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Square Dance Institute - Rickey Holden, 1950
Syllabus of a workshop led by Holden in Massachusetts in 1950, introducing Texas style square dancing to New England dancers. In addition to notes on figures and styling, this handout included… View itemDocument
Abilene Lift - Rickey Holden
An early description by Rickey Holden of the so-called "Abilene lift," a distinctive style of incorporating a two-steps into square dance movement. View itemMoving Image
Three Ladies Chain - Rickey Holden
Instead of the women chaining over and back within their own square, in this variation of Three Ladies Chain, caller Rickey Holden has the women leaving their square and chaining all the way over the… View itemMoving Image
The Route - Rickey Holden
Rickey Holden calling a classic square dance figure, alternately called The Rout or The Route. Rather than a full walkthrough, he gives only a general introduction, setting up the dancers for some… View itemSound
Alamo Style
This 1949 description of "Alamo style" balances comes from Rickey Holden, who coined the term to describe the figure. Holden points out that the action itself had been around for a while.… View itemMoving Image
Texas Whirlwind - Rickey Holden
Holden teaches the figures, starting with a review of Catch All Eight, a traditional figure from West Texas that became part of modern square dance: right hand turn halfway around, then left hand turn… View itemMoving Image
Suzy Q - Grand Cuttyshaw - Rickey Holden
Holden's name for this dance was the Grand Cuttyshaw, which he published as "traditional New Mexico" in his 1992 booklet, "Square Dances of West Texas." A note there reads, "This traditional figure,… View itemDocument
Syllabus of Square Dances, Rickey Holden 1949
This is a syllabus created by Rickey Holden for a callers' workshop held in San Antonio in 1949. The course was 2-1/2 hours each night for five days. It's a useful primary source document showing the… View itemDocument
Song of the HIGH-LEVEL Dancer - poem
The push for "high level dancing" appeared in the 1950s as square dancing took off. Some dancers wanted ever-more-challenging programs and they were often reluctant to dance with less-skilled dancers.… View itemDocument
A Brief History of "Hash"
This is a chapter from Instant Hash that appeared in American Squares magazine. Litman and Holden define hash as "a mixture of figures which come one after another so quickly that often there is no… View itemSound
Spinning Wheel - description and audio
This figure appears here in two formats. The written description comes from Betty Casey in Foot 'n' Fiddle managzine; Casey published several collections of square dance figures and decades later… View item
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