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

Browse Items (1933 total)

Document

Stu Jamieson - The Old-Time Kentucky Running Set

Although the title speaks of Kentucky Running Set, this article deals with many different variations of the big circle or big set formation of Southern Appalachian mountain dancing. The author is Stu… View item
Sound

Sugarfoot Rag (Swing Ma, Swing Pa) - Donald "Jake" Jacoby

Recorded by Bob Dalsemer, January 5, 1974 at the Maryland Line Fire Hall, Maryland Line, MD. Caller: Donald "Jake" Jacoby Band: The Saw Mill Boys This dance features lots of swinging!… View item
Still Image

Summer Institute, Asilomar, 1957

InAs I See It, Bob Osgood devotes an entire chapter to Asilomar, a series of summer square dance institutes sponsored bySets in Order magazine. Asilomar was a conference facility that Osgood had… View item
Moving Image

Summer Sounds - Ralph Sweet

Recorded at the Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, Durham, NH, January 15, 2000. Musicians are Swallowtail: Ron Grosslein, fiddle; David Cantieni, saxophone; George Marshall, bodhran; Timm Triplett,… View item
Sound

Sunny - John Hendron

This is a short clip from a singing call by John Hendron at a dance in New England in 1984 View item
Sound

Susanna (instruction) - Ed Durlacher

This is the very first dance on the first disk of Ed Durlacher's Honor Your Partner series, an extensive collection of dance and rhythmic music albums that were widely-used in schools. Here,… View item
Moving 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 item
Sound

Suzy Q - Jim York (clip)

Taking the Grand Cuttyshaw figure from Rickey Holden and renaming it the Suzy Q, caller Jim York released an album and this figure to a wide audience in the early 1950s. The basic figure is the same… View item
Document

Swamp Country Dance

This is a first-person account of attending a country dance in Georgia in the mid-1950s. The author describes the big circle formation in detail: "A single dance would go like this; The… View item
Sound

Swanee River (clip) - Mac McKendrick

McKendrick can also be heard on this site calling a singing square to the children's song, Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me. View item
Moving Image

Sweet Home Alabama - Ted Lizotte - Tech Squares

Caller, Ted Lizotte. Recorded March 5, 2011, at a Tech Squares weekend, East Hill Farm, Troy, NH. Ted Lizotte is the club caller for Tech Squares, the MWSD club on the campus of Massachusetts… View item
Sound

Swing All Eight (clip) - Pancho Baird

This link will provide a list of other Pancho Baird recordings on this website. SWING ALL EIGHT Originated and Presented by "Pancho" Baird Santa Fe, New Mexico Recorded on Western Jubilee (calls… View item