CALLERLAB KnowledgeBase

The Winning Ways Stories category collects stories shared by callers and dancers who have tried something out and are willing to share their experience for the benefit of others. When ... Read More

In the various square dance magazines and web sites you can read how square dance clubs and national organizations have plans for advertising square dancing, for “improving” our public image, ... Read More

Each year the CALLERLAB Convention provides two full days of education and information sessions. For many years audio recordings have been made of selected sessions, and latterly some have also ... Read More

Each year the CALLERLAB Convention provides two full days of education and information sessions. For many years audio recordings have been made of selected sessions, and latterly some have also ... Read More

This Winning Ways story from a newer caller explains how she is using the SSD program to teach new dancers ... Read More

Welcome to the CALLERLAB Square Dance KnowledgeBase Notice On February 18, CALLERLAB went live with an updated version of the main CALLERLAB website. (https://callerlab.org) The new site has been reorganized ... Read More

There are many calls for which we have well known "standard" applications, and we have even documented many of them in the Standard Applications documents. "Standard", however, does not mean ... Read More

This article summarizes several experimental approaches to teaching new dancers known to be in use at the time of writing. All of these systems are aimed at the recruiting of ... Read More

The Kittyhawk Squares are a social club that square dances and not a square dance club that socializes. We have an excellent home dance location: The Lathrem Senior Center of ... Read More

Mike suggested that they contact the local Co-operative Extension Office (4H) to see if they would be interested in sponsoring the teens as a part of 4H. Not only was ... Read More

Claudia Littlefair is the editor of the Alberta Chatter newsletter. This edition provides a wonderful compilation of a number of articles dealing with advertising, marketing, promotion, and recruiting ... Read More

The AL e MO Squares, 150 members strong, will celebrate their 25 Anniversary in May 2003. They are holding an Anniversary Dance and through personal contact, by club members, they ... Read More

The Square Benders are currently one of the larger clubs in the Milwaukee, WI area with 22 couples and 13 singles. Their 2002-2003 new dancer group has 5 couples and ... Read More

In March 2003 the Akron Area Square and Round Dance Federation sponsored a Saturday afternoon Leadership Seminar for all member clubs and clubs from the neighboring Federations. All area callers ... Read More

The Town Howlers have gained a lot of publicity for their club and square dancing through the use of their local cable TV company and the efforts of club member ... Read More

There is some good news for square dance clubs that want to grow. A solid solution is available to help any club willing to be smart and progressive. But the ... Read More

This report is from the Hubs Square dance Club in Geauga County, Ohio and their caller, Ray Miller. It concerns the Hubs and their accelerated square dance class for the ... Read More

An account of how clubs in Texas increased their membership by rethinking how they approached recruiting and lesson plans ... Read More

One of our members runs a local bed and breakfast which happens to be an old farm (Victorian farmhouse and a big old barn). At his suggestion, we’ve started having ... Read More

We received the following information from Mary Knoppe with information about a square dance video program made available to viewers on Public Access television in the Santa Clara Valley area ... Read More

During the early 1990’s, the Valley Trailers Square Dance Club of Northridge, California had lost much of its membership from earlier years. The club had also fallen on bad times ... Read More

The Gnat boxers of Wooster, Ohio have 22 members in their new dancer group for the 2002 –03 dance year. They have 4 singles, 2 men and 2 women, and ... Read More

Hard work and perseverance has paid off for the 49’ersSquare Dance Club of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There are 24 new dancers in their 2002-03 class. Their promotional efforts started in ... Read More

A number of clubs in New Zealand have had much better success than usual attracting new dancers this year. None of us are quite sure why, but we think it ... Read More

This is a report on teen dancers in Petaluma, CA as reported in the Press Democrat By Janet Parmer ... Read More

The Boomerangs is a club that is not a club. We are not a dancing club; rather we are a teaching council with multitiered classes. We exist for one purpose, ... Read More

This is a report from Eddie Harry with information about the 25th Anniversary of the Square Dance as the official State Dance of Washington. (10-01-2004) ... Read More

This report provides information from Santa Clara County, California about Teaching Square Dancing in the Classroom in a program called "Workshop for Teachers" ... Read More

This report provided Questions and Answers concerning the Square Dance Video produced by the Minnesota square dancers ... Read More

An encouraging story about a club rejuvenating itself ... Read More

We have enjoyed thirty-seven new dancers (students) for lessons this year ….. thirty-seven! Our lesson nights have ten to eleven squares, and yes, they are a bit noisy with all ... Read More

For the past six years, Hank Lutcher from Cogan Station, PA has been teaching Modern Western Square Dancing six weeks each year at the Jersey Shore School District #6 Jr ... Read More

Realizing a marketing opportunity in having the non-dancing public see a large Saturday dance, the club recently advertised their dance to the general public. Non-dancers were invited to attend at ... Read More

The Belles and Beaus of Pomeroy, Ohio had a new dancer group of 7 couples and 3 singles in 2002. Their success in recruiting was attributed to two activities. Several ... Read More

An account of how Broken Wheel Squares revitalized their club by using theme nights and rejigging how they communicated and organized ... Read More

The desire for a tape to show at square dance demos, showing the fun and excitement of Square Dancing, has developed into a 15 minute Square Dancing Infomercial in Minnesota’s ... Read More

So in the fall of 2003 the club decided to try a different approach. We had heard about the accelerated lesson program at the 52nd National Square Dance Convention® and ... Read More

A report from Dennis H. Deluga about what can be done to help a club become successful. It deals with a number of areas including leadership, communication, and outreach, that ... Read More

What?...a Saturday morning square dance class? Why not! People take walks, run, ride a bike, walk the dog, or go to a gym for exercise on Saturdays. Why not learn ... Read More

At the meeting of the Central Ohio Council of Dance Clubs (COCDC) on May 4, 2009, it was announced to the council representatives that we were forming a group to ... Read More

The ALPS program that I have been using for the last several years is not original to me. It is an adaptation of a number of different concepts such as ... Read More

This report was received from Robert Hurst with a report from Don Wood regarding a New Dancer class in Washington state. The report indicates that good advertising, hard work, and ... Read More

The purpose of this article is to relate our very positive experience in early 2007 with teaching the CALLERLAB Mainstream program using the “Fast Track” (or accelerated) approach. We are ... Read More

Report from Bill and Marge Webb, Brecksville Squares. They report information of actions the club took to increase the number of new dancers in the club. Very helpful information for ... Read More

Report from Eva Murray about how over a period of years the Village Swingers is rebuilding their club through effective advertising and improved teaching programs ... Read More

Report from Dave Harry describing how combining a "no experience necessary" floor with a Mainstream dance introduced 15 squares of non-dancers to our activity ... Read More

Report from Ken Robinson describing how Rutgers Promenaders rebuilt their club after a period of decline ... Read More

Report from Don Wood describing how they revised their beginner offerings to increase their recruiting success ... Read More

This document is a compendium describing dozens of known systems for resolving squares, including both sight and module based approaches. The objective was to document as many systems as possible ... Read More

Articles in this knowledgebase are classified into several "types". A type of "Documentation" indicates that the article describes documentation such as a reference manual, book, tutorial, or webpage(s). Type "Idea" ... Read More

Report from Barbara Blencoe about how her square dance group and activity helped her rehabilitation from a stroke ... Read More

Report from Jean and Howard Lander about their success in starting up a new club in Peterborough, Ontario. The report contains much interesting information about how they advertised, promoted, and ... Read More

The 18 dances featured in this short book use only four basics. Circle Right/Left, Forward & Back, Arm Turns, Star Right/Left. These four basics are used in big circles, line ... Read More

This book covers all the bases starting with the new caller just learning how to call and on through the old hands looking for ways to expand their collection of ... Read More

This 78 page document is a detailed description of how callers can use dancer relationships as a tool for resolving squares. See the document abstract below for additional details ... Read More

An account of how using a Fast Track program helped to reinvigorate the Country Sunshiners club ... Read More

The Banff Trailers Club dance every second Saturday, and have New Dancer lessons every Monday night. Each September several New Dancers would join, but due to factors such as illness, ... Read More

For the 2014-15 square dance season, the Red Deer Square Dance Club decided to try something new and untested for introducing New Dancers to square dancing. Instead of the usual ... Read More

If you think it’s inevitable that square dancing is destined to decline, ask any member of Frontier Squares from Milford, Ohio – and they’ll offer a different opinion. Working together ... Read More

IDEA: Advertising square dance lessons by placing a sign on a lawn or a poster on a telephone pole is not new. But this new twist shows how with a ... Read More

Timberline Toppers in Colorado created a recruiting plan that they used repetitively over a period of several years resulting in a dramatic regrowth of their failing club. In 2005 they ... Read More

This is a set of CDs and guidebooks that can be used by teachers or community leaders as a user friendly resource for teaching square dancing ... Read More

Timberline Toppers is a club that has dramatically grown their membership by creating an effective plan and executing it repeatedly. One element of that plan is to use a variety ... Read More

Three years ago the Rocky Mountain House Whirlaways were struggling to hold their own. This spring they already have 2-1/2 squares signed up and paid for, for next fall, and ... Read More

How the Swinging Sugar Squares of Evergreen Park, Ill. effectively used yard signs to attract more interest in their classes ... Read More

Here is a report from Arlene M. Kaspik about the New Callers Seminar that took place during the ILLINOIS SD CONVENTION, July 30, 2016, in Itasca. We are so incredibly ... Read More

This article contains the text of a keynote address by Eric Henerlau at the 66th US National in Cincinnati in 2017. It is full of great ideas for growing square ... Read More

In 2012 the club was very close to folding due to lack of members so new club leadership took responsibility to develop a growth strategy. The result – by 2017 ... Read More

In four years the Happy Time Squares in Lawrence, Kansas, went from zero to 140 members! ... Read More

Morrison Grand Squares in Morrison, Il went from zero to 60 members in just two years. This item shows how they did it and provides details of their marketing plan ... Read More

The Town of Strathroy has a population base of about 8,500, located about 35 km west of London, ON. Including some surrounding rural areas the natural catchment area is about ... Read More

This year, Jim Langdon introduced the Rocky Mountain Recruiting Program to the Mountaineers. Although we had been doing a lot of the pieces of the program, we adopted the entire ... Read More

We Would Love To Hear From You If you have questions about this KnowledgeBase, suggestions for content, or if you are unable to find what you're looking for, please contact ... Read More

This story describes how Westsyde Squares in British Columbia used marketing savvy and well targeted advertising to recruit a large new contingent of dancers. It contains a lot of great ... Read More

El Camino Reelers in the San Francisco area was suffering a steady year-by-year decline in dancers and decided to reinvigorate their membership with a new approach to recruiting and teaching ... Read More

Jerry Junck reports on an observation from a club on Vancouver Island. Their format involved having a round between tips and they noticed that new dancers had difficulty getting into ... Read More

This is the second year that our Strathmore club, just east of Calgary, used ‘The Nest’ program for new dancers. What this method has meant for us in Strathmore is ... Read More

This story recounts the results of three years of experience with the 12-week Condensed Teaching Method (CTM) - sometimes also referred to as the Condensed Teaching Order (CTO) ... Read More

Bruce Holmes is the caller for a new club in Evanston, ILL called North Shore Squares, which at the time of this writing has been in operation for about 18 ... Read More

The Mount Baker Council in the Seattle area had good success running a “No Experience Necessary” dance in partnership with a local YMCA ... Read More

The West Coast Square Dancing site provides a great example of effective marketing of square dancing. It serves as a vehicle to promote several clubs in western British Columbia. In ... Read More

Square dancing is enjoying a surge of interest from both dancers and callers in the greater Chicago area. Clubs in Glenview, Wilmette, Evanston and Arlington Heights, as well as Chicago's North Side, will ... Read More

This summary article aggregates a great deal of material on the use of modules in square dance choreography. Modules provide a powerful mechanism for creating and presenting square dance choreography ... Read More

Barry Wonson edits an Australian caller newsletter called Behind The Mike. It consistently presents a wealth of useful information for callers and dance leaders. You can subscribe to have editions ... Read More

Dean Dederson posted a question in the Sustainable Square Dance group in Facebook. The answers provided by Barry Johnson and Joni Micals constitute an excellent Winning Ways story on using ... Read More

Hunter Keller voiced four professional radio spots to advertise his beginner classes in Montana. Their first usage generated about 25 new dancers and a second round an additional 16. Each ... Read More

Ed Foote describes the ins and outs of Dixie Grand along with a couple of pages of sequences that illustrate various ways a sight caller can use it ... Read More

This is the story of Cuesta Squares which is an LGBTQ club that dances in San Luis Obispo, CA. It is different in that it is told by a new ... Read More

This article collects in one place documentation and materials that support the use of the SSD system. Some were created by the CALLERLAB SSD Committee while others were created by ... Read More

Square Dancing is an overwhelmingly social activity. Therefore, it is essential that square dance groups create a social environment that feels welcoming, engaging, and safe. Events in recent years have ... Read More

This is the story of some people who wanted to hone their dancing skills, and formed a club to help them do it ... Read More

This story by two of SSD's most prominent practitioners goes over the rationale and usage of the system and how it has been shown to address square dancing's most prominent ... Read More

Bob & Dorothy Simpson and Darby Love, in Nanaimo, BC created a whole series of videos they titled “Dancing In The Garage”. They are aimed at people who can't assemble ... Read More

During the pandemic a long series of online seminars called the Corona Learning Assistance Seminar Series (C.L.A.S.S) was presented. One of them, delivered by Jeremy Butler, explained the planning and ... Read More

This presentation handout contains details from the education session delivered by Mike Hogan and Justin Russell on strategies for rebuilding ... Read More