer in French and American… View item
Document

The Buzzards' Glory Barn Dance 1928–1966

In the early 1970s, Bob Dalsemer heard about a dance series in Albanstown, northern Baltimore County, Maryland; the dances were no longer being held so he interviewed two sources to create this… View item
Document

The Caller - Jonesy

A list of qualifications and items to consider for would-be square dance callers View item
Document

The Calling Computer

In the late 1980s, Don Beck programmed his Macintosh computer to be able to call modern square dances, automatically selecting calls according to a programmed set of rules. Beck had been associated… View item
Document

The Care and Feeding of Exhibition Sets

This article fromAmerican Squares outlines items to be taken into consideration when developing an exhibition square dance team:===Putting the “dance” in square dancing is the basic… View item