How to call square dancing
Square Dance Call List - Dudes & Dolls Square Dance Club
The following 68 moves comprise parts A and B of the Basic Program and the Mainstream Program.
| Basic Program - Part A 1. Circle Left / Circle Right | Basic Program - Part B 31. Wheel Around |
Wrong Way Thar | Mainstream Program 52. Cloverleaf |
Single Hinge / Couples Hinge Becoming A Square Dance Caller 3rd Edition (Book) – CALLERLAB KnowledgeBase
Book Table Of Contents Why I Wrote This Book .................... 5
The Plan ..................... 6
The Circle Before The Square ................. 8
Into The Square ....................... 12
Remembering The People In Your Square .............. 13
Modules ......................... 13
Equivalents ................... 14
Flow ....................... 15
Sight Calling Light ............... 18
More Modules ....................... 19
The Loop .
...................... 21
Moving Around The Square ................... 24
Your First Sequence ............... 28
Technical & Fractional Zeros ............... 29
Doppelgängers ............... 30
Partner Lines ................... 31
Converting From Boxes To Lines And Back Again ......... 34
Building Your Library .................... 36
Set Sequences ....................... 39
Standard Applications ................... 41
Module calling versus Sight Calling, Part II ............... 43
How To Resolve ............... 44
Don’t Always Use An Allemande Left ................ 45
FASR ................. 46
sequence Practice ............... 47
Easy Calls Resolve ................... 49
First Objective, Get Everyone Into Lines Facing In ................. 49
Next Objective: Pair Up Your Primary Couple version 1 ............... 50
Final Objective: Resolve ...................... 52
When All The Couples Are Paired Up .
.............. 53
When The Secondary Couple Is Not Paired Up ............... 55
Easy Calls Resolve Summarized ................ 58
Pairing Up Your Primary Couple version 2 ................ 59
Classic Resolve ............... 61
Grand Resolve ................ 64
Get-Ins ...................... 68
To Corner Box ....................... 68
To Partner Lines .................. 71
Non-Standard Crossfire Get-Ins ................ 73
Get-Outs ................... 75
Resolves From Partner Lines ..................... 75
Resolves From Ocean Waves ............. 77
Resolving Using Folds ................. 79
Partner Lines to an Allemande Left .................. 81
Resolves From Corner Box ................. 82
You're Home From Corner Box .................. 85
Little Pieces of the Puzzle ............. 87
Advanced Grand Resolve .............. 89
Getting To Partner Lines When The Couples Aren't Paired .
........ 91
Box Resolves – Couples Facing Couples ........... 92
The Grand Resolve Summarized ............... 95
Home Resolves ............... 97
Primary Couple Home Resolves ................ 99
Moving to a Quadrant .............. 102
The Tools At Hand ..................... 104
Sweep ¼ to Home Get-Outs ..................... 105
From Partner Lines to Sweep ¼ ............. 111
Cool Endings ................. 112
Flip The Diamond ...................... 112
Using Scoot Back & Box The Gnat ................... 112
Spin Chain Thru ................ 113
Chase Right ................ 113
Follow Your Neighbor .............. 116
Half Tag ....................... 117
In Praise Of Sight Calling, Part LXLVII .............. 118
What Makes For Good Calling? .................. 119
Being A Delightful Host .................... 120
When Teaching, Kindness Is Everything .
.............. 120
Microphones ...................... 121
Confidence ................. 121
When You Mess Up ................... 122
Music For Patter ................... 123
Modifying The BPM .................. 124
Stringing Songs Together ................ 124
Singing Calls ................. 125
Getting The Verse Sequence To Work ........... 126
Putting A Singing Call Together ............. 127
Singing ........................ 130
Getting Started In Calling ................... 131
Equipment ..................... 132
Intro Parties ................. 135
The Talk ................ 138
Lessons .................. 140
Why I Use Club50/SSD ...................... 141
The Forgotten Calls .................. 143
Fixing Half-Out Squares ................... 144
Filling Out Squares ................... 145
Rectangles ..................... 145
Getting Up To Call .
