Call what you know. Whatever square dance YOU know (regardless of whether the dancers know it) will be one you can teach, and one you can help dancers figure out as you call it. Do something relatively simple - and use a very simple break figure. Even circle left, right, into center and back for the break is fine. If you are used to calling contra dances, then you might start with a New England style square, since it is timed just like a contra dance and repeats in the same way (the same moves go with the same music - but the dance is usually more than one time through the tune.) I don't call any of those so I'll leave that to others to explain.

If you're accustomed to dances that just go to beats of music and not phrases - like MWSD for example - then you might be comfortable calling a southern-style square dance. Those can be done in sets of four couples or in large circles. When done in a large circle, the pattern is "do something with the entire circle - break into sets of four and do the figure - do that again with another set of four - and again - and again.... - end with the big set again. (Note: this is NOT a "KY running set" - The so-called "running set" is a four-couple dance.) In a four-couple southern square, the pattern is break-fig-break-fig-break-fig-break-fig-break, with each couple leading the figure once.

The best way to figure out what you want to call is to figure out what you want to dance, I think. What's standard one place is new to other folks, so I can't guess what would be standard where you are... but that would be a good choice!

Nancy

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 11:44 PM JD Erskine island.dance@shaw.ca [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hullo All,

I've been enjoying the "auto pilot" thread.

I loved Bob's "(Of course everybody knows this dance)" which I had to
grin at. I don't. Now I'll look for it now as it appears to be a
standard, somewhere.

The picture here -- Aside from Cumberland Square Eight and some dances
which occur in the ECD evenings in my "village" and area (like La Russe,
Heidenroslein, and Newcastle), I've yet to break into calling squares. I
have/had an opportunity to step into a MWSD callers workshop series,
however while challenging, it doesn't seem a fit to my interests or
needs. (I'm not in a club, and will likely not have an opportunity to
call in that form.)

Why am I interested? These trad./named dances exist, they're fun, and
few call them in these parts. I'd like to include them in
evenings/events that welcome them, and there is a geographically
near-enough monthly series of traditional square dances where a few
folks know how/what to call that I've been asked to participate in.

Any tips or suggestions of how to begin calling such dances, what
technique to learn first, and perhaps which basic dances go over well?

As I dance or call/lead a variety of dances/dance forms I'd suspect
formations or whole set dances aren't the issue. I suppose basic points
on comparisons of similarity or major differences to barn/community,
eCeilidh, ECD, SCD, "ACD" (Contra), Scottish ceilidh, etc. might be a
quick path to understanding, relaxing with this.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Cheers, John
--
J.D. Erskine
Victoria, BC