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

Browse Items (46 total)

  • Tags: Jim Mayo
Sound

Classic Dances of 1960

This recording comes from the 2001 CALLERLAB convention. (The audio recording is alsoavailable online here.)Jim Mayo, the CALLERLAB President at that time, was the MC, and he explains the start of the… View item
Website

Square Dance - live recordings

In cooperation with the Square Dance Foundation of New England, SDHP has created a page on the Internet Archive with live recordings of some 300 evenings of modern square dancing.Although most files… View item
Document

Classic Squares of 1960 - CALLERLAB demonstration

This is the handout of a workshop held at CALLERLAB's 2001 convention. The goal was to illustrate square dancing in 1960, a time when modern square dancing was branching off in new directions. This… View item
Sound

God Bless America - CALLERLAB chairmen, 2009

In 2009 the CALLERLAB Convention in Kansas City included a dance following the Banquet called by all the past chairmen of CALLERLAB who were in attendance that year. This recording is the final… View item
Moving Image

Visit with the Legends, 2010

Each year's CALLERLAB convention includes a History / Heritage / Tradition session. For several years, this has been titled "Visit with the Legends," at which MWSD callers with long… View item
Moving Image

Jim Mayo - patter - 1994

Modern square dance, Plus program. Videotaped by Tim Stanger at the Papoose Pond square dance weekend, N. Waterford, Maine, 1994. View item
Moving Image

Another Square Dance Caller - Jim Mayo

Jim Mayo calling a dance created by Marshall Flippo and released on Chaparral 710. Recorded Memorial Day weekend, 1993, by Tim Stanger at the Papoose Pond square dance weekend, N. Waterford, Maine. View item
Moving Image

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
Moving Image

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
Moving Image

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
Moving Image

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
Moving Image

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