Ralph George Page was born in Munsonville, New Hampshire, on January 28, 1903, into a Scottish-Irish family whose ancestors included Irish minstrels, a grandfather who was an Irish dancing master, an uncle who was a square dance caller, and a father who was a fiddler.

Based in Keene, New Hampshire, "Uncle" Ralph became the top authority in the field of New England Country dancing. On December 6, 1930, Ralph started calling contras, almost by accident. He was playing fiddle in an orchestra when he had to substitute for a caller who had come down with laryngitis. That day was December 5, 1930. From that beginning, he rose to the top of his field as an Eastern contra caller, becoming one of the country's first full-time professional callers in 1938, known as the "Singing Caller of New England." He was a featured caller at the 1939 New York World's Fair. His choice of music was great, the dancing smooth and elegant, and always there were the pithy, clever remarks from Ralph over the microphone.

In 1943, Ralph began leading a weekly square and contra dance evening at the Boston, Massachusetts, Y.W.C.A. He continued this class session for the next 25 years.

In 1945, Ralph married Ada Novak of New York City, whom he met at Camp Merriewoods in Stoddard, where she was assistant camp director. He wrote to Michael Herman, "I think that most of the International dances are grand and the tunes and figures delightful, but because of my background I specialize in the American dance and keep the others as a sideline. Throughout the years I have come to appreciate both types of folk dances more and more. One other thing -- I insist on my sessions being clean and wholesome. I will not tolerate drunkenness or rowdyism. I let people have a good time, you understand, but there is a difference between a good time and a brawl." (Folk Dancer, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 1946) That same year, Ralph was one of three founders of the Natick, Massachusetts, New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA), and was its president for many years. Ralph was NEFFA's first Master of Ceremonies at their First Folk Festival on October 28 to 29, 1946.

In 1946, a daughter, Laura Susan, was born to Ralph and Ada. Laura would bless the proud grandparents with two children of her own, Seth in 1970, and Erica in 1974.

From 1949 to 1984, Ralph single-handedly published 165 mimeographed issues of his Northern Junket magazine, which contained editorials, recipes, stories, dance notes, and sheet music for squares, contras, and international folk dances, and sheet music for many folk songs. He took great pride in publishing 18th and 19th century dances which his research had uncovered. His interpretation of obscure dance directions from old books and manuscripts found in the Library of Congress and elsewhere made it possible to revive many beautiful old dances such as The Market Lass and British Sorrow. Some fifty of these dances appeared in Northern Junket and his books, Heritage Dances of Early America and An Elegant Collection of Contras and Squares.

He became a recording artist in 1946 on the Disc label for Moe Ash. He made his first trip to the West to "sell" the dances of New England to West Coast (particularly California) folk and contra dancers in 1949, teaching at the Stockton Folk Dance Camp. By all accounts, his trip was a success. In 1950, when Michael and Mary Ann Herman started Maine Camp, now Mainewoods Dance Camp, Ralph joined their staff and he was associated with the camp the rest of his life, editing the camp's newspaper, Pioneer Press. Dick Crum and Gordon "Gordy" Engler wrote the Hungarian Waltz Quadrille that appeared in a spoof edition of the Pioneer Press, in 1962. Dick and Gordy wrote take-offs on every section of the Pioneer Press, then substituted their own mimeographed versions for the originals that everyone found at their tables at breakfast!

In 1951, he became a recording artist for the Herman's Folk Dancer record label. Ralph also composed many a good tune for dancing such as "East Hill Breakdown" and "Year End Two Step" on the Fireside String Band album, published on the F&W label. During his teaching tour in England, the English Folk Dance Society produced a record album by The Southerners Orchestra of Kent, England, titled Southerners Plus Two Play Ralph Page containing 11 of Ralph's original tunes and accompanied by a English Folk Dance and Song Society book titled The Ralph Page Book of Contras.

In 1950, Ralph began his square and folk dance camps, the first in New Hampshire, after having left school and holding a number of full- and part-time jobs. He also was invited to teach at dance camps in other areas of New England, as well as in California, Georgia, and parts of Canada.

In 1956, Ralph was sent to Japan for seven weeks by the U.S. Department of State Exchange of Persons branch, traveling all over the country teaching contra dances to folks who had never seen one before. In 1966, he went on a teaching tour of England under the sponsorship of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (ESFDS).

