According to Betty Casey, author of Dance Across Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985),

"Texas dances are a living bit of the colorful days of the old west. Beaten out by trial and error in the crude forge of happenstance, they are fashioned from fragments of dances brought as part of the cultural baggage of early settlers from many places.” (p. 7)

In Texas’s brash and adventuresome era, invitations to large formal dances included a Dance card with a numbered list of the dances to be offered on the program. A lady’s escort would mark several dances on her card for himself. Then he would get other men to sign up for the remaining dances, at the same time marking their own cards beside corresponding numbers and thus committing themselves to "having the pleasure of each other’s company for that dance.” (p.12-13)

The dance card has been a tradition at our Cowboy Christmas Ball since our inaugural ball at Dube Hall on Saturday, December 17, 1993. Although most of the dancing now is open, a portion of the evening is still dedicated to carrying on the tradition of the DANCE CARD so that we may enjoy each other’s company for the pleasure of that dance!