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

Browse Items (163 total)

  • Subject is exactly "General - Dance and Culture"
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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
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How Do They Swing?

A brief look at styles of swinging, c. 1954 View item
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The Dos-a-Dos

The author looks starts by examining the pronunciation and different spellings of this figure. He then explores variations, all of which involve a handhold: Southern Highland or Mountaineer… View item
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Huntington's Pavilion, E. Thetford, VT

We often think of the boom years of square dancing taking place starting in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but there is a long history of halls for square dancing before then. This is a series of… View item
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Princess Elizabeth square dancing - details

When Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip squared danced during a visit to Ottawa in 1951, photographs from the event created a sensation and led to a rapid upsurge of interest in square dancing in… View item
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Square Dancing at Mohonk Mountain House

Nell Boucher is the archivist at the Mohonk Mountain House, a classic resort near the Catskills, about 90 miles north of New York City. She responded to a request for more information about these… View item
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The Old Square Dance Is Back Again

This is the sheet music for the song recorded by Carolina Cotton and Fenton "Jonesy" Jones. The dance begins with a "Rebel Yell" and is supposed to be played "Brightly, with Hill Billy swing." The… View item
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Washington Square Dance

The song by Irving Berlin comes from Call Me Madam, a 1950 production. The plot of the musical is, according to a London review, "nonsensical fluff," concerning a Washington society matron appointed… View item
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Balance and Swing

This account from the early 1950s describes the Vermont Country Dance Festival, an annual event that drew some 6,000 participants. Daytime events focused on school groups, with adults-- 800 coiuples… View item
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Al Brundage and Pete Seeger

Today, it's easy to think of Al Brundage and Pete Seeger as inhabiting two different world, Brundage the popular caller of modern square dances and Seeger the singer and banjo player associated with… View item
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Quadrilles in Harlem - 1946

Rod LaFarge was a caller, publisher, and dance historian, interested in all manner of dances. In this account, he describes visiting Harlem on several occasions-- LaFarge lived in New Jersey--to… View item
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Hipsters and Traditional/Old- Time Square Dance

The author looks at the rising popularity of square dance among young hipsters and sees in it, and its Appalachian roots, a desire for a homeplace :"For one such group, the ill- defined, often… View item