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Welcome to my own personal collection of square dance books, papers, websites and audio and video recordings. Most of it, anyhow. Originally I wanted to have my books handy wherever I am in the world so I uploaded them to my private website. If you are reading this then you are part of a very small group because I realized this is also a good way to lend out my books. Because of copyright and plain old fairness, this is only for your own use. I would appreciate it if you would not pass along the link to anyone else. There are books here that can still be bought and I urge you to do so to support those authors and the cause. Also, much of this stuff can still be found used online or in bookstores. Each scanned book, the websites, and the recordings come with an index or table of contents linking all items to their pages. Some TOCs I assembled myself. Many of these books are scanned from photocopies that were difficult to make at the time. I've enhanced the scans as well as I can to bring back faded type and such. With some of the workshop recordings I've edited and applied tone and volume adjustment to pull up inaudible lecturing and questions from the attendees. Most of the material below addresses traditional square dancing, including the time just before and after 1950 when the modernization of oldtime indigenous squares skyrocketed and the western square dance club movement began to coalesce. The early years of that change were exciting for sure, but the end result was the sad loss of just about everything attractive about square dancing. As the modern square dance movement developed into the 1960s recordings took the place of live dance bands, and the dancing became very complex and required extensive lessons. [Be aware that there is an internal "rebellion" in the square dance club movement, led by some of the very people who created the modern western square dance style. Callers like Jim Mayo, CALLERLAB's first chairman, champion a form of modern western square dancing that uses a limited number of dance figures (moving back in the direction of our own traditional square dancing, though their list of figures is still pretty dang long.) Mayo and his fellow travelers rate high-quality dancing over complexity, which is really quite the opposite of today's modern western square dance scene. While still prefering recordings, dancers of the Mayo ilk are introducing sanity back into the modern movement. Mayo has written a fascinating history and critique of the square dance movement, Step By Step Through Modern Square Dance History, a movement in which he was an important and essential part.] Most of my collection focuses on the traditional dance that I love and reflect less of the modern western square dance movement (skirts 'n' shirts.) We start off with a larger collection of material on the Southern big set or running set dances than you are likely to find anywhere else, the product of my first square dance enthusiasm. Check back because I'm adding books and I'm still tracking down some tantalizing books and articles. The second section addresses traditional square dancing in general. |
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 I've combined the tables of content and indices of these books, websites and recordings into a sort of library master catalog. In the doc file all the dances and figures are linked to their respective books, but the PDF will download much faster. Be sure to download the freshest versions: 7-17-10 |
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SHORT LIST FOR GETTING STARTED WITH SOUTHERN SQUARES:The Appalachian Square Dance, Frank Smith, 1955Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing, Patrick Napier, 1983 The Old-Time Kentucky Running Set, by Stu Jamieson [pdf] West Virginia Square Dances, Bob Dalsemer [external website], 1982 |
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SOUTHERN, BIG SET, RUNNING SET SQUARE DANCING:American Folk Dances Kits 49 & 47: Square Dances of the Great Smoky Mountains, Lynn Rohrbough, Cooperative Recreation Service, Delaware, Ohio, 1939The American Big Set, Douglas Kennedy, 1937 [pdf] The American Square Dance (running set section), Margot Mayo, 1948 [buy it here] Appalachian Big Circle [pdf] Appalachian Set Running, Les Barclay, 2001 The Appalachian Square Dance, Frank Smith, 1955 [buy it here] Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Minstrel of the Appalachians", Pete Gilpin & George Stephens, 1966 [buy it here] Clogging and the Southern Appalachian Square Dance, Frank X. Bonner, 1983 The Country Dance Book Part V: Containing the Running Set, Cecil J. Sharp, 1918 [buy it here] Cutting a Dido, Gail Matthews, 1983 Dancing to the Music: Domestic Square Dances and Community in Southcentral Kentucky (1880 -1940), Burt Feintuch, 1981 [pdf] Definition of Community in Old Time Dancing in Rural Southwest Virginia, Susan Spalding, 1994 [pdf] Finding List of Southeastern Square Dance Figures, J. Olcutt Sanders, 1942 Glenn Bannerman Lp inserts and workshop sheets Kentucky Mountain Square Dancing, Patrick Napier, 1983 Kentucky Square Dances, Ida Levin, 1928 Lady 'Round the Lady & Shoot the Buffalo, Napier, 1969 Old Time Dancing in the Appalachian Mountains, Vicky Risner Wulff, 1989 [pdf] The Old-Time Kentucky Running Set, by Stu Jamieson [pdf] Practicing Tradition: History and Community in an Appalachian Dance Style, Anne Elise Thomas, 2001 [pdf] Running Sets, Hugh Stewart [external website] Smoky Mountain Square Dances, David.B. Hendrix, 1941 [buy it here] Some Additional Figures for Set-Running, Maud Karpeles, 1930 [pdf] Square Dances of America, Douglas & Helen Kennedy West Virginia Square Dances, Bob Dalsemer [external website], 1982 World of Fun (running set section), R.Harold Hipps and Wallace E. Chappell, 1970 [buy it here] |
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SHORT LIST FOR GETTING STARTED WITH 4-COUPLE SQUARES:Dance A While, (square dance section), Jane Harris, Anne Pittman, Marlys S. Waller, 1969Kathy Anderson’s Square Dance Callers Course at Pinewoods 2010 Let's Create "Olde Tyme" Square Dancing, Ralph Sweet, 1966 Potluck and Dance Tonite!, Sandy Bradley (Booklet accompanying the Lp) Potluck and Dance Tonite! The square dance tracks from the Lp [mp3] Square Dance!, Ralph J. McNair, 1951 The Square Dancers' Guide (square dance & Kentucky running set sections), Gene Gowing, 1957 |
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4-COUPLE & GENERAL SQUARE DANCE BOOKS:Al Brundage's Little Black Book [pdf] |
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