Clark Baker - MWSD & music

Many traditional square dancers look at videos of MWSD and see a lot of stop-and-go rather than continuous motion; this is often termed "puzzle solving set to music." Clark reminds the viewer that in MWSD, the dancers don't know what calls are coming next, but that in Mainstream and Plus, with a good caller providing calls several beats ahead of time, dancers are able to move in a non-stop motion. As dancers move into Advanced and Challenge, the calls become more complex and longer—a caller might say "Split phantom lines trapezoid right and left through and the boys roll – go!"—there will inevitably be lag time when dancers are waiting to hear all the information and then process it.

The Related Item was created specifically for the Square Dance History Project by Vic Ceder. In it, dancers work their way through all the different programs of MWSD, though in a scrambled order. When the dancers reach a hard C4 tip, you see the style of dancing noticeably change to the stop-and-go that Clark describes.