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

Browse Items (1957 total)

Moving Image

Don Beck - patter

Recorded December 1985 at Bay Path Barn, West Boylston, MA. The caller had been one of the founders of Tech Squares at MIT and was that club's first caller, in 1967. Another clip on YouTube, recorded… View item
Moving Image

Lonesome Me - Don Beck

Recorded December 1985 at Bay Path Barn, West Boylston, MA. The caller had been one of the founders of Tech Squares at MIT and was that club's first caller, in 1967. Another clip on YouTube, recorded… View item
Document

Don Beck - square dance background

This is Don Beck's account of how he got interested in square dancing. View item
Moving Image

Mental Image calling - Don Beck

Don Beck started calling more than 50 years ago. In this two-hour video, he provides an introduction to the Mental Image method of square dance choreographic management, a way for the caller to keep… View item
Document

Mental Image Overview

This is the handout prepared by Don Beck and distributed to participants at the workshop shown in the preceding video. View item
Moving Image

Tech Squares - I Will Survive, called by Don Beck

Don Beck Calling the last tip of the Tech Squares (MIT Square Dance Club) class graduation, December 1997 View item
Document

Square Dance Goes To College, The (1941 article)

"Your grandmother enjoyed it and so did her grandmother, enjoyed it and so did her grandmother, so there is nothing new about square dancing. Yet this ancient dance form is capturing the fancy of… View item
Sound

Don Durlacher - Jones Beach

Don Durlacher, son of Ed Durlacher, was a regular summer caller at Jones Beach outside New York City, calling with the Top Hands band that his father had used for many years. At this dance, the… View item
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
Moving Image

Maple Sugar - Don Messer and His Islanders

No calls, just a choreographed routine from Messer's popular television show. The dances on the Don Messer show were choreographed by Gunter Buchta; he created two new dances each week for the show.… View item
Moving Image

On the Road to Boston - Don Messer

The dances on the Don Messer show were choreographed by Gunter Buchta; he created two new dances each week for the show. View item
Document

Don Messer - souvenir booklet

The Don Messer Jubilee Show toured extensively, bring Down East music, song, and dance to audiences throughout the US and Canada. Messer was well known thanks to his weekly television show broadcast… View item