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Rules for Good Patter

Beginner callers often call very ‘novel’ sequences. They are legal but they often are not ‘good’. The reason comes down to one of three things

  1. Bad flow. It forces some dancer to have to change direction suddenly
  2. Bad hand positioning. It forces some dancer to use the same hand twice in an awkward way
  3. Did not use standard applications. Many calls are only called from certain starting formations (e.g. recycle typically is only called on waves with boys on the ends). These ‘normal’ starting formations are called ‘standard applications’, and when you deviate from them it is called ‘extended applications’ or ‘dance by definition’ (DBD). Some dancers LOVE this more complex choreography, but you should know your audience and avoid extended applications unless the dance was advertised that way. You should always know that you are doing it (never by accident).

Teaching.callerlab.org is your friend

As its name suggests, the web site https://teaching.callerlab.org is meant to help in teaching square dance to new dancers. But it is also a VERY USEFUL RESOURCE for making your patter call better. At this site is a list of all calls, sorted by program (Basic, Mainstream, Plus) and each call has 7 sections associated with each call. You should definitely check it out.

I want to draw your attention in particular to the ‘Analyze’ section for a call. In it, it has ‘good preceding calls’ and ‘good following calls’. This is VERY helpful when you feel like you are in a rut (e.g. always calling boys run after a swing thru). These preceding and following calls will have good flow and hand positioning and are a great resource for developing new GOOD patter.

Call sequences that have bad flow (or bad hand positioning).

You can often spot a new caller simply because they call ‘bad sequences’. Here are some of the ones that I had to stop calling, roughly in priority order

  1. Centers SQ3 is DANGEROUS. It ends with having just used the right hand, and MANY COMMON CALLs will need that right hand (ST, RLT, TQ, SRT). If you are going to call an Allemande Left, everything is FINE because that call uses a left hand (many figures end this way). It is also OK if you do a no-hands move like slide thru or trade by. So a centers SQ3 is not NECESSARILY bad, but you have to be careful not to call a move that needs the right hand directly afterward. Note that you can always substitute Centers Right and Left Thru; Centers Pass Thru (which ends without hands, so it does not have this problem) for the Centers SQ3. Be careful!
  2. Star Thru; Veer Left. Beginner callers often do this from lines to get to two faced lines quickly. More experienced callers will simply do SRT; RLT; VL (not equivalent, but does get you to the formation). The problem with Star Thru; Veer Left is that the girls have pretty bad flow. Be nice to them, and stick in the RLT.
  3. In general Veer Left is dangerous, unless preceded by Right and left thru or Lead Right. The reason is that most preceding moves build up forward momentum (e.g. pass thru) and asking dancers to veer after that is unexpected and ends up being awkward (e.g. pass through, trade by, veer left is bad).
  4. Right and Left Thru; Allemande Left. While not really bad, the body flow for this is not great (boys are backing up at the end of the RLT), so you will notice that experienced callers don’t do this. Beginner callers do tend to do this because they see the square resolution needs a RLT and they call it. What experienced callers do instead is a Pass to the Center (or DT); Centers SQ3, or, do the RLT, but then do a zero (e.g ST; BR; FW; C PT) before calling the Allemande Left.

There are others but at some point lists of ‘DON’TS’ are too verbose. Instead follow some rules

  1. Favor the ‘battle tested’ ‘preceding and following’ calls from teaching.callerlab.org. You can’t go wrong with those.
  2. For any new choreography, walk it yourself (with ghosts) FROM ALL POSITIONS (girls and boys), to confirm flow, and hand positioning.
  3. WATCH your dancers (especially beginners) when you are using new choreography, and SEE if there is a pattern of difficulty. If there is it is better to GIVE UP (or save it for your DBD dances). DANCERS WANT FLOW. GIVE IT TO THEM. DON’T get attached to choreography. If it does not work, it needs to be fixed or abandoned. There is plenty of good choreography, don’t let bad choreography seep into your calling.

Note that flow ultimately is a matter of degree. Sometimes there are more important issues. For example I have seen some advice that says Head Ladies Chain; Heads Lead Right is bad flow. They suggest Head Ladies Chain Heads Lead Left, as the alternative. I do agree that the lead left version has very nice flow (you just keep going the direction of the courtesy turn), but IN PRACTICE it is hard to get dancers to dance that sequence well (they have to think, and that causes hiccups). On the other hand, Head Ladies Chain; Heads Lead Right is really not that bad. I have danced it from both positions and it feels like a figure 8 (first you go counter-clockwise then clockwise). Dancers are always successful and there are no rapid changes of direction. Thus I think it is fine. I am sure there are those that would disagree with me. My point is that ultimately you want choreography that dancers like, that is ‘easy’ to dance. Let that be your ultimate guiding star. Watch your dancers (especially new dancers), and see if they do the move naturally.

