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

Browse Items (1950 total)

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Bob Isaacs - Grid Square - Maze of Heys

Grid squares refers to a style of square dance where the choreography moves dancers from one square to another. Bob Isaacs is calling a dance he wrote, with music provided by the Clayfoot Strutters:… View item
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Bob Isaacs - Grid Square - Balance The Grid

Grid squares refers to a style of square dance where the choreography moves dancers from one square to another. Bob Isaacs is calling a dance he wrote, with music provided by the Clayfoot Strutters:… View item
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Quebec - Baie Saint-Paul, #1

Footage from Baie Saint-Paul, in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, taken at the "Centre hospitalier de Charlevoix" on January 5, 1974, by Guy Landry. Dance historian Pierre Chartrand describes this as… View item
Document

Ed Gilmore - Square Dance Callers Instruction Course - 1949

[Buddy Weaver has digitized an hour-long audio recording of Gilmore leading a callers' class. It can be found here.]This is the text of the syllabus of Ed Gilmore's class. It contains plenty of… View item
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Irish House Dance

Lengthy text describing set dancing, as well as video footage taken at a house dance Two hornpipes played by Tony MacMahon - Accordian, Paul McGrattan - Flute, and Kevin Glackin - Fiddle. From… View item
Document

Irish Set Dances - an introduction

An introduction to Irish Set DancesSet dances are danced by four couples arranged on the sides of a square. and, occasionally, in “half sets” of two couples opposite each other. Sets are almot always… View item
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Kilfenora Set

At the Kilrush set dancing weekend, the Glenside Ceili Band plays music for the Kilfenora Set at an outdoor ceili on the town square. View item
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Clare Plain Set

The August set dancing weekend in Kilrush, Co Clare, features outdoor ceilis in the town's market square. The Glenside Ceili Band were the featured musicians on Saturday afternoon when they played… View item
Document

John Ramsay - Set Running, a Southern Folk Dance

This article, written in 1987 and updated in 2013 by longtime dancer, caller, and organizer John Ramsay, presents his views on what has been termed "set running," a style of dance that was… View item
Document

Shoo-Fly Swing and La Boulangère

Compilation of sources that reveal the similarity between La Boulangère, a European dance around 1800 and the only dance mentioned by name by Jane Austen, and the Shoo-Fly Swing, its American… View item
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La boulangère - dance of French Revolution

Dance from the period of the French Revolution. La Boulangère was the only dance mentioned by name by Jane Austen, and it is related to an American dance figure of the south called the Shoo-Fly Swing. View item