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

Browse Items (1957 total)

Sound

Bumps-A-Daisy

The figures of this dance mirror the basic pattern found in Solomon Levi, Nelly Bly, and others; each couple in turn stands back to back, dances around the outside of the set-- in this one, just… View item
Document

No Swing Hash

In the early 1950s, callers were delivering prearranged sequences. The pages of Sets in Order were filled with such routines, generally short with a distinctive gimmick in each. In this example,… View item
Document

Community Squares - Ed Durlacher

Writing for Sets in Order, Ed Durlacher looks back at his successful program of outdoor dancing in New York City parks.===The first evening was more or less a nightmare. ... From the hundred or so the… View item
Document

Saturday Night in Central Park

This song is from a 1947 musical, Make Mine Manhattan, and refers to the popular Saturday night square dances led by Ed Durlacher in Central Park. Clearly, the dances were enough of a phenomenon that… View item
Website

First Lady to the Right - Joe Robertson

The recording comes from a Fretless album, 1973, with Robertson accompanying himself on electric guitar. Robertson, a stone mason from White Creek, NY, close to the Vermont border, was also an… View item
Document

Polonaise - Grand March

This is a detailed look at the history of the Polonaise, known in the US as the Grand March. Thee name "polonaise" speaks to Polish roots. The author cites a 1685 description of the dance,… View item
Website

Grand March

Many square dance events start with a Grand March. The author provides general guidelines, followed by a detailed series of figures,. View item
Moving Image

Canadian Olde Tyme Square Dance Callers' Association 50th Anniversary Dance

This video presents the full two-hour recording of the Canadian Old Tyme Square Dance Callers’ Association Spring Dance, held on April 17, 2004, at Westway United Church in Etobicoke, Ontario.… View item
Document

"Kitchen Junket"

This evocative portrait of a New England kitchen junket ran over the first four issues of Ralph Page's Northern Junket magazine. Page draws on his own memories to paint a detailed picture of the… View item
Document

Jim Hopkins Remembers The Neighbourhood Dance Parties Of The 1940s

Detailed recollections of dancing in central Ontario in the 1940s, including neighborhood house parties, dancing at larger halls, and teaching square dance in schools. In other regions, these house… View item
Document

The Good Old Days - Jack Powelson

Jack Powelson wrote: "This was to have been Chapter 1 of a History of American Folk Dancing, but the other chapters were never written."Larry Edelman writes: "I met Jack Powelson sometime in the fall… View item
Document

Square Dancing on the Eastern Shore of Maryland

This is a detailed description of square dancing in the mid-1940s in the area around Salisbury, Maryland, located on the Eastern Shore, in particular dances that took place at Fruitland, four miles… View item