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

Browse Items (95 total)

  • Contributor is exactly "Stig Malmo"
Document

Appalachian Squares

This document comes from the Dixie Folk Institute, 1951, and presents a concise description for many common figures that can be used in a big set. View item
Sound

Running Set - Jim Wilkerson home recording

This is a home recording made by caller Jim Wilkerson. We think WIlkerson was from Ohio, so this particular cut is an interesting example of how dance styles migrate. We typically think of a running… View item
Document

Cowboy Dance Tunes – excerpt

This was first published as a separate booklet in 1940 to accompany Lloyd Shaw's Cowboy Dances, which appeared in 1939. Shaw provides an introduction.Jim Saxe notes, "The same tune collection,… View item
Document

Promenade - Seven Cowboy Dances

This little booklet plays on the popularity of square dancing as introduced by Lloyd and his Cheyenne Mountain Dancers. The booklet was released by Women's Home Companion, a popular monthly magazine… View item
Sound

Chain Lightning - Butch Nelson (clip)

Another example of Butch Nelson's calling, with fast-paced patter keeping dancers moving briskly. Again, the patter clearly shows the caller's western roots. The music is played by the… View item
Sound

Half Sashay - Butch Nelson (clip)

"Pull up your pants and tighten the tracesAll join hands, we're off to the races."With opening patter like this, we know we're in traditional western square dance territory. Thirty seconds later, when… View item
Document

Dixie Folk syllabus - 1951

This is the square dance portion of the syllabus from the Dixie Folk and Square Dance Institute held in Georgia in 1951. New Hampshire caller Ralph Page presented a selection of typical New England… View item
Document

Syllabus of Square Dances, Rickey Holden 1949

This is a syllabus created by Rickey Holden for a callers' workshop held in San Antonio in 1949. The course was 2-1/2 hours each night for five days. It's a useful primary source document showing the… View item
Sound

Suzy Q - Jim York (clip)

Taking the Grand Cuttyshaw figure from Rickey Holden and renaming it the Suzy Q, caller Jim York released an album and this figure to a wide audience in the early 1950s. The basic figure is the same… View item
Moving Image

Suzy Q - Grand Cuttyshaw - Rickey Holden

Holden's name for this dance was the Grand Cuttyshaw, which he published as "traditional New Mexico" in his 1992 booklet, "Square Dances of West Texas." A note there reads, "This traditional figure,… View item
Moving Image

Texas Whirlwind - Rickey Holden

Holden teaches the figures, starting with a review of Catch All Eight, a traditional figure from West Texas that became part of modern square dance: right hand turn halfway around, then left hand turn… View item
Moving Image

Larry Edelman - roots of early modern square dance

At a 1992 workshop in Denmark, caller and dance historian Larry Edelman explains influences that created the early forms of modern square dance in the years after WW II. Callers drew on figures from… View item