Square Dancing Standard and Experimental Guidelines
A flood of new calls in the early 1970s led a group called Square Dance Systems to publish a catalogue of calls, an attempt to bring order to an increasingly-complex universe of new figures. Square Dance Systems was Lester Keddy, Arthur Ballard, and John Hendron. This effort came before the establishment of CALLERLAB.
In this item, we include the first and last versions of their lists.
from the introduction to the first version:
We have reached a point in the history of square dance choreography where we have over two thousand terms listed in Bill Burleson's Encyclopedia and they are continually being added at the rate of over two hundred per year. (1075 in the last five years) This trend shows no signs of tapering off in the near future. As a matter of interest there were only about five hundred in the mid sixties. It seems logical therefore, to assume that the time has come for some workable guidelines to be established for use by callers, clubs and dancers at all levels.
Dancers can't be expected to assimilate more than a very small percentage of the new material that becomes available each year and unless there is more coordination between callers and clubs it will be increasingly difficult for the dancers to know where they stand. With weekends and festivals becoming increasingly expensive the time has come when it is no longer feasible for the dancers to buy a ''pig in the poke'' so to speak. Dancers should know what level or levels are to be expected and thus be aware of what material in the form of primaries, set ups and variables will be used. Vague descriptions like ''fun level'" ''East Podunk level'' or Skyrocket level are of no help. It makes no sense to spend $200.00 for a weekend and then be bored or get bombed. It isn't all that difficult to set guidelines that are restrictive to a degree and yet are flexible enough for the most independent caller or club.
To the above end we have established a system which will act as a common base to start from. ...
Subjects: Modern Western 1960 - 1974
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A flood of new calls in the early 1970s led a group called Square Dance Systems to publish a catalogue of calls, an attempt to bring order to an increasingly-complex universe of new figures. Square Dance Systems was Lester Keddy, Arthur Ballard, and John Hendron. This effort came before the establishment of CALLERLAB.
In this item, we include the first and last versions of their lists.
from the introduction to the first version:
We have reached a point in the history of square dance choreography where we have over two thousand terms listed in Bill Burleson's Encyclopedia and they are continually being added at the rate of over two hundred per year. (1075 in the last five years) This trend shows no signs of tapering off in the near future. As a matter of interest there were only about five hundred in the mid sixties. It seems logical therefore, to assume that the time has come for some workable guidelines to be established for use by callers, clubs and dancers at all levels.
Dancers can't be expected to assimilate more than a very small percentage of the new material that becomes available each year and unless there is more coordination between callers and clubs it will be increasingly difficult for the dancers to know where they stand. With weekends and festivals becoming increasingly expensive the time has come when it is no longer feasible for the dancers to buy a ''pig in the poke'' so to speak. Dancers should know what level or levels are to be expected and thus be aware of what material in the form of primaries, set ups and variables will be used. Vague descriptions like ''fun level'" ''East Podunk level'' or Skyrocket level are of no help. It makes no sense to spend $200.00 for a weekend and then be bored or get bombed. It isn't all that difficult to set guidelines that are restrictive to a degree and yet are flexible enough for the most independent caller or club.
To the above end we have established a system which will act as a common base to start from. ...