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

Browse Items (1930 total)

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Bill Martin - Oregon Public Broadcast TV

Note: Oregon Art Beat no longer streams this recording, but the video will play on our site.Broadcast in 2003, this public television documentary profiles caller Bill Martin and the old-time southern… View item
Document

Swing yore partner round 'n round (The Desert Magazine, 1944)

Author Oren Arnold describes square dancing in Arizona in the early 1940s: "...A rock fireplace big enough to stand in was at one end of the room, and its blaze made dancing shadows… View item
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Red Warrick - Redwing (Grand Blossom)

Red Warrick, of Tyler, TX, calls with his demonstration team. Videotaped by Otto Warteman and uploaded with permission. Red calls a traditional singing square and adds in the Grand Blossom figure for… View item
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Red Warrick Demonstration Team

Red Warrick, of Tyler, TX, is the caller for his demonstration square dance team. Videotaped by Otto Warteman and uploaded with permission. It was recorded at the Fort Bend County Convention… View item
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Red Warrick - Grapevine Twist

Red Warrick, of Tyler, TX, calls a traditional southern Appalachian square dance figure. Videotaped by Otto Warteman and uploaded with permission. It was recorded at the Fort Bend County Convention… View item
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Red Warrick - Jessy Polka square

Red Warrick, of Tyler, TX, calls the dance he created with his demonstration team. Jessy Polka Square incorporates the moves of the Jessy Polka into a square. You'll see that Warrick has added some… View item
Document

Otto Wood - singing squares

Caller Otto Wood's calls and notes for singing squares. You can hear Belle of the Ball called by Ira Huntley here; it's the second dance in the set of three on this link.This collection was created by… View item
Sound

Otto Wood - live recordings

This item includes several examples of singing squares called by Michigan caller (and fiddler) Otto Wood, with his wife Marguerite playing piano or accordion. Otto and Marguerite were regulars at the… View item
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Pam McKeever - Cheyenne Mountain Dancers demo, 1990

Pam McKeever is the caller; the dancers are demonstrating a routine like that used by Lloyd Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers in the late 1930s and 1940s. You'll note a series of dramatic aerial… View item
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Pam McKeever and the Flying Squares, 1981

Demonstration of the sort of exhibition dancing created by Lloyd Shaw in the 1930s and popularized by his Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. The dancers are: Jim Bollman, Karen Atkins, Ernie Spence,… View item