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

Browse Items (1941 total)

Sound

Patter Calling - Frank Lane

This is a short clip from a dance called in 1969 by Frank Lane at the Newton Pavillion in Newton, New Hampshire View item
Sound

Frank Lane - 2 recordings

Two audio clips illustrating Frank Lane's style. The first is a hash call recorded live at Hoedown Hall, Mantua, NJ on May 16, 1960. In it, Lane introduces a new call, Wheel and Deal, written… View item
Sound

Cumberland Square Dance - Frank Kaltman

Editor's note: We have classified this as Northern / New England but in reality the dance is a traditional English square.Tony Parkes comments: The dance is Cumberland Square. The caller is Frank… View item
Sound

Two Three Hand Stars (clip) - Frank Kaltman

The tune is Big John McNeil. Frank Kaltman founded the influential magazine American Squares and (with Dan Wolfert) created the Folkraft record label after World War II. View item
Still Image

Frank Grundeen cartoons

Grundeen produced the cartoon that appeared on the back cover of Sets in Order for every issue.InAs I See It,Bob Osgood relates how that came about:"I had been noticing one of the class members in… View item
Moving Image

Frank Chavez Describes American Square Dances and Spanish Cuadrillas in New Mexico

From childhood, 70-year old fiddler Frank Chavez was exposed to New Mexico Spanish folk music, growing up west of Estancia in New Mexico. Frank was a guitar player and then in 1990, after meeting Ken… View item
Document

East Tennessee Square Dance Calls

This 1938 collection of more than 50 dances was written in Oklahoma, where the author explains that he has received "many requests for some East Tennessee square dance calls, or figures." He adds that… View item
Document

Square Dance in Schools

This short article explains the successful square dance program at a small public school in Fairlee, Vermont. (A side note, not mentioned in the article: Ed Durlacher was brought up from New York to… View item
Website

Virginia square dance, 1925, silent movie

This silent movie footage, created by Fox News, shows dancers and fiddlers recorded in an outdoor setting in Quitman [sic], Virginia. We cannot identify this location since it does not show up on… View item
Website

Southside Squares and Swersie Norris

This was a feature story on television feature-- with the video now no longer available-- about the Southside Squares, Chicago's last remaining black MWSD group and the pioneering work of caller… View item
Document

Swing that Pretty Gal! - 1941 article

In the wake of the first trips by the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers, this 1941 article inThe Saturday Evening Post describesthe widespread passion for squares that is growing, and gives Lloyd Shaw credit… View item
Document

Footnotes  (Washington)

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