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

Browse Items (156 total)

  • Temporal Coverage is exactly "1960s"
Document

Aggie Haylofters - Colorado

Author Cal Campbell shares his memories of dancing with the Aggie Haylofters, a square dance group at Colorado State University. (CSU was Colorado A&M until it changed its name in the 1950s;… View item
Still Image

Double Tea-Cup Chain

The photograph of eight couples dancing a double star as part of the double teacup chain figures is from the March, 1953, issue of Bow & Swing, "The Magazine of Square Dancing in Florida." View item
Document

Square Dancing in the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky

NOTE: To read the actual booklet, choose the links above. Numbers 1 & 3 are large files and, depending on your internet speed, might take a while to load. This 1971 collection begins with a… View item
Document

Modern Square Dancing Is Different

This is an article published in the Autumn 1966 issue of Mike and Monitor, the newsletter of the National Capital Area Square Dance Leaders Association. Starting with a description of the origins of… View item
Sound

Fundamentals of Square Dancing

Bob Ruff and Jack Murtha collaborated on a detailed program of teaching square dancing using a series of recordings. The clips in this item are taken from their Instructional Series, Levels 1-3, plus… View item
Document

International Square and Round Dance Convention

The International Square and Round Dance Convention is a unique cooperative event. 2014 was the 54th and last year that this convention was put on by callers and dancers from the plains states and… View item
Sound

I Only Want a Buddy - Herbie Gaudreau

Singing square, I Only Want a Buddy Not a Gal, by Massachusetts caller Herbie Gaudreau View item
Sound

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry - Herbie Gaudreau

Classic singing square, here in a live recording (1960s?) with caller Herbie Gaudreau. Today's contra callers probably know Gaudreau better than do contemporary square dance callers; his Becket Reel… 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
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