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

Browse Items (1941 total)

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Clark Baker - traditional and modern

In this fifth and final video in this series, Clark Baker looks at two related kinds of dancing and explains the attraction of each: MWSD squares, especially in the Challenge program, on one side, and… View item
Website

Explaining Traditional Squares and Contras to MWSD folks

This website is an effort by Clark Baker—a MWSD caller who also enjoys traditional contras and squares—to explain those more traditional forms to modern square dancers. Clark's essay begins: "Modern… View item
Document

History timeline - square dance and CALLERLAB

At the annual CALLERLAB convention, in April 2025, caller Clark Baker was asked to lead a workshop on the history of square dance and of CALLERLAB. Clark has been calling nearly 50 years, mostly at… View item
Document

Easy Key Handbook of Square Dance Fundamentals

In the 1950s, square dancing in many locations was changing from traditional to modern squares, moving away from a complete set of patterns to a system in which dancers would learn basic figures that… View item
Document

Gym Classes in Square Dancing

This article describes the author's experiences teaching square dancing at Vanderbilt University. In addition to describing how the program developed, Prof. Chadwick concludes on an uplifting… View item
Document

Let's Square Dance – Claude Chadwick

This 24 page booklet was produced by Claude S. Chadwick, a Texas native and a professor of biology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He begins with an overview of the activity: "All we need for… View item
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Quadrille français - 1st figure, Le Pantalon

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Quadrille français - La Polonaise - 3rd figure

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Les plaisirs de Varennes - contredanse française

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Contredanse française - pot-pourri of dances

This selection of dances from the period of the French Revolution begins with an introduction (in French). The actual dancing begins about 2:20. View item
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Contredanse française – La réverbère

Dance from the later 1700s, during the reign of Louis VXI (1754-1793), illustrating this dance form that emerged from the cotillon and led to the development of the quadrille. View item

Corky Calkins - two programs

These are two programs of Massachusetts caller Corky Calkins, one from 1965 and the other from 1967. They were noted by Connecticut caller Ralph Sweet who for decades carried a small notebook with him… View item