Callers

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Basic
NotesSpecialised TopicsTraining SessionsRound RemindersBits of cardboard

If you want to be a caller, or you want to