Kip Garvey began calling as a teenager in 1960. Initially he was club Caller
for a teen square dance club in Andover, Massachusetts. He soon began
calling for many local New England square dance clubs. Calling for several
teen and adult clubs over the years, Kip has taught dancers every year since
1960. Kip has called in 48 States, England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Japan
and China. He has been a featured caller in nearly every major square dance
festival across the United States and was a principle Caller at the World
Square Dance Convention for several years.
Kip was a recording artist for several different square dance labels,
beginning with
J-Bar-K and including
Thunderbird Records and
Rhythm Records. In 1988
Kip began the
Eureka Records recording company and has produced many
great square dance hoedowns and singing calls throughout the years. Currently, Kip is producing music on
Eureka Recordings.
Kip joined
CALLERLAB, the
International Association of Square Dance Callers, in 1979. He was elected
to the Board of Governors for five years and served on the Executive Committee and as Vice Chairman of the
organization. He worked and chaired several committees with special focus on
dance programs and caller training. After a move to California in 1980, Kip
worked regularly with Bill Davis in development of much of the current day
technical theory regarding choreographic structure and sight calling
technique. Kip and Bill Davis were the first two test-certified CALLERLAB Caller Coaches and together conducted several caller training schools.
As one of
CALLERLAB’s first certified Caller Coaches, Kip has been
the feature lecturer at several caller schools across the country and in
Europe. He has authored several magazine articles and technical documents,
including a recently completed book on the technical aspects of square dance
choreography entitled
‘Nuts And Bolts’
and another recently completed book for newer callers entitled
'Call Me Crazy'. Kip created the first online caller training facility that went live in 2017, the
Central Sierra Caller School and is actively mentoring several local callers.
After a decade of work as a software engineer for Hewlett Packard Company,
Kip retired in 2007. He and his wife Pat moved to Pioneer, California. In September 2019, they moved to Ione, CA where
they now reside. Kip is the club caller for one of the oldest square dance clubs in
the Sierras, the
Jackson Claim Jumpers, a club founded in 1950. He travels and calls
regularly for clubs in Northern California as a guest caller.
