Browse Items (25 total)

Bill Litchman 1 - Traditional Western Squares

Caller Bill Litchman discusses characteristic features of traditional western square dances, incorporating his memory of Colorado dances that he encountered starting in the 1950s.For a more detailed… View item

Bill Litchman 2a - Lloyd Shaw, part 1

An interview with caller Bill Litchman about educator Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw and the important role he played in square dance. Many see Shaw as a defining figure in the transition from… View item

Bill Litchman 2b - Lloyd Shaw, part 2

Bill Litchman continues his discussion about educator Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw and the important role he played in square dance. Here, he focuses on the impact that Shaw's Cheyenne Mountain… View item

Bill Litchman 3 - Dorothy Shaw

Lloyd Shaw is the name that is widely recognized as an important figure in square dance history; here, caller Bill Litchman describes the crucial role played by Dorothy Shaw, his wife, and says that… View item

Bob Dalsemer 1: Structure of Dance Programs in Traditional Series

Caller Bob Dalsemer describes his experiences in traditional dance communities. Each community may have just a few break figures that appear in all dances, which means that callers can program a lot… View item

Bob Dalsemer 2: How Callers Use Dance Structure

Caller Bob Dalsemer discusses ways that square dance callers can present basic figures in different variations, provided that they understand the basic structure of a given dance. This gives the… View item

Bob Dalsemer 3: Traditional Dance is a Polished Rock

Bob Dalsemer discusses how a traditional dance, done in a community over time, becomes a sort of gem, all the essence and no frills. View item

Bob Dalsemer 4: How do you choose what dances to teach?

Caller Bob Dalsemer discusses some of the choices he makes in deciding what kind of squares to include in a dance program. What kind of music is available? Who are the dancers and what are they… View item

Jim Mayo 1 - Early Years of Modern Square Dance

Jim discusses his own introduction to modern squares with caller Al Brundage in 1949. He talks about the early development of modern, showing how this new activity began to separate from its… View item

Jim Mayo 2 - Square Thru and Changing Choreography

The call "square through" provided callers with a new tool for moving dancers around on the dance floor. Jim describes how callers experimented with the figure and how he introduced it in… View item

Jim Mayo 3 - Start of CALLERLAB

The 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the number of calls, which led to repeated cries from dancers for someone to bring order out of chaos. This led to the formation of CALLERLAB. View item

Jim Mayo 4 - New choreography

New calls such as Wheel and Deal and Swing Thru gave modern square dance callers powerful tools for creating new choreography and patterns of movement. Callers discovered that the sequence "Wheel… View item