Les Gotcher's Text Book for Square Dance Callers
One of the leading callers in promoting the use of sight calling, Les Gotcher went his own way as modern square dance developed. Frequently described as "The Hash Master," Gotcher was not part of the group of callers influenced by Lloyd Shaw and actively promoted by Bob Osgood and his colleagues at Sets in Order magazine.
Gotcher's handbook is a technical manual, starting with the structure of a square and the different positions: "I will start with the beginning of it all, and will then move into the more involved sequences. I will take each and every position and each and every set-up and break them down completely. I will start with a Static position and move you slowly through each position that you can get the dancers into, and work each position with each lady in the square so that you will have an answer to any and ail problems as they come up." He states his intention to cover sequence, timing, voice control, calling key, and types of records to use.
It's interesting to compare Gotcher's focus with that of California caller Ed Gilmore. Gilmore starts with a more philosophic approach, looking at qualities needed to be a caller, the historical background of square dance, and so on.
We are grateful to Wendy Taheri, Gotcher's granddaughter, for giving the Square Dance History Project permission to include his book on this site. As she wrote, "I'm sure he would be thrilled to be remembered professionally."
Subjects: Modern Western 1960 - 1974
Tags: handbook, instruction, Les Gotcher, syllabus
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Sight Calling - Les Gotcher |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Patter - Les Gotcher |
| This Item | is related to | Item: I'll Swing Yours, You Swing Mine (clip) - Les Gotcher |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Les Gotcher - record albums |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Forward Eight and Chain Around (clip) - Les Gotcher |
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Gotcher's handbook is a technical manual, starting with the structure of a square and the different positions: "I will start with the beginning of it all, and will then move into the more involved sequences. I will take each and every position and each and every set-up and break them down completely. I will start with a Static position and move you slowly through each position that you can get the dancers into, and work each position with each lady in the square so that you will have an answer to any and ail problems as they come up." He states his intention to cover sequence, timing, voice control, calling key, and types of records to use.
It's interesting to compare Gotcher's focus with that of California caller Ed Gilmore. Gilmore starts with a more philosophic approach, looking at qualities needed to be a caller, the historical background of square dance, and so on.
We are grateful to Wendy Taheri, Gotcher's granddaughter, for giving the Square Dance History Project permission to include his book on this site. As she wrote, "I'm sure he would be thrilled to be remembered professionally."