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

Browse Items (359 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
Website

Primo Fiore

Primo Fiore was born in Brooklyn on September 6, 1930 but raised his family in Deer Park, New York, while working as a physical education instructor in West Islip. His gifted speaking voice, combined… View item
Website

Prince Edward Island - quadrilles

Bowing Down Home is a detailed website devoted to the fiddle traditions of Prince Edward Island. The site includes videos, photographs, music files, and interviews (both as audio files and as… View item
Sound

Prisoner's Song - Dudley Laufman

Dudley Laufman says he never heard this dance called by anyone other than Linn Cady, and it was always done to the tune of "If I Had the Wings of an Angel." Dudley Laufman calls a program… View item
Sound

Push Her Away - Ed Durlacher

Honor Your Partner was a series of rhythmic activities and dance albums, more than 20 in all, released by Ed Durlacher starting in 1949 and extending into the 1950s. This dance is the final one in… View item
Sound

Quadrille #1 - Gene Gowing

Gene Gowing, here accompanied on piano by Willa Semple, prompts a quadrille to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw." Gowing was an associate of Ralph Page for many years, a co-producer of their… View item
Sound

Quadrille Joyeux (clip) - Ted Sannella

This clip is part of a series of eight square dances called by Ted Sannella at the Chesapeake Spring Dance Weekend, sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. (Ted called another four or… View item
Website

Ralph Page

Here is the citation that accompanied Page being awarded the 1980 CALLERLAB Milestone award, that organization's highest honor. Page was reluctant to accept this award from an organization that… View item
Document

Ralph Page - 1980 Milestone Award

Photograph taken at the event and text of the presentation made by Jim Mayo to Ralph Page. Page was no fan of modern square dancing; indeed many of his editorials in Northern Junket argued against… View item
Document

Ralph Page – Sets in Order tribute

Bob Osgood, editor and publisher of Sets in Order, actively promoted modern square dancing, while for his part Ralph Page used the pages of his Northern Junket magazine to editorialize against the new… View item
Document

Ralph Page – Swing Your Partners

This short essay by Ralph Page (1939) is interesting for several reasons. First, he's writing for a publication of the New Hampshire Planning and Development Commission, and Page cites the economic… View item
Moving Image

Ralph Sweet - I Don't Know Why

Recorded at the February 2, 2004, at the Guiding Star Grange, Greenfield, MA, on the occasion of recording "Shindig in the Barn," an album of singing squares. Musicians are the Ralph Sweet All-Stars:… View item