Square Dance History Project
The rich story of North American square dance finally has a home in the digital age.

Browse Items (1926 total)

Document

Jimmy Clossin - personal scrapbook

Jimmy Clossin, of El Paso, was one of the most influential Texas callers in the 1930s and beyond. Author ofWest Texas Square Dances, he also produced numerous albums though as far as we know, he never… View item
Document

Jimmy Clossin - bio

Biography of Jimmy Clossin, from 1947. Although SDHP has numerous items related to Clossin, we would love to add an audio file of his calling. To the best of our knowledge, he never recorded… View item
Still Image

Jimmy Clossin - card, biography, flyer, letter, news story

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… View item
Sound

Jim York - Hash, live recording, 1955

Jim Mayo: Jim York was a very prolific writer of choreography. The Sets In Order magazine began publishing dances regularly in 1953 and Jim York's dances appeared regularly from then on. I… View item
Document

Jim Wilkerson's dance cards

This is a collection of cards by caller Jim Wilkerson; we think he was from Ohio, but would appreciate additional information that can be provided. View item
Still Image

Jim Munyon

This album sent us searching to learn more about the two individuals. We've determined that "Munyan" refers to Jim Munyon, who was a southern California dance caller who appears in numerous newspaper… View item
Moving Image

Jim Mayo's 40th - Hash

The caller is Earl Johnston, a member of the first CALLERLAB Board of Governors. Johnston was from Vernon, CT, and was a disciple of Al Brundage. This footage was taken by Bill Cross on October 1,… View item
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Jim Mayo 6 - Key Elements of Modern Square Dance

Jim discusses features that make modern square dancing different from traditional squares, including the unpredictable nature of the calls, the necessity for lessons, and the club structure that… View item
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Jim Mayo 5 - Basic Formations, Complex Calls

Jim points out that there are only a few basic formations in modern square dancing. One of the distinctive features of modern squares is the way that a series of basic moves are combined into one… View item
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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
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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
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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