Calls that are ‘dangerous’

The most popular calls at mainstream have the property that they are ‘safe’ in that they keep dancers

  • In right hand formations
  • In normal (not sashayed) couples

Calls that do not do this are ‘dangerous’ because if you are not CAREFUL, you may stray into illegal sequences (e.g. asking facing boys to do a star thru), or just ‘hard’ sequences (asking facing boys to slide thru). When you are first learning patter, it is probably best to avoid these ‘dangerous’ calls. At least plan ahead and understand their danger.

  1. Tag the line is remarkably dangerous. Approach with caution. First do NOT do it from right handed waves (this is very awkward for the centers, left handed are fine), or from lines facing in. Right handed two faced lines or lines facing out are OK (because body flow tends to make the dancers pass right shoulders as they should). Next, Tag the line is also likely to create unusual couple relationships (depending on the starting formation, and what you do after the tag, it will sashay couples, or just half the couples, or put boys and girls together as couples). You have to be prepared with an ‘out’ that gets you back to normal couples again.

  2. Even swing thru is dangerous from certain waves. There are two kinds of common waves in square dance.

    1. What you get from pass the ocean or step to a wave (boys on either the centers or ends). bggb or gbbg waves.
    2. What you get from a touch a quarter (or hinge). (boys are either facing out or facing in). bgbg or gbgb waves

    Swing thru is ‘safe’ from the first kind of wave (do it as many times as you like). However it is dangerous from the second kind of wave, because it will put boys and girls together. You have to be prepared for this.

  3. Split circulation is dangerous from certain waves. It happens that it is exactly the opposite of swing thru. Split circulate is dangerous in bggb (pass the ocean style) waves and ‘safe’ from bgbg (touch a quarter style) waves.

  4. Runs work best when the centers are running. It is pretty common for beginner callers to ask the ends of a wave to run. This is legal but dancers are NOT used to it. I avoid it unless my intent is to do challenging choreography.
  5. Dixie Style will leave you left handed - You probably already knew this. It is the only move in mainstream that ALWAYS leaves you in a left handed formation. Just be prepared with a way to get back to normal lines (BT; Left ST; GR; BTL; FL; is a great out).
  6. Girls run works best from left handed formation, boys run from right handed formations. Since we mostly do right handed formations, boys run is VERY common.
  7. Cross runs are dangerous. Cross runs can change the formation from left to right handed, or sashay your couples.
  8. Folds leave you in unusual formations (often a formation called a Z). Luckily a ‘Star thru’ or ‘Touch a quarter’ tends to fix things.
  9. SQ3 when the box of 4 is the same gender is harder. In general when you have partnerships that are the same gender (can happen with tag the lines, or swing thru’s from bgbg waves) things are harder, and in particular sq3 is harder (two of the 4 dancers are rotating in an unfamiliar direction). Be careful, and don’t use these configurations on inexperienced dancers. Be intentional.

Note that a bit of danger is also what makes choreography ‘interesting’ so this section is not to say ‘don’t do these things’ but rather ‘approach them with care’ They are sharp knives that can do damage as well as improve your choreography. Don’t call them without a plan.

Useful ‘short sequences’

I have already suggested that you should memorize some singing call figures that are described in Square Dance Figures. I have also mentioned that you can mine these figures for Zero sequences as well as Chicken Plucker (CKP) sequences. But there are also other sequences that may be worth memorizing. This is what the ShortSeq spreadsheet is for. It is just a list of useful sequences of calls, which do interesting things like

  1. It acts as a Chicken Plucker (CKP) sequence
  2. It performs what is called an invert and rotate. This is like a zero in that if you could call an allemande left before this you can call it after, but it does turn the square ‘inside out’. It is useful as a fancier zero that makes the choreography more interesting.
  3. It rotates a box of four dancers a ¼ turn to the left or right
  4. It is a short Zero (too short to be a Singing call figure)
  5. It can act as a SQ4, or a SQ2 from a squared set (gets a sequence going)
  6. It is equivalent to some other common call (like SRT, or RLT).

Take a look and see if they are useful.