Meet Lloyd Shaw
Cowboy Dances was first published in July, 1939, only three months after the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers first appeared at the National Folk Festival in Washington, DC. The book was able to build on the enthusiastic reception accorded the young dancers, and Shaw found himself besieged by educators asking for suggestions about how to engage other young people in this activity. The first school for teachers took place in 1941, and after World War II ended, Shaw resumed teaching classes in the late 1940s. Many of Shaw's first students in the post-war era became leaders in the modern square dancing movement.
