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

Browse Items (1933 total)

Sound

Middle of the Mound - Selmer Hovland, patter

This is a live recording of Selmer Hovland, from Wagon Mound, New Mexico, calling at Kirkwood Lodge, Missouri. Hovland was a staff member at a Square Dance Institute that featured Les Gotcher. (One of… View item
Sound

Spinning Wheel - Selmer Hovland, 1954

Excerpt from another live recording of Selmer Hovland at Kirkwood Lodge View item
Sound

Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes - Selmer Hovland

This singing square is based on a popular song of the day. Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was written in 1952 and appeared in several country versions and a #1 hit in a pop version by… View item
Document

Basic Movements of Square Dancing

This early handbook from Sets in Order provides detailed instructions for 20 basic figures, "the foundation movements for most square dancing." As such, it offers an overview of what was considered… View item
Document

Chaney scrapbook & photo album

Duane and Shirley Chaney (Council Bluffs, Iowa) were enthusiastic square dancers in the early 1950s. They attended Square Dance Institutes with Les Gotcher at Kirkwood Lodge (Osage Beach, Missouri) in… View item
Moving Image

The Dancing "Silver Spurs" - 1951

This is an excerpt from a half-hour film, made in 1951 by Standard Oil, about the Silver Spurs, a performing dance group from Spokane, WA. The group was founded in 1947 by E. S. "Red"… View item
Moving Image

Lancers Quadrille - Silver Spurs

Performed in the 1950s by the Silver Spurs youth dance troupe of Spokane, WA The SDHP site has numerous other items about the Lancers Quadrille. View item
Moving Image

Big set - Silver Spurs

Under the leadership of founder Red Henderson, Spokane's Silver Spurs youth dance troupe here demonstrates a series of figures from the southern Appalachian mountains. Often referred to by the… View item
Moving Image

Cowboy Medley Square - Silver Spurs

Caller Red Henderson, who founded the Silver Spurs youth dance troupe, here calls a "cowboy square dance," mixing together figures based on traditional western square dances. The film dates… View item
Website

Old-Time Music Makers of New York State

"Old-Time Music Makers of New York State is the first book published on this rich legacy of traditional Anglo-American music and dance. It traces the development of old-time music beginning with its… View item
Document

La naissance du cotillon et du quadrille, contredanses françaises

Article (in French) by Simonne Voyer, who is the author of La danse traditionnelle dans l'est du Canada: quadrilles et cotillons. For a translation in English by Susan Kevra, click here. View item
Sound

MacNamara's Band - Basil "Smitty" Smith

Basil "Smitty" Smith calling with the Bills' Band at a barn dance in West Wardsboro, Vermont, recorded by Steve GreenMacNamara’s BandIrish song popularized by Bing CrosbyOh the head two couples… View item