Cowboy Medley Square - Silver Spurs
Caller Red Henderson, who founded the Silver Spurs youth dance troupe, here calls a "cowboy square dance," mixing together figures based on traditional western square dances. The film dates from the 1950s, at a time when the Silver Spurs toured widely in the US and abroad. This item on their program in particular shows the influence of Lloyd Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain Dancers.
After looking at this ideo posted on YouTube, Lynn Wakefield commented:
I danced with the Silver Spurs from 1956 to 1964. I performed with the exhibition groups from 1960 to 1964. The dance you see in this video was still performed when I was in the group, as I remember the lifts.
The summer of 1963 we toured the eastern half of the US, performing in 21 different venues in 30 days. It was common to be sponsored by a local square dance club where the audience danced after our show. We also joined the audience in dancing, many times not having ever danced the dance we were doing. We got very good at copying the person in front of you. It was also quite a challenge to square dance with certain sophisticated callers and audience with patterns we had never heard before.
We rented a bus and that was the home for 24 high school boys and girls, 2 chaperones (one being my mother), and Red Henderson, for a month. We would stay with sponsoring families at each venue, usually 2 boys or 2 girls per household. It was an incredible way to see the country and learn the nuances of each region. I remember stepping off the bus in Lexington, Kentucky to be met by a very cute girl who spoke to me in such a southern drawl, I didn't understand a word she said. The summer of 1964, we traveled the western states for a month.
During my time with the group, the different dances changed as new numbers were added all the time, as older dances faded away. The group also performed many "non-group" numbers. Couple dances including the Rumba, Mexican Hat Dance, and others. 2 couple dances included the bamboo pole dance and cake walk. All boy dances were the soft shoe, and horn pipe. I even performed a native american hoop dance. Each performance required several costume changes, some requiring being completed in a couple of minutes.
When I was in the group, the majority of the kids went to Shadle Park High School. If you wanted to be a cheerleader at Shadle Park, it was a prerequisite that you were a member of the Spurs. I remember many practices where the older cheerleaders would teach the younger girls their moves. When traveling with the group, I also played the Hammond Organ before the performance and intermission as well as a couple of solo spots to give dancers a chance to change costumers. My predecessor to in this role was Terry Chamberlain, a very talented accordion player.
Subjects: Traditional Western (pre-1940)
Tags: cowboy, Silver Spurs
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Cheyenne Mountain Dancers - Docey-Doe Hoedown |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Frontier Dances - Bob Cook |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Cowboy Square Dances of West Texas |
| Item: Red Henderson | is related to | This Item |
| Item: Silver Spurs publicity poster | is related to | This Item |
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After looking at this ideo posted on YouTube, Lynn Wakefield commented:
I danced with the Silver Spurs from 1956 to 1964. I performed with the exhibition groups from 1960 to 1964. The dance you see in this video was still performed when I was in the group, as I remember the lifts.
The summer of 1963 we toured the eastern half of the US, performing in 21 different venues in 30 days. It was common to be sponsored by a local square dance club where the audience danced after our show. We also joined the audience in dancing, many times not having ever danced the dance we were doing. We got very good at copying the person in front of you. It was also quite a challenge to square dance with certain sophisticated callers and audience with patterns we had never heard before.
We rented a bus and that was the home for 24 high school boys and girls, 2 chaperones (one being my mother), and Red Henderson, for a month. We would stay with sponsoring families at each venue, usually 2 boys or 2 girls per household. It was an incredible way to see the country and learn the nuances of each region. I remember stepping off the bus in Lexington, Kentucky to be met by a very cute girl who spoke to me in such a southern drawl, I didn't understand a word she said. The summer of 1964, we traveled the western states for a month.
During my time with the group, the different dances changed as new numbers were added all the time, as older dances faded away. The group also performed many "non-group" numbers. Couple dances including the Rumba, Mexican Hat Dance, and others. 2 couple dances included the bamboo pole dance and cake walk. All boy dances were the soft shoe, and horn pipe. I even performed a native american hoop dance. Each performance required several costume changes, some requiring being completed in a couple of minutes.
When I was in the group, the majority of the kids went to Shadle Park High School. If you wanted to be a cheerleader at Shadle Park, it was a prerequisite that you were a member of the Spurs. I remember many practices where the older cheerleaders would teach the younger girls their moves. When traveling with the group, I also played the Hammond Organ before the performance and intermission as well as a couple of solo spots to give dancers a chance to change costumers. My predecessor to in this role was Terry Chamberlain, a very talented accordion player.