I'm just going to spit-ball some names, without much belief that these'll become popular:

Syncretist squares (combines from multiple traditions)

Eclectic squares (similarly in crossing boundaries)

Walk-right-in squares ('cause I really want to say "no-lesson squares" but defining things by the absence of aspects of other things is bad news)

New Tradition Squares (because it's coming back to tradition but without the mustiness; if "Modern" weren't already in use we'd want it, "Post-Modern" would just be confusing)

Community Fun Squares

Old-Time Revival Squares (following the degree to which the interest in old-timey music among youth seems to have preceded and precipitated the square dance movement)

Party Squares

-- Alan

On 8/11/2016 6:04 AM, Tony Parkes tony@hands4.com [trad-dance-callers] wrote:

John Freeman wrote:

<<How about we just call it square dancing and not worry about a made up generic name.>>

Sherri Nevins wrote:

<<I think a fresh term could be very helpful.>>

Great! This is exactly the kind of exchange I was hoping to encourage.

My heart says we should just call it square dancing, whereas my head says that if one is going to discuss something, it can help to define ones terms. The main problem with calling it square dancing is that a sizable number, perhaps a majority, of modern western square dance people have appropriated that name for themselves. Over and over again I hear them refer to themselves as square dancers and their activity as square dancing, usually with a little extra emphasis on square, whereas they refer to any other kind of SD as traditional dance or heritage dance (never with the word square) or as part of contra. Id ignore this if we werent trying to foster improved dialogue between the camps.

(Historical note: In 1969, Bob Osgood of Sets in Order and some of his colleagues attempted to create a form of SD that would appeal to many more people than the then-current version of modern western, which required 30 or more lessons to learn. After much discussion, they came up with a list of calls that essentially re-created traditional SD knowing full well that that was what they were doing. There were 50 calls, with a suggested class length of 10 lessons; the only non-traditional calls were Allemande Thar, Square Thru, and Star Thru. The next step was to agree on a name. Reportedly there was much wrangling; Id love to know what names were proposed and rejected. According to Osgood, the committee finally decided that the new program should be referred to simply as square dancing, presumably with the hope that more complex programs would then need qualifying adjectives. It didnt work out in quite the way they had hoped: they released it as the Basic Program of American Square Dancing, and everyone since then has referred to it as Basic. It didnt find its audience, either: instead of capturing a multitude of people who wouldnt otherwise have touched SD, it was used only as a stepping stone to higher levels. Few if any clubs worldwide dance solely the Basic program.)

If no one suggests a name thats acceptable to everyone, Im OK with that. But it would be handy to have one or two words to identify this emerging style in discussion, to distinguish it from the various traditional styles that contributed to it and from M W SD.

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.