............... 150
Conventions .................. 151
Games Callers Play .............. 153
Callerlab Definitions .................... 154
Lists ........................ 155
Equivalents ................ 155
Corner Box Get-Ins ................... 156
Alternatives to Allemande Left from a Corner Box ............. 157
Partner Line Get-Ins ................. 158
Partner Line Get-Outs .............. 159
A-Box Get-Outs .................. 161
D-Box Get-Outs .................. 161
Box To Line Conversions ................. 162
Chicken Pluckers ....................... 163
Get-Outs To Home ..................... 163
Resources ....................... 165
Callerlab ................ 168
FASR ........................ 169
Formations .................... 170
Eight Chain Thru ............... 171
Facing Lines (Lines Facing In) ................. 172
Lines Facing Out .
.............. 173
Trade By ..................... 174
Double Pass Thru ...................... 175
Completed Double Pass Thru .................. 175
Parallel Two-Faced Lines ................ 176
Parallel Ocean Waves .............. 177
Columns (Right or Left) .................... 178
Z Formations (Left & Right) ..................... 178
Fractional Tags ................. 179
Point To Point Diamonds ................. 180
Facing Point To Point Diamonds ............ 180
Tidal Wave ................. 181
Tidal Two-Faced Line .............. 181
Arrangement ................ 182
Half Sashayed Solutions ................... 182
Waves ................. 183
How Circulates Change Arrangement ........... 185
Diamonds ................... 185
Sequence ........................ 186
Alternative Resolve Methods .............. 187
Mental Image .
.................... 187
CRaMS ......................... 187
Call List .................. 188
is a lively, fast dance. Varieties of square dances
Some dances of world culture, having acquired certain distinctive features, have become widespread not only in their homeland, but also beyond its borders. These include the square dance - a pair dance, which was once a salon and eventually spread among the people.
Certain changes have taken place today in the movements and in the manner of performance, but the main compositional features of this original historical dance have survived to this day.
History of dance
Few people know that quadrille is a French dance. But there is another version, according to which it originally arose at the end of the 17th century in England and had the name "country dance". This is a dance that originated among the peasantry. There is another opinion about the origin of the name. Its essence is that the performers are located opposite each other, and the word “contre” is translated from French as “against”.
It became especially popular in the performance of several couples in France, and the name "quadrille" was given to it.
The dance became very popular over the decades and appeared in almost all European territory, including Russia, where it began to be widely spread in the 19th century. Finding itself in an unusual atmosphere, the French quadrille absorbed real Russian traditions. Some differences were also noted depending on the geography of distribution: in various regions, this magnificent dance was given movements that were characteristic only of local traditions. For example, in some regions, kisses are present during its performance.
The quadrille is a dance that was performed even at the assemblies of Peter I at the beginning of the 18th century.
Having conquered the visitors of the higher salons and the spectators of the dance halls, the square dance quickly began to spread among the common people and turned into one of the favorite dances.
Old figures began to be processed, changed, and new ones began to appear.
All these changes provided this truly folk dance with a long life.
The history of the origin of the name
The name of the dance "quadrille" clearly has common roots with the French "quadrille", with the Spanish "cuadrilla" and with the Latin "quadrum". In this regard, doubts arise about the country in which this dance originated.
Nevertheless, historical sources confirm the origin of the French, originally as a ballroom dance, formed from the English country dance. The latter was danced by peasants in England as early as the 17th century, and the quadrille itself had already spread to France, and then to other European countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Description
Quadrille is a lively, fast dance. Previously, couples were located opposite each other, in a quadrangle, and alternately performed their parts. Moreover, the dance consisted of five figures, which always ended with a common movement of all couples.
Despite the complexity of the figures, the movements were ideally practiced and brought to perfection by the salon dancers.
The quadrille has changed a lot over time, and the names of the movements, many of which have disappeared, have simply been replaced with numbers. Some movements have been simplified.
Types of square dance and their features
Folk square dance is a dance that has many varieties: Russian and Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Estonian, Belarusian and even American. All of them are distinguished by diversity and originality.
There may also be local variations. For example, a Russian quadrille can be called Ural, Moscow and Volga.
Ukrainian quadrille is composed of many figures, reaching 12 in number.
