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

The Girl I Left Behind Me (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

In his brief look at the development of singing calls, Tony Parkes cites the publication of this dance in 1925 as "the earliest description of a singing square I've found so far (in fairly shallow… View item
Sound

Cowboy Loop (clip) - Lee Bedford, jr.

This dance was called by Mildred Blakey at the big 1950 Santa Monica dance. View item
Sound

Arkansas Traveler (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

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Sound

Four In Line You Travel (clip) - Lee Bedford, Jr.

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Still Image

Square Dances With Calls - Lee Bedford, Jr.

In 1949, Texas caller Lee Bedford released on Imperial Records a four-album set of recordings with music provided by The Big D Ranch Hands. The liner notes, written by Paul Erfer, start by noting,… View item
Sound

Uptown – Downtown (Golden Slippers) - Ed Durlacher

Classic square dance figure, Uptown Downtown, done as a singing square to Golden Slippers by caller Ed Durlacher; music provided by The Top Hands, directed by Frank Novak. One of the Related Items is… View item
Sound

Smoke On The Water, introduced by Ed Gilmore

During a morning workshop at the 1954 Minnesota State Convention Ed Gilmore introduces a "new" singing call written by his friend Pancho Baird.Tony Parkes comments:===It may have been new, but Ed had… View item
Document

East Is East - Pat Pending

Using the pen name of Pat Pending, Ed Moody contributed many lighthearted poems to Ralph Page's Northern Junket magazine. This one, from 1955, comes at a time when Western calling was making inroads… View item
Sound

Ed Gilmore Teaching Dance Style

This is an audio recording of Ed Gilmore calling a morning workshop at the Minnesota State Convention in 1954. His subject is dancing style. At about 7 minutes he starts a teach of the figure for his… View item
Sound

Four Bachelor Boys - Richard Kraus

Let's Square Dance!, Album 5 View item
Sound

Swing Like Thunder - Richard Kraus

Kraus writes, "This lively square dance is especially popular with teen-agers." In his book, Square Dances of Today, he writes, "This one goes under a variety of names. Some call it the 'California… View item
Sound

Lady Go Halfway Round - Richard Kraus

Kraus says, "This is not a difficult square, but for a few moments the active boy has to keep his ears open, and do some fast stepping!" Let's Square Dance!, Album 3 View item