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

Set Running - Berea Country Dancers

In a voiceover at the start of the clip, the group's director, John Ramsay, speaks about the history of the dance and share some of his philosophy about dance bringing people together.Other "set… View item
Website

Set Running - Cecil Sharp in America

The name "running set" comes to us from the work of the great English song collector Cecil Sharp, founder of the English Folk Dance Society and, in 1915, what became Country Dance and Song Society.… View item
Document

Set Runnin' in Eastern Kentucky

Description from 1949 by Patrick Napier of traditional square dances in eastern Kentucky. View item
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Set carré - Drummondville, Quebec

Dance filmed by Normand Legault, filmed in the early 1980s in Durham-Sud (South Durham), south of Drummondville. Caller: Ernest Carson Fiddle: Mario Landry Mandolin: Dave Gallant Piano: Paul… View item
Still Image

Servel Square Dance Club

The Servel Square Dance Club of Evansville, Indiana was formed by employees of the Servel plant, which made refrigerators before and after World War II. In this photo are square dancers, caller… View item
Moving Image

Seated Square Dance, Janine Smith

Caller Janine Smith (MD) calling a seated (sitting) square dance in a video created during the pandemic lockdown when dancing in person was impossible. Janine got her inspiration for this form of… 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
Document

Searching Sets in Order online

This describes how to do a search of the archived copies of Sets in Order magazine and its successor publication, Square Dancing.Links sometimes no longer function, so a complete set of the magazine… View item
Document

SDFNE 1960's Era Recordings, part II

Several years ago the Square Dance Foundation of New England arranged an on-line link to a set of clips from early modern square dances. These clips were from the SDFNE collection of tapes of live… View item
Website

SDFNE 1960's Era Recordings

Jim Mayo undertook a project to use the Square Dance Foundation of New England's audio archives and locate representative samples of square dance calling from the time period when Modern Western… View item
Website

Scottish Country Dance - 4 couple squares

Most Scottish country dances are done as four-couple longways sets. There are, however, dances in square sets, and this Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary provides a brief overview of the formation. View item
Website

Schroeder's Playboys

Schroeder's Playboys - An Appreciationby Tony Parkes, August 2012If I could be transported back to the 1950s and had my choice of any one square dance band to hear and/or dance to live, it might well… View item