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

Square Dancing in Sudbury, Ontario

This film, made in 1959 by members of the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Union Local 598 in Sudbury, Ontario, illustrates the wide range of programming that the union provided for the community.… View item
Website

Medicine Fiddle

This beautiful ethnographic film explores the music and dance heritage of the Fur Trade among Native and Métis families on both sides of the U.S. and Canadian border in the area of the northern Great… 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
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
Website

Square Dance Legislation Collection

The Square Dance Legislation Collection consists of manuscript materials (1975-present) documenting the history of legislation to designate the square dance as the national or state (folk) dance. The… View item
Moving Image

Texas Star - Mike Rogers, Wien, Missouri, 1994

The caller is 92-year-old Mike Rogers, patter calling at a jam session and square dance held at Wien (Chariton County in north central Missouri) in 1994. There's close-up footage of Rogers starting at… View item
Moving Image

Square Dance at the Aqua Barn, Seattle

Kappie Kappenman, caller; Vivian Williams, fiddle; Phil Williams, guitar; Judy Webster, bass, videoed in the early 1990s by Phil's brother, Mike. The tune is Ragtime Annie. Vivian and Phil… View item
Document

Lloyd Shaw - Caller of the Month

Article by Mildred Buhler with brief biography and accomplishments of Lloyd Shaw View item
Document

Meet the Docey-Doe Family - 1949

Square dancers in the late 1940s and 1950s encountered a variety of similar-sounding terms meaning very different figures. The do-si-do / docey-doe / dos-a-dos / do-paso confusion produced several… View item
Moving Image

Mildred Buhler demonstration group

Contributor Paul Moore writes: "In the late 1940's through the early 50's there was a very popular caller in Northern California named Mildred Buhler. The film was Mildred calling to the demonstration… View item
Document

A Square Dance Pioneer: Jimmy Clossin

This summary of an interview with Jimmy Clossin by Miriam Gray appeared in 1960. More than 50 years later, it is impressive the ways in which he anticipated the challenges facing the square dance… View item
Website

Missouri Traditional Dance

This attractive and informative website explores Missouri music and dance traditions. It opens with an introduction to the subject, includes information on throwing a square dance, and is divided into… View item