Recent applications in need of compact low-frequency deflecting and crabbing cavities have initiated the design and development of new superconducting structures operating at high gradients with low losses. Previously, TM 110 -type deflecting and crabbing cavities were developed and have also been operated successfully. However, these geometries are not favorable designs for low operating frequencies. The superconducting rf-dipole cavity is the first compact deflecting and crabbing geometry that has demonstrated high gradients and high shunt impedance. Since the fundamental operating mode is the lowest mode and is widely separated from the nearest higher order mode, the rf-dipole design is an attractive geometry for effective damping of the higher order modes in high current applications. A 400 MHz rf-dipole cavity was designed, fabricated, and tested as a proof-of-principle cavity. The cavity achieved high operating gradients, and the multipacting levels were easily processed and did not reoccur.