Toby Thomason doesn’t always agree with everything his wife Judy suggests. But he remembers the day roughly 50 years ago when she dragged him along for a fun night of square dancing. He did it begrudgingly at first because, well, happy wife, happy life. But then something crazy happened — he actually enjoyed it.
“I guess it did [pay off that I listened to her],” Toby said between hearty chuckles. “I was in the Air Force, and she was talking to two civilian ladies about it and said, ‘we’re going.’ I resisted at first, but once I got into it, I realized I liked it and could do it.
“We’ve enjoyed doing it ever since. It’s a wonderful activity, and we have a lot of fun.”
To say the Thomasons enjoy square dancing is an understatement. About a year later, Toby tried a singing call at a square dance weekend and quickly found his niche as a caller, the person who determines the moves dancers perform on the dance floor. He and Judy attended Frank Lane’s Callers School in the summer of 1973 and twice more a few years later. By 1974, they were charter members of the Triangle Squares Dance Club in Denton, a club they continue to help operate all these years later.
Toby is the only caller the organization has ever known.
“We’ve done a lot of traveling with it across the country to Taipei, Taiwan, Japan, etc.,” Toby said. He was inducted into the Texas State Callers’ Hall of Fame in 2014 and was twice named Caller of the Year in 2009 and 2011 by the North Texas Callers Association. “It’s good, wholesome fun.”
If you haven’t tried square dancing, you’re really missing out. It is a traditional American folk dance that starts with four couples in a square formation, with one couple on each side facing the middle of the square. Participants then dance to a specific sequence or series of steps orchestrated by the caller. And you don’t have to be a grown-up to take advantage of the fun. Toby said he’s seen square dancers as young as 9 years old to as wise as 90.
“We have people of all ages out there having fun,” he said.
Toby said that back in the early 70s, there were roughly 240 square dancing clubs in North Texas with approximately 20,000 dancers between them. While those numbers have dwindled considerably to 20 or so clubs today, square dancing is still very popular worldwide and is taught in English no matter where you go in the world, Toby said.
In fact, square dancing has been our country’s “official national folk dance” since President Ronald Reagan signed an act of Congress in 1982. And each Nov. 29 is National Square Dance Day.
Triangle Squares Dance Club, which holds classes and dance nights at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Denton, has between 25-30 members and has shown zero signs of slowing down all these years later.
Dances are held from 7-9 p.m. on the first and third Fridays of every month. Lessons are on Tuesday nights from 7-8:30 p.m.
“It’s great exercise, but it’s also great mental exercise because you have to listen to what the calls are,” Toby said. “Things change, and people get involved with other activities, etc., but we are still busy and enjoy working with people. Judy and I have been here since the beginning, and we can’t get enough of it. We love it. Square dancing is all about fun, friendship, and fellowship. We aren’t in it to make professional dancers out of everyone. This is just an activity and organization that has a lot of fun visiting with each other, dancing, and having a good time.”
If you’d like to learn more about the Triangle Squares Dance Club, including how to sign up for lessons and dance nights and where to view their schedule of events, visit trianglesquaresdanceclub.com.