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

Browse Items (103 total)

  • Subject is exactly "Modern Western 1960 - 1974"
Document

Square Dancing Standard and Experimental Guidelines

A flood of new calls in the early 1970s led a group called Square Dance Systems to publish a catalogue of calls, an attempt to bring order to an increasingly-complex universe of new figures. Square… View item
Document

New Call Problems in the Mid 1970s

This is an excerpt from the book Step by Step Through Modern Square Dance History by Jim Mayo. It describes the situation that had been created by a flood of new calls in the mid 1970’s. Related… View item
Sound

Pussy Cat -Red Bates - 1973

The 1973 singing call, Pussy Cat, Windsor Records #4173, was recorded by Bruce Johnson; it is one that became a Red Bates trademark. The figure was difficult in a unique way. The challenge was the… View item
Sound

Red Bates, 1973 Patter

Our 1973 clip is from a dance at the Longmeadow, MA, square dance club a short distance from where Red lived at that time. He starts with a Scoot Back and Circulate combination and in the second half… View item
Sound

Gentle On My Mind, Red Bates, 1968

In the 1968 singing call, Gentle On My Mind, the interesting and unusual figure was called by Red just as it was recorded on the Wagon Wheel label #113 by Don Franklin View item
Sound

Red Bates 1968 Patter

The next clips we have are from another dance at Newton Pavilion seven years later. By then the calls Swing Thru and Spin the Top had been added to the call vocabulary and Red makes use of both in… View item
Sound

Woman in Love - Red Bates, 1961

The singing call, Woman In Love, is a classic and Red uses the figure as it was recorded by Dick Leger on Grenn record #12128. Tempo is a characteristic of calling that underwent considerable change.… View item
Sound

Red Bates 1961, Patter

By the time of our first clip from a 1961 dance at the Newton Pavilion in Newton, NH, Bates was a busy caller working dances throughout New England. The choreography is very representative of MWSD at… View item
Sound

Square Dance Time - Tommy Cavanagh

Two clips from Tommy Cavanagh's "Square Dance Time" album., excerpts from "Hoedown Boogie" and "Boil that Cabbage." Callers in Great Britain from time to time… View item
Document

Don't Forget, Callers, Our Style Is Always Showing

This is a copy of a section of the minutes of a meeting of the Southern California Callers Association. Bob Van Antwerp presented the training session on the subject of dancing style and how callers… View item
Moving Image

Bow to your Partner: 23rd National Square Dance Convention

Film of the 23rd National Square Dance Convention, held in San Antonio, TX, in 1974. Related Items link to footage of other National Conventions in 1959, 1961, 1970, and 1976.01:30 square dancers and… View item
Moving Image

"Fun People" - 19th National Square Dance Convention, Louisville, 1970

Documentary about the 19th annual National Square Dance Convention, held in Louisville, KY. Produced by the Kentuckiana association of square dance clubs. 00:00 Summer Sounds, singing… View item