I am the author of the JSTOR article entitled "Square Dance Calling: The African-American Connection":
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41446577?mag=the-slave-roots-of-square-dancing&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Back in 2003, as I was beginning to discover the African-American influence on the Appalachian dance traditions, I gave a presentation on the origins of dance calling at an Appalachian Studies Association conference, and following that presentation, this article was published in the Journal of Appalachian Studies. I continued my research, and in 2015, I published a book, Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance (University of Illinois Press). In my book, I present (what I believe is overwhelming) evidence that suggests that African-American musicians were the first dance callers. The first documented one was in 1819 (in New Orleans), but as early as the 1760s, a Scottish school-master, who emigrated from Edinburgh to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, referred to “balls,” where “chanting to the sound of the violin" was a common practice. Please check out my book; I believe that you will find lots of interesting tidbits about square dance history in it.

I agree with Richard that "calling of the dance" in Thomas Wilson's England of 1816 meant for the lead lady to choose the dance and demonstrate the figures at a ball. Dancing masters prompted students with verbal commands at dancing school, but not at public balls. Slaves in the American South were dancing country dances by the time of the American Revolution, and clearly, they had not been sent to dancing school. Dance calling provided an alternative.

Phil Jamison

Asheville, NC

On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 5:00 PM, jim saxe jim.saxe@gmail.com [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

An article by Phil and Vivian Williams, "Lewis and Clark Corps
of Discovery Quotes About Fiddling and Dancing"

https://www.voyagerrecords.com/arlc.htm

collects information about fiddling and dancing done during
the Lewis and Clark expedition. The Williamses write:

While fiddling and dancing appear many times in the
journals, none of the titles of the tunes played are
mentioned. The tunes would have been dance tunes extant in
1804 and familiar in the U.S.

We also know very little about the dancing that was done.
Other than the rather vague account of York’s dancing on
January 1, 1805, the only description we have of the dancing
comes from the oral history of the Nez Perce Indians. In
1936, Chief Many Wounds (Sam Lott), the great grandson of Red
Bear, a Nez Perce chief who helped Lewis and Clark, included
stories handed down in his family about Lewis and Clark in
his typewritten manuscript Historic Sketches of the Nez
Perces: Personal Incidents in the Lives of the Famous Chiefs
of the Nez Perce. He said “first time Nez Perces see fiddle
one man he play and sing and all others mans dance different
kind dance than Indians war dance and negro York he do lots
dance with feet and looks funny, all people laugh every body
was happy.” And “One white man named Potts ... he boss other
mans how to do funny dance and sing songs, and all laugh and
Lewis paint faces of Nez Perces with red paint.” This
indicates to us that York was step dancing, and that
Sergeant Potts was calling a cotillion (an early form of
square dance) or a longways set dance.

The account doesn't state explicitly whether Potts only "bossed"
the others before the music started or whether he actually
prompted the figures while the dance was in progress. I lean
toward the latter interpretation, but perhaps I'm being biased
by my experience of dance calling as currently practiced.

--Jim

Phil Jamison
Professor of Mathematics/Appalachian Music/Appalachian Studies
Warren Wilson College
CPO 6211, PO Box 9000
Asheville, NC 28815

Office phone: (828) 771-3722
Cell phone: (828) 450-0780
Email: pjamison@warren-wilson.edu
Website: www.philjamison.com