African American Dance Caller Pathways will be piloted beginning August 2025. This program will connect experienced instructors to a cohort of Black-identified aspiring dance callers to teach dance calling technique, Black cultural and historical roots of traditional square and contra dancing, and contemporary challenges of navigating predominately white traditional dance communities.

Though Black people play a key part in the legacy of American traditional social dances such squares and contras, the number of Black callers has dwindled greatly over the centuries and numbers are now very small. This program is our way of nurturing connections between knowledgeable callers and Black folks and increasing the number of Black callers on the scene.

Howard University students square dancing in 1949, via Smithsonian

“...The American tradition of dance calling was no doubt influenced by cultural survivals of the music and dance traditions of West Africa. That Black influence is what separated these American dances from the European tradition, making them uniquely ‘American.’

“As early as 1690, enslaved [sic] fiddlers played for dances on plantations in Virginia, and by the mid-eighteenth century enslaved [sic] musicians were common at white social functions, both urban and rural, throughout the American colonies.”

“The earliest references to dance callers, all of whom were African-American, date from shortly after the introduction of the French cotillions and quadrilles in America. This suggests that calling might have evolved in the Black culture as an alternative to the formal instruction that white dancers received at dancing schools."

Phil Jamison, Author of “Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics": Roots of Southern Appalachian Dance

Southside Squares Chicago, Intro to Square Dance Party Night, 2023 via www.SouthsideSquares.com

This pilot year will allow us to test the program’s structure and receive participant and instructor feedback to guide our move into year two with a public, formal application process.

Instructors

Information about our pilot cohort participants to be announced soon!

is made possible by

And grassroots support from members of our community. Thank you!

FWAAMFest and African American Dance Caller Pathways are programs of the nonprofit Decolonizing the Music Room. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest exten of the law.