Here’s an interesting bibliography for contra and traditional dances: Annotated Bibliography from Ted Sannella’s Swing the Next. Many of the books are still available from the Country Dance and Song Society.

If I had to use just one book for calling a party dance for non-dancers, it would be this one, which can be ordered here: CDSS: American Dance Catalog

Butenhof, Ed. Dance Parties for Beginners. Mack’s Creek, MO: The Lloyd Shaw Foundation, 1990.

A one-night stand handbook of 100 easy dances intended to supply club callers with pertinent advice and material for use with beginners. Includes many squares and novelty dances as well as a few contras and folk dances.

Wondering where to leave your square dance stuff when you die? You could leave it for spouse or spousal equivalent to deal with, or you could pass it on to one of the archives that collects dance-related materials:

The Lloyd Shaw Archives. I’m most familiar with this one because it’s in Albuquerque and I live in Albuquerque…what a coincidence. It has a lot of stuff, but also suffers from a lack of staffing and lack of accessibility.

University of New Hampshire Library – Milne Special Collections and Archives – The New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music and Dance. A big advantage of an established library is that their stuff is cataloged and the catalog is searchable on line. I know the Lloyd Shaw Archives want to be online, but they’re not there yet.

There’s also the Kentucky Dance Foundation, with Stew Shacklette, but it’s not even on line at all…or if it is, the web spiders can’t find it.

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Speaking of national folk dances, here’s the page for Alabama’s official folk dance, square dancing: Official American Folk Dance of Alabama

I particularly like the photo: street clothes, with short-sleeved shirts for the men…of course, it looks like it’s from the 50’s.

Georgia (State Folk Dance) has a more realistic photo, as does Maryland (Maryland State Folk Dance – Square Dance), Connecticut (The State Folk Dance), Missouri (Missouri State American Folk Dance), South Carolina (State Folk Square Dance-www.scstatehouse.net -LPITR, Utah (Utah State Symbols (at least Utah’s shows a move that looks like it might relate to Scandinavian dancing), California (History and Culture – State Insignia) (a miniscule picture)

New Jersey shows women in long skirts: (New Jersey Legislature – State Dance)

Tennessee doesn’t have a picture (Tennessee State Folk Dance). Neither does Colorado (Colorado Emblems, Symbols, Flag and State Seal) although they do have a picture of the state fossil. Neither does Texas (LRL : Reference Desk : Stats : State Symbols), or Massachusetts (Massachusetts State Symbols), or Nebraska (Nebraska’s State Symbols)

Arkansas avoided the age issue by using a drawing of a young couple square dancing (Our State American Folk Dance). So did Washington, although their drawing shows an almost ballgown-like dress (The Symbols of Washington State)

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Something from the Detroit News: Waltz or square dance your way to fitness. It actually talks about square dancing and folk dancing in the same article!