Al Brundage

American square dance caller, educator and promoter of dance tourism (4 November 1919, Hartford, Connecticut — 30 August 2016, Miami, Florida). Al Brundage was a nationally-renowned square dance caller of Connecticut state, Miami and Port St. Lucie in Florida, and established one of the country's most vital dance tourism programs, inducted to the National Square Dance Hall of Fame in 1975. In addition to performing and teaching callers across the North East, Brundage toured internationally, with opportunities to call squares dances on the Great Wall of China, Parthenon grounds in Greece, at Nairobi National Park in Kenya or Taj Mahal, India. Alfred Brundage grew up in Danbury, attending Danbury High School and graduating from the University of Maine, where he studied agriculture. Brundage never received a formal musical education, fascinated by square dancing since childhood, as he peaked through the windows of Hawthorne's Tavern in Danbury. In 1933, his family opened a new dance club, "King Street Pioneers," where Brundage briefly played on the trumpet before taking over the "caller" role — a host, or "master of ceremonies" who directs dancing couples and announces the next "call," or a dance move, typically via a microphone on the stage. Brundage soon began teaching square dancing and calling at state conferences at The University Of Connecticut. In 1948, Brundage opened his first dance barn, "The Country Barn," in Stepney, Connecticut, hosting one of the state's first caller schools. Around that time, the first 78 RPM gramophone records with square dance music began to appear, and Brundage had releases on Kismet, Folkraft Records, Windsor, Blue Star, Red Boot Records and other square dance, country and folk labels. He was represented on American Square Dance Society's compilations released via Sets In Order. In 1951, Emory Cook's label Road Recordings released Square Dance LP. It was reissued in 2006 by Smithsonian Folkways Archival.