[Callers] Calling to a square dance crowd

[Aahz Maruch via Callers]

Mostly violent agreement with Chris with a few tweaks, expansions, and
corrections:

On Sun, Feb 21, 2016, Chris Page via Callers wrote:
> 
> -Many people will likely keep the same partner throughout the evening.

This varies a lot depending on what kind of club it is.  

> -The expected flow of the evening is very different -- typically they're
> used to doing two dances with the same partner of about 6-10 (?) minutes,
> and then a rest break. Potentially involving snacks. Rinse and repeat.

It's not really two dances, not the way MWSD people think about it.  A
"tip" (a single dance) is broken up into two chunks with two different
pieces of music.  The first part (patter) is typically a more steady
piece of music, with an emphasis on choregraphy.  That lasts anywhere
from six to twelve minutes, usually about eight.

The second part is a "singing call" that is based on a piece of popular
or traditional music (my repertoire includes "All About That Bass",
"Ain't Misbehavin'", "Do Wah Diddy", and "A Friend Like Me" from
Aladdin).  The command words for the square dance are mixed in with the
words from the original song, but the music is almost always redone for
square dancing and will sound at least a bit weird.  A singing call lasts
about four minutes and is generally progressive (moving the "ladies"
around the square -- and yes, MWSD is more gendered than contra).

Between the two parts of a tip, a square usually rotates a quarter
clockwise ("Stir The Bucket"); often these days the caller uses a tricky
bit of choreography to reotate the dancers.

I actually use two different pieces of patter music here (because they
wanted a longer-than-usual tip at 15 minutes), but otherwise this shows
a newbie caller doing an okay job of introducing square dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFBy1EGmnic

Some clubs have music during the break, usually a line dance or a round
dance (or just incidental music):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_dance

> -Be very careful about too much consecutive clockwise motion.

Very yes.  R&L Thru, Ladies Chain, and Star Left are your friends here.

> -They're really not used to hearing the phrase of the music.

Really really not used to it -- even the ones who can manage line dancing
and/or couple dancing.
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