The Belarusian quadrille is a complex of simplicity with a variety of constructions. The total number of figures is from 4 to 12. A distinctive feature in the Belarusian quadrille is the inclusion of a solo, either separately or in pairs.
Russian version of quadrille
It should be noted that the genre of ditties that appeared later was quite closely intertwined with this cheerful dance.
What does it look like? Performers during the dance can sing ditties in any order: all together, singly or in pairs. Often the quadrille is performed to many well-known songs.
Russian square dance is a dance that has a feature associated with an increase in the number of dancing couples and the fact that in some elements a dance appeared and each successive figure is separated from the previous movement by stopping the movement simultaneously with the music.
Russian quadrille presents the following three groups according to the form of its construction: angular or square, two-row or linear and circular.
Russian folk dance quadrille has several figures with their own names: a passage, an asterisk, an acquaintance, a gate, etc. They are either announced as the leader, or a sign for their performance is given with a stomp or a handkerchief.
Due to the combination of amazing arrogance with simplicity, the square dance has firmly established itself in the culture and life of the Russian people.
This dance has absorbed many national traditions. Thanks to this, he has changed a lot, compared with his original form - a quadrille from France.
Ballroom quadrille "I don't know you, but I'll dance you"
About the American tradition of ballroom quadrille
a well-defined dance with a well-known sequence of figures. The most popular of all is the French Quadrille. It is under her figures that composers write music, they study it in dance schools and often perform it at balls. Lansier breathes down her back, just behind the Caledonians, Prince Imperial and some others.
New quadrilles are composed, and they either become fashionable, famous and continue to be danced, or quickly fade away. Indeed, without the ability to record an instructional video and quickly distribute it via the Internet, new dances can only be transmitted by personal example or on paper - through letters or music books. In some provincial town, a new square dance (or a new square dance, in Russian this word was originally masculine) might not have been played at the ball, even with notes - if eight people were not going to dance it.
Distributors of square dance in the USA used their own way. There were few large cities, communications and transport were imperfect, and distances were great. Therefore, few square dances could become known throughout the territory (in addition, divided into North and South by culture and economic structure) so that in each city they knew the sequence of figures and could perform it.
In any city, they were glad to see a professional group of musicians who would play new and popular melodies at the ball, and many such “bands” traveled around the States, but if you play a square dance at the ball, then which one? How long are the couplets used to dance here? Do the locals have something of their own under the familiar name? Moreover, not all musicians were literate in music, and as a rule, no one could immediately understand the explanation “Play eight measures of the introduction, then repeat the first sixteen measures twice, and the second three times”.
Quite unexpected was found.
Quadrilles, that is, sequences of figures, began to be distributed by the musicians themselves. A man leading a quadrille appeared. In small traveling ensembles, his role was usually played by the leader (or the person with the loudest voice), and in large cities there could be their own leaders who agreed with the musicians which notes to play and how many times. Usually these same people also became ball stewards: they announced new dances, led the lost dancers out of the cotillions and helped to find a couple.
The host knew the number of measures in the quadrille verse and had a pre-prepared sequence of figures for these verses. While the musicians were playing, he loudly announced each next figure, trying to do it at the moment when the piece of music intended for it would come. At the same time, people going out to dance a quadrille usually did not know in advance what awaited them, the sequence of figures was known in advance only to the host. Dance teachers of that time complained that it was impossible to teach people how to dance a particular square dance, because there would still be something different at the ball.
In one textbook of 1848, the author specially cites sequences of figures of ever-increasing complexity invented by him, suitable for training.
The profession of presenter (called "caller" or "prompter") itself became very popular by the end of the 19th century. By this time in the USA there were already a lot of published tutorials for presenters or just pocket collections of various sequences of square dance figures. There were also tutorials, including very cheap ones, of poor print quality, but available to anyone.
To announce a figure, it was necessary to say who is performing it (one person, a couple, two facing each other, and so on), then name the figure itself. If several figures in a row were performed by the same people, then usually the dancers were called only once, but then, according to the tradition of building quadrilles, the rest also had to perform the same figures (so that everyone could dance in turn), and for them the figures were announced more once.
