Square Dance Video & Audio

This page is organized in the following sections:

General-Interest Videos • Videos of Specific Dances • Audio Recordings

General-Interest Videos

• Thousands of square dancers in Central Park, circa 1945 — New York City's Parks and Recreation sponsored a series of these Summertime square dances in four NYC locations, called by Ed Durlacher
• Pete Seeger with Margot Mayo's American Square Dance Group — Video from the late 1940s made by Margot Mayo's "American Square Dance Group" in NYC, featuring a young Pete Seeger on banjo
• Square dance promotional video, 1951, and
  Notes on square dance promotional video, 1951 — A 1951 promotional video made by Bob Osgood in Los Angeles, CA for "Sets in Order," the national square dance magazine; Clark Baker has compiled some interesting notes from his research on this film
• Song: "Square Dancing's Calling Me" — Documentary film about the modern Western square dance anthem, "Square Dancing’s Calling Me," recorded by MWSD callers at the 1986 CALLERLAB convention in Baltimore, MD
• Not Your Grandparents' Square Dance — Documentary short about the thriving traditional square dance scene in Portland, OR; footage of various callers and events, and interviews with caller/organizers Michael Ismerio and Bill Martin
• Square dance at the Tractor Tavern — A 2008 traditional square dance at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, WA, with commentary by caller Charmaine Slaven
• Square dance at HM157 — A 2010 traditional square dance at HM157 in Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles), CA, with multiple callers
• Square dance at Bell's Bend — A 2010 party at "Bell's Bend" in Ashland City (outside of Nashville), TN
• Square dancers do-si-do at the local library — A 2010 traditional square dance in Oakland, CA, with calling by Jordan Ruyle
• Square Dance at the Lakewood Community Center —A  2010 traditional square dance in Seattle, WA, with calling and additional commentary by Suzanne Girardot; footage also includes comments from organizer Catherine Alexander
• "Sail Away Ladies" host a Barn Dance — A 2011 barn dance at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA, with calling by Will Mentor
• Let's Go! Episode TWO: "Old-Time Square Dance" — A 2011 traditional square dance at The Bishop Bar in Bloomington, IN, with calling and additional commentary by Michael Ismerio
• Square Dancing on the Ice - someplace VERY COLD — Impromptu square dancing on a frozen lake
• Community of the Square — The Monday night square dance in Minneapolis, MN, with voice-over commentary about the mini-community that forms during the experience of dancing a single square

Videos of Specific Dances

These dances are grouped by style; click on a column header to sort its table.

Quadrille Style • Old-Time Mountain Style • Traditional Western Style •
MWSD • Singing Squares • "Traditional Style" Modern Squares •
Collections for Further Browsing

Collections for Further Browsing

Want an even bigger selection of square dance videos to browse through? Here are some of the great collections I used to compile the above lists.

• Dare to be Square — various sessions from 2009 and 2010 (Tony Mates's videos)
• Square Ball, daytime sampler and evening sampler — Montpelier, VT
• Dan Freligh's YouTube channel — video footage of old-time square dances with caller Dan Freligh (OTM, SS) to recorded music in Saegertown, PA
• Fred Feild's YouTube channel — video and audio footage of traditional square dancing from Fred Feild (Tuscon, AZ caller and dance historian)