Another “must have” for callers interested in contra-style squares is Calling Traditional New England Squares by Ted Sannella (CDSS, 2005). Ted was a triple threat: caller, choreographer, and mentor to many budding callers from the 1950s until his passing in 1995. The booklet comes with a CD of Ted calling 14 different squares with improvised breaks, including two versions of his signature Merry-Go-Round. The text contains a clear, concise explanation of how a prompted square is constructed and an extensive discussion of breaks, with more than 80 examples. There are transcriptions of the Merry-Go-Round recordings, but not of the other squares, most of which are treated fully in Ted’s other books, Balance and Swing (CDSS, 1982) and Swing the Next (CDSS, 1996).

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.

www.hands4.com

New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century

(available now)

From: Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2023 12:21 PM
To: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Starting to call squares at contra dances

After dancing to some of Lisa's Greenleaf's 🔥 squares at Beantown Stomp last weekend, I'm feeling inspired to add some to my repertoire. (To be clear, I'm looking for squares-for-contra-dancers, not MWSD squares.)

1. Any resources to recommend for someone learning to call squares?
2. Any advice to share, techniques to look into, things you wish you'd known when starting out / wish contra callers knew about squares?
3. Suggestions for callers to look up on YouTube (besides Lisa ofc) / fave videos?
4. Favorite dances that I should add to my box?

Thanks in advance,

Maia

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Maia McCormick (she/her)

917.279.8194