Ralph lead his November Square Dance Weekend (known as "November Weekend" to many of the dancers of the time) for many years at East Hill Farm in Troy, New Hampshire. Of that weekend, George Fogg, who taught the camp for 17 years, writes, "They were unforgettable years! The staff was amazing and all were basically square / contra dance callers, but each had such a varied style that it made each class not to be missed. The evening programs were unbelievable, as Ralph would invite any local caller / leader there to do a small piece. My, what an evening's entertainment and what a variety was presented out of nowhere. Of course, every year it would be different as various folks would be there."

In 1966, Ralph taught and called a contra dances in England in a series of 37 events.

In 1967, he received the New Hampshire "Granite State Award" that acknowledged him as an outstanding citizen for his talents as a dance teacher, caller, and musician, as well as for his community contributions.

In July, 1976, resplendent in top hat and cutaway coat, Ralph was the Grand Marshall of the Keene Bicentennial parade.

In 1980, the international square dance organization "Callerlab" honored Ralph in a Miami Beach ceremony with their "Milestone Award."

For the rest of his life, Ralph kept up a busy schedule running many dances in the New Hampshire and Massachusetts area, as well as doing landscape painting, carving picture frames, and reading history and mystery stories voraciously. He even wrote mystery stories and an unpublished mystery novel. He was considered one of the leading callers of his time and an important figure in the history of traditional dance in America. He died on February 21, 1985, in Keene, New Hampshire, where he had been living for many years. He was buried in Munsonville in the family cemetery plot.

In 1986, the accumulated papers of Ralph George Page were purchased from Ada Page jointly by the University of New Hampshire Library and the New England Folk Festival Association. The 36 Hollinger boxes of material, processed in February of 1995, "contains Ralph's correspondence (from the early 1940s until his death), personal notebooks, daily calendars, scrapbooks, numerous manuscripts (including an unpublished novel), dance calls and instruction, programs from folk festivals, camps, and dances, typescripts of early books on dancing, subject files that contain information on folk song and dance, folk culture, and other subject areas in which Ralph was interested, as well as, memorabilia, and photographs, his library of approximately 600 books, as well as periodicals (including a complete run of his own The Northern Junket), pamphlets, dance camp syllabi, sheet music, printed musical arrangements, instructional notebooks, films, and 1,600 recordings." Around 1988, Ralph's library was donated by the Ralph Page Memorial Fund, NEFFA, to the Special Collections, Dimond Library, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire.

Among Ralph's publications are

• An Elegant Collection of Contras and Squares, 153pp, Denver, Colorado, Lloyd Shaw Foundation, 1984.
• Contras: As Ralph Page Called Them. Roger C. Knox, ed and compl., Ithaca, NY: Self published, 1990.
• The Country Dance Book, with Beth Tolman, 1937. Articles appearing between 1935 and 1937 (reissued 1976).
• Heritage Dances of Early America, Colorado Springs, Colorado, The Lloyd Shaw Foundation, 1976.
• Northern Junket, contra magazine (editor).
• The Ralph Page Book of Contra Dances. London: English Folk Dance & Song Society. 1969. 23 pp.

Dances Ralph taught include Antigonish Square, Ashuelto Hornpipe, Atlantic Polka Quadrille, Banks of the Dee, Big John's Breakdown Contra, Bold Highwayman Contra, British Sorrow, Canadian Breakdown Contra, Canadian Lancers (Ontario), Cheshire Hornpipe, Chorus Jig, Christmas Hornpipe, Criss Cross Reel, The Crooked Stovepipe, Dud's Reel, Easy Does It Contra, Fiddle Hill Jig, Glover's Reel, Gone a Rovin' Contra, Grand Square, Halfway Round, Hofbrau Square, IOCA Reel, Jack's Life Contra, Kitchen Hornpipe, Lads of Kildare Contra, Lady Walpoles Reel, Lancers, Maple Leaf Jig, Maple Sugar Gal, Marching to Pretoria, Market Lass, Miss Parker's Fancy, Monadnock Reel, Money Musk, Montreal Breakthrough, Needham Reel, Nellie Gray, Newlywed's Reel, None So Pretty Contra, The Nova Scotian, Presque Isle Eight, Queen's Favorite, Queen Victoria, Reel Salle St. Andre, Rival Contra, Roger's Square, Rolling Off a Log Contra, Sackett's Harbor, Spanking Jack, St. Lawrence Jig, Star and Chain, Swing Two Ladies, Timber Salvage Reel, Tipsy Parson Contra, The Tourist, and Ways of the World.

---

SIO's Article: THE CROWD was so great that no suitable hall could be found to hold all of the people. So here they were, more than 4,000 dancers, gathered on the surface of the huge outdoor stadium taking part in the square dancing.

