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

Canadian Barn Dance - schottische

The Canadian Barn Dance is a schottische, here danced to "The Carfuffle Shuffle" tune written by Marianne Taylor, and played by The Latter Day Lizards and guests; the Lizards are Dave… View item
Document

The Afro-American Transformation of European Set Dances and Dance Suites

Scholarly article that looks at the way that European set dances such as the quadrille became changed by African Americans. The article looks in detail at the quadrille tradition in the Caribbean… View item
Sound

Square Dance Fight on Ball Top Mountain

Phil Jamison: These are square dance skits on two sides of a 78 (Vocalion 5419) with a few random calls by John Dilleshaw (aka Seven Foot Dilly) of Paulding County, GA. It was recorded in Atlanta in… View item
Website

Duke Miller - Crooked Stovepipe

Duke Miller, caller. Recorded live at the Peterborough Golf Club, August 20, 1965. This dance was a staple of Ralph Page's repertoire as well, which he borrowed from French-Canadian music. Caller… View item
Document

Southern California Square Dance "Gold Rush"

This essay, from the program booklet of the 1976 National Square Dance Convention, provides an overview of early square dancing in southern California. That year's NSDC was held in Anaheim, CA,… View item
Moving Image

Fifty Miles from Times Square

This is an excerpt from John Cohen's 1972 film, used here by permission of the filmmaker. caller: Herb Strickland musicians: Bud Snow, Jay Ungar, Lyn Hardy, Abby Newton, Tom Allen Fiddler… View item
Still Image

John Bradford photos

John Bradford and his sister were the youngest participants at the early Lloyd Shaw seminars in Colorado. John went on to call for many decades. The photos here date from his teen years up through a… View item
Document

Lloyd Shaw Fellowship - John Bradford

John Bradford was 13 years old in 1947 when his mother, Mary Jo Bradford, took their family to attend Lloyd Shaw's summer class in square dancing. (He and his sister were the only two teenagers… View item
Sound

Johnny Barbour - Hash, live recording, 1958

Johnny Barbour 1958 – Track 1 Comment by Jim Mayo This tip is, I believe, from a group of files shared with the Square Dance Foundation of New England by Stig Malmo from Denmark. Stig has been… View item
Document

Saturday Night Fun with Square Dances

This collection of dances aims to present a typical evening program at Holiday Hill in Ohio. Rather than a series of dances representing a particular region or a collection with challenging square… View item
Sound

Hotshot Callers - Joe Lewis

In this recording, Joe Lewis highlights the plight of an average square dancer who just wants to go out for an evening of fun. Instead, he's confronted by a hotshot caller using all manner of… View item
Document

Square Dancing Is NOT Out of This World

This is the text of a presentation by Joe Lewis at the 1959 National Square Dance Convention, part of a discussion of the future of square dancing.Lewis points out that the majority of dancers at the… View item