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

Browse Items (1930 total)

Sound

Spinning Wheel - description and audio

This figure appears here in two formats. The written description comes from Betty Casey in Foot 'n' Fiddle managzine; Casey published several collections of square dance figures and decades later… View item
Sound

Quadrille #1 - Gene Gowing

Gene Gowing, here accompanied on piano by Willa Semple, prompts a quadrille to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw." Gowing was an associate of Ralph Page for many years, a co-producer of their… View item
Sound

Catch All Eight - Louise Winston

This is an interesting example of a modern square dance call turning up in the repertoire of a caller deeply involved in the New England traditional square dance scene. Louise Winston was one of the… View item
Document

Texas Square Dance Festival regions

Texas had a history of square dance contests going back to pre-World War II days. The dance festivals and contests continued into the late 1940s, evidenced by these articles from Foot 'n' Fiddle… View item
Sound

Alamo Style

This 1949 description of "Alamo style" balances comes from Rickey Holden, who coined the term to describe the figure. Holden points out that the action itself had been around for a while.… View item
Document

Bob Sumrall

Bob Sumrall (born Virgil Giles Sumrall) was the leader of the Abilene Set, a group that he started around 1938 (when he was 20); this group of Texas square dancers won the Texas square dance… View item
Document

Texas Squares at Pinewoods

In the late 1940s, the Country Dance and Song Society was best known for its work focused on English country dances and ritual dances. Starting in 1949 (see cover of the CDSS newsletter) and then at… View item
Moving Image

Québécois square - "La Passe des dames, la Passe des hommes"

This is part of an evening dance sponsored by Les Danseurs et Musiciens de l'Ile Jésus, the old name for Laval, across the river from Montréal. The group was founded in 1978 and holds… View item
Moving Image

Québécois square - Les p’tits chars à brasse-corps

This is part of an evening dance sponsored by Les Danseurs et Musiciens de l'Ile Jésus, the old name for Laval, across the river from Montréal. The group was founded in 1978 and holds… View item
Moving Image

Square Dance - Dolores Heagy, 1986

Portion of a square dance called at Tod Whittemore's contra dance series at the VFW in Cambridge, MA. Tod introduced Dolores Heagy by saying how much he values having contra dancers become… View item
Moving Image

Two singing squares - Tod Whittemore, 1986

Tod Whittemore provides the instructions and calls the figures at these two singing squares: Maple Sugar Gal and Smoke on the Water. Music is by Allan Block on fiddle and Peter Barnes on piano.… View item
Sound

Windmill Lancers - Ralph Page

This recording of Ralph Page teaching the Windmill Lancers was recorded in 1972 at one of his weeklong camps. At the start, you hear Ralph providing some historical background on the Lancers before he… View item