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

Browse Items (357 total)

  • Collection: Northern squares
Sound

Presque Isle Eighth (clip) - Rod Linnell -

The tune is Crooked Stovepipe. Rod Linnell: "We used to spend each winter in northern Maine and call dances there and in neighboring New Brunswick. During one of these winters, the Presque Isle club… View item
Sound

Pack Up Your Troubles / Three-Quarter Promenade (clip) - Rod Linnell

The tune is Pack Up Your Troubles. Linnell's calls were released on the Rodeo label (Canada, RXP1), with music by The Maritime All Stars. View item
Sound

Rod's Right and Left (clip) - Rod Linnell

This dance was recorded on the flip side of Mountain Music Madness, on the Apex label, #9-26431. The band is Don Messer's Islanders. The tune is Debbie's Jig.In her notes, Louise Winston writes, "This… View item
Moving Image

Rod's Quad #2 - double quadrille

Dance written by Rod Linnell; the video includes a variation created by the caller, Lisa Greenleaf. (Rod Linnell composed five double quadrilles, which are published in "Square Dances from a… View item
Moving Image

Square Dance (with Corky Calkins)

This 1955 film, produced by Roger Tilton, features Corky Calkins and his band. Calkins was a popular caller in the Springfield, MA, area. Among the dances shown here are Nellie Bly, The Route and the… View item
Moving Image

Nils Fredland – Four Square

Nils Fredland calls a contemporary composition as part of the "Square Dance" Retrospective session at the annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in Durham, NH. The musicians are Old New England (Bob… 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
Still Image

Ted Glabach - photographs

Three photographs of Vermont farmer and dance caller Ted Glabach, taken by Steve Green, plus one photo (from his scrapbook) of Glabach as a younger dancer. View item
Website

Sammy Spring - fiddler & square dance caller

Sammy Spring (1883–1958) was a fiddler and square dance caller from Otis, Massachusetts, in the western part of the state. This website includes photos of him and a lengthy interview conducted in 1939… View item
Moving Image

Too Hot Mamas - Chapel of Love Singing Square

This video is an excerpt of the Singing Square dance Chapel of Love. Singing squares use altered lyrics of popular songs to insert dance choreography instruction into the song. Based on the song,… View item
Sound

Hurry Hurry Hurry - Ted Glabach

Ted Glabach calling to recorded instrumental; a transcription of his his calls can be found on p. 26 of the interview conducted with him by Steve Green.A more detailed description of this dance as… View item
Document

Ted Glabach - Vermont dance caller

This is the transcription of a lengthy interview with Dummerston, VT, dance caller Ted Glabach and his wife Marie, conducted in 1978 by Steve Green. Glabach was a farmer, born around 1913, who had… View item