Browse Items (10 total)

Ray Smith was the "Caller of the Month" in Let's Dance magazine, published by the Folk Dance Federation of California, Northern Section.

In this 1949 article, caller Jimmy Clossin describes some of the distinguishing characteristics of west Texas square dance:

"Many people think when Western Square Dancing is mentioned that we have only one type in the West. That is not true. While…

This collection of more than two dozen festival programs from the 1940s until early 1960s gives a good sense of what material was being called as well as names of featured callers.

In chronological order, the festival programs in this collection…

Jimmy Clossin was an influential Texas caller who unfortunately never recorded commercially. (This Square Dance History Site would dearly love to post clips from live recordings—please contact us if you know of any.) Shown here are several…

The dip and dive figures appear in many variations in the square dance repertoire. One common singing square has the figures set to the tune Redwing, while other callers chant the figures to Little Brown Jug. Here, Red Warrick chants the figures in a…

Texas caller Red Warrick, on a rare recording on the Dude label, with music by Till's Square Dance Band. (See related materials here.) The tune is Golden Slippers, but this recording provides an excellent example of calls that are not phrased to the…

This 1953 clip features Texas caller Raymond Smith introducing the seeds of modern Western square dance style at Camp Becket in Massachusetts. He's calling "Between Those Ladies" by Toby Allen, a variation of the traditional figure "Right Lady High,…

Greggerson's book, originally published in 1937, contains more than 50 dances, supplemented with photographs and diagrams.

After a brief foreward with acknowledgments, the book begins with these words:

How To Square Dance
There is one…