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… <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/ <http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/47ybt3zc9780252039270.html>/: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance/ <http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/47ybt3zc9780252039270.html> (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(a)gmail.com <mailto:jim.saxe@gmail.com> [trad-dance-callers] &lt;trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com <mailto: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 <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 <tel:%28828%29%20771-3722> Cell phone: (828) 450-0780 <tel:%28828%29%20450-0780> Email: pjamison(a)warren-wilson.edu <mailto:pjamison@warren-wilson.edu> Website: www.philjamison.com <http://www.philjamison.com>

Prior to the popularity of the practice of dance calling at public dances in the mid-nineteenth century, dancers could learn "the newest and most fashionable" dances of the day from dance manuals such as Asa Willcox's book.