On the raised platform at one end of the field was the caller, a short, rather stocky individual fresh from New England. The dancers, now in long contra lines stretching far across the field, were Japanese. They understood little or no English while the caller, knowing only one or two words of Japanese, was directing them all by the use of hand motions.

At best, handling a group of this size is no simple task, but under these rather unusual circumstances this was indeed a job for one with great experience and understanding. For Ralph Page, however, this event which took place in Tokyo a few years ago, was just one more colorful highlight in a life filled with unusual square dance experiences.

Ralph started his calling career on December 6, 1930. He looks back on that night and remembers with a bit of wry humor that this first attempt was no calm and gradual introduction into the calling field. With less than an hour's warning he had been roped into calling the entire evening's program.

Calling the dances, however, turned out to be just part of the normal evolution for our New Hampshire friend. His uncle had been quite a well known prompter in his day. His father was outstanding as a fiddler and his grandfather Isaac Dunn had been a wonderful dancer and a ballad singer of wide repute. One of his grandfather's favorite dances was called Petronella and it's been said by the old timers in and around Keene, New Hampshire, that when the music stopped for that particular dance Ike Dunn was always three feet off the floor!

And so it was that Ralph moved into calling naturally, having learned to dance as a youngster in the kitchen junkets that are a normal part of New England living.

Back in the early 1930's a lady by the name of Beth Tolman who was then assistant editor of the Yankee Magazine suggested that Ralph write a series of monthly articles on square dancing in the New England area for the magazine.

The success of these articles prompted the owner of The Countryman Press, to sign up both Miss Tolman and Ralph for a book based on the articles. In 1937 the first of five printings of The Country Dance Book* came off the press. (*The Country Dance Book, Beth Tolman and Ralph Page, The Countryman Press, Inc., Weston, Vermont.)

This book more than any other volume we've run across paints a most complete, human and humorous picture of early American square dancing as it affected folks in the New England states.

"New England," Ralph wrote in the book, "is one of the oldest corners of our country. It is compact, integrated and, comparatively speaking, it loves its traditions. Here is a coast settlement that has experienced a constant injection of lusty immigrants fresh from dancing on their own village greens. If ever a people were given a chance to be born and bred in the purple of their dances, the Yanks were those people. As babies they were often lulled to rest to the measures of Speed The Plow or Smash The Window, and often they were carried to an assembly or junket where they were cradled in communal beds made from benches, seat to seat arrangement. Way before they were out of their swaddling clouts, then, these kids must have understood what was what on the dance floor. Then at an early age they began doing the dances themselves; later the stern dancing masters polished their steps and taught them how to 'make manners' on the dance floor. What a foundation!"

Ralph's knowledge of background went past our Civil War period of one hundred years ago —a period in which this type of dancing was in full swing—back even to the first early days in America's history.

"During the Revolutionary years everybody danced, including the minister, who found his place in the community via an Ordination Ball rather than by any such dour celebrations as are common today. As a minister, he was judged less by his pulpit pratings than by his ability to . . . handle a difficult figure. The officers in both the English troops and the Colonials were so crazy about dancing that some say, if you listen hard enough, the hills of New England will give forth a faint echo of Lord Howe's Revels, or perhaps let go a few strains of Washington's favorite, Sir Roger de Coverly."

To say that Ralph is devoted to his dancing is indeed a major understatement. As a full time professional caller and teacher since 1938 he has kept a regular home program of dancing going steadily for the past 25 years. One of our fond memories is of several days spent with the Page family in Keene, New Hampshire, a few years ago. We just followed along as Ralph 'tended to his classes in the local school and joined in while he conducted his large open dance at the Boston Y. We remember being initiated into the proper New Hampshire method of eating punkin (never pumpkin) pie and being given the facts of life concerning true New England boiled dinners.

Indeed Ralph Page is one of the living legends of this ever changing square dance world. Though we may not all get a chance to "formon" for one of his contras or kick up our heels in true Yankee fashion for one of his quadrilles, perhaps we can at least get an occasional opportunity to sit down with a copy of Northern Junket**, a homespun square dance magazine Ralph has edited for thousands of years, and get a genuine chuckle from this almanac of American dancing folklore.

(**Northern Junket, 182 Pearl St., Keene, New Hampshire, $2.50 a year.)

To Ralph Page, whose likeness fills our front cover this month, we pay special tribute and to him we dedicate this issue of Sets in Order.