Dance Across Texas

Generations of Texans have believed that “to dance is to live.” At rustic “play parties” and elegant cotillions, in tiny family dance halls and expansive urban honky-tonks, from historic beginnings to next Saturday night, Texans have waltzed, polkaed, schottisched, and shuffled their way across the state. In Dance across Texas, internationally known dance instructor and writer Betty Casey takes an informal look at the history of Texas dancing and, in clear diagrams, photos, and detailed instructions, tells “how to” do more than twenty Texas dances. Previously, little had been recorded about the history of dancing on the frontier. Journal and diary entries, letters, and newspaper clippings preserve enticing, if sketchy, descriptions of the types of dances that were popular. Casey uses a variety of sources, including interviews and previously unpublished historical materials, such as dance cards, invitations, and photographs, to give us a delightful look at the social context of dance. The importance of dance to early Texans is documented through colorful descriptions of clothing worn to the dances, of the various locations where dances were held, ranging from a formal hall to a wagon sheet spread on the ground, and of the hardships endured to get to a dance. Also included in the historical section of Dance across Texas are notes on the “morality” of dance, the influence of country music on modern dance forms, and the popularity of such Texas dance halls and clubs as Crider’s and Gilley’s. The instruction section of the book diagrams twenty-two Texas dances, including standard waltzes and two-steps as well as the Cotton-Eyed Joe, Put Your Little Foot, Herr Schmidt, the Western Schottische, and such “whistle’” or mixer dances as Paul Jones, Popcorn, and Snowball. Clear and detailed directions for each dance, along with suggested musical selections, accompany the diagrams and photos. Dance and physical education teachers and students will find this section invaluable, and aspiring urban cowboys can follow the easy-to-read diagrammed footsteps to a satisfying spin around the honky-tonk floor. Anyone interested in dance or in the history of social customs in Texas will find much to enjoy in this refreshing and often amusing look at a Texas “national” pastime.

World rodeo champ Clayton Rankin had honorably married Rena when she'd gotten pregnant...hell, he'd given the twins his name! What more could a wife want? Cuddles? Well, cowboys don't take too easily to cuddles. But Rena needed tenderness-and Clayton would do anything to keep his woman. So he'd darn well convince his beautiful Texas bride that he was 100% husband material. Even if it meant a lifetime of tenderness...

"Blending literary and photo-journalism, history, and storytelling, essays examine eighteen Texas dance halls in terms of their music, culture, and community. Also considers the predominantly Czech and German heritage from which these halls evolved, as well as the cultural dynamics that enable them to continue as centers of community"--Provided by publisher.

This is a society that you join because you want to. The purpose of the society is to collect and make known to he public sons and ballads, superstitions, games, plays, and proverbs.

On any weekend in Texas, Czech polka music enlivens dance halls and drinking establishments as well as outdoor church picnics and festivals. The songs heard at these venues are the living music of an ethnic community created by immigrants who started arriving in Central Texas in the mid-nineteenth century from what is now the Czech Republic. Today, the members of this community speak English but their songs are still sung in Czech. Czech Songs in Texas includes sixty-one songs, mostly polkas and waltzes. The songs themselves are beloved heirlooms ranging from ceremonial music with origins in Moravian wedding traditions to exuberant polkas celebrating the pleasures of life. For each song, the book provides music notation and Czech lyrics with English translation. An essay explores the song’s European roots, its American evolution, and the meaning of its lyrics and lists notable performances and recordings. In addition to the songs and essays, Frances Barton provides a chapter on the role of music in the Texas Czech ethnic community, and John K. Novak surveys Czech folk and popular music in its European home. The book both documents a specific musical inheritance and serves as a handbook for learning about a culture through its songs. As folklorist and polka historian James P. Leary writes in his foreword, “Barton and Novak take us on a poetic, historical, and ethnographic excursion deep into a community’s expressive heartland. Their Czech Songs in Texas just might be the finest extant annotated anthology of any American immigrant/ethnic group's regional song tradition.”

A fun, fact-filled, and thoroughly researched journey of country and western dancing from the roots of Western Swing to Hank Williams, the Urban Cowboy two-step of John Travolta, and the nationwide sensation of country line dancing. Country & Western Dance turns the spotlight on a uniquely American form of dance, one that has been scuffing the floorboards for nearly a century but is often overlooked. Fun, lively, and thoroughly researched, this revealing volume tells the full story of country and western dance music from the days of Bob Wills and Tulsa to Oklahoma's Cain's Ballroom to John Travolta and Gilley's of Houston, Texas. Each chapter provides information on the historical roots of the most popular country and western dances as well as the pioneers of the music of a particular era, all in the context of changing cultural, social, political, and economic forces in America. The book also examines the seminal impact of radio, television, and the movies in helping spread the music, the moves, and the good times on the country dance floor.

"Wishart and the staff of the Center for Great Plains Studies have compiled a wide-ranging (pun intended) encyclopedia of this important region. Their objective was to 'give definition to a region that has traditionally been poorly defined,' and they have

This volume makes available the full range of the American/Canadian musical experience, covering-for the first time in print-all major regions, ethnic groups, and traditional and popular contexts. From musical comedy to world beat, from the songs of the Arctic to rap and house music, from Hispanic Texas to the Chinese communities of Vancouver, the coverage captures the rich diversity and continuities of the vibrant music we hear around us. Special attention is paid to recent immigrant groups, to Native American traditions, and to such socio-musical topics as class, race, gender, religion, government policy, media, and technology.