CALLERLAB KnowledgeBase

Tech Squares is a club that operates at MIT. An interesting fact about this club is that their lesson-set is actually offered by MIT as a Physical Education credit. Part ... Read More

This 178 page book presents a Step By Step Process For Calling And Teaching Modern Western Square Dances. if you've ever thought you might like to be a square dance ... Read More

Jeff Priest has produced an outstanding set of books to assist callers teaching in the Basic through Plus programs. These books contain singing call figures which each feature only one ... Read More

Thanks to Kurt Gollhardt for producing this single page that alphabetically lists the calls used in the Sustainable Square Dance experimental lesson system. The sheet highlights the calls from the ... Read More

North Shore Squares is a new club that dances in Evanston, ILL. Despite only being active for 18 months or so they already boast 55 members. They elected to use ... Read More

In order to design choreography callers must have an intimate knowledge of the characteristics of each call they use. The purpose of a Call Analysis Sheet is to provide a ... Read More

IDEA: Recruiting new callers: Once a year in our area, a club in our area has an "amateur callers night". It is announced a few months in advance. Criteria is ... Read More

IDEA: One of the most difficult parts of learning to call is finding opportunities to practice with live dancers. Today's computer technologies could compensate for some of that by providing ... 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

This square dance marketing plan has been developed by CALLERLAB members in support of our mission: “To foster the art of square dance calling, and improve caller skills.” Just like ... Read More

DOCUMENT: This document was prepared by the Caller Training Committee to assist those callers who are mentoring newer callers ... Read More

This site contains a tool that allows viewers to watch an animation of a call being performed, often from a variety of starting formations. It provides an excellent educational tool ... 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 summary article from Julian Pritchard describes the various teaching and dancing recordings their group has been using to learn and to dance in the absence of a live caller ... 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

For many years, as a lead-in to the main convention, CALLERLAB has hosted a 1-1/2 day seminar focusing on how to call square dance parties for non-dancers. CALLERLAB has posted ... 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 summary points to the primary program-related documents that have been officially published by CALLERLAB. This includes program lists, call definitions, timing charts, lesson checklists, teaching tips, formation charts, standard ... Read More

The CALLERLAB Information category contains articles with information about CALLERLAB. For example, information about the Board of Governors, Home Office staff, conventions, and CALLERLAB history. Of course, CALLERLAB generates a ... Read More

This 79-page caller text was written in 1966 by Jim Mayo, a square dance calling icon and a founding father of CALLERLAB. Despite its original publication date, this is not ... Read More

Callarama is a “checker mover” program to help callers work out choreography by showing animated figures moving in response to calls entered by the caller. Callarama has defined the standard ... Read More

The Sustainable Square Dance system is designed to create a 50 call entry program that can be taught quickly, roughly 12 weeks, and yet serve as a realistic destination program ... Read More

Each card has the name of the call on one side and a dancer-friendly description of the call on the other. These sets of cards can be distributed to dancers ... Read More

Bruce Holmes, who is the caller for North Shore Squares in Evanston, ILL, has created sets of flash cards for calls on the Plus list. One set contains calls from ... Read More

This summary article contains a table (see below) that points to a number of media articles about square dancing or people involved in square dancing. They frequently contain information useful ... 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

Kip Garvey presents the principles of calling current day square dance for readers interested in understanding underlying concepts and technique with emphasis on the technical aspects of choreography. This deep ... 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

This newsletter article from a new caller describes what it's like trying to learn to call, and what support and resources would be useful to a new caller ... Read More

This article from Paul Cote provides an overview of what is involved in becoming a caller. If you're thinking about learning to call, this article will give you some insight ... Read More

The Choreographic Applications Committee has created this resource site to assist those who are teaching square dancers. Its intent is to collect in one place all the information about each ... Read More

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

North Shore Squares dances in Evanston, ILL and has been using the Sustainable Square Dance (also known as SSD and Club 50) teaching list as their intake level. To help ... Read More

Bruce Holmes, who is the caller for North Shore Squares in Evanston, ILL, has created sets of flash cards for calls on the MS list that are not included in ... Read More

When Bruce Holmes was learning to call, he had no luck finding a textbook to help him through the process. Now that he is a caller, he has written the ... Read More

There are some differences in culture and customs between straight and gay square dance groups. Callers who have never called for a gay group before often have questions about what ... Read More

The linked PDF contains 2 articles from the March 2019 edition of the GCA Callsheet. The first, by Barry Clasper, describes the benefits of being a participant in CALLERLAB, and ... 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

This promotional video was produced in 2019. It shows an attractive collage of slides depicting dancers having fun over a soundtrack of Dan Nordbye doing a singing call ... Read More

Newer callers or people wondering what might be involved in learning to call are interested in what kind of educational material might be available. This article summarizes available caller training ... 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

CallerToolBox is a Windows program callers can use to organize their choreography and make it easy to find sequences for specific purposes. Callers can enter their singing call figures, modules, ... Read More

The following table is a register of documents that CALLERLAB has published for external distribution and usage. Each table column can be sorted by clicking on the up/down chevrons in ... Read More

This document was produced by a CALLERLAB Ad Hoc committee to provide guidance to callers who would like to call for children in a school environment. It was assembled by ... Read More

Before the days of computers callers would write or work through choreography using "checkers" or "dolls". The checkers were usually colored pieces of plastic to represent the 8 dancers. The ... 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

This book is an authorized biography of a true square dance legend: Marshall Flippo ... Read More

Useful resource for all callers that includes singing call figures, modules, articles on sight calling, and other miscellaneous information on learning to call ... Read More

Those who are considering use of the Social Square Dance (SSD) system usually have many questions about how it works, the best way to implement it, and the issues they ... Read More

This paper by Paul Hartman appeared in American Square Dance magazine in 1974. It describes how square dancing evolved to become what we now call Modern Western Square Dancing during ... Read More

The Metropolitan Chicago Association of Square Dancers (MCASD) hosts a "toolbox" page that lists a variety of items that are useful for promoting square dancing and recruiting new dancers. They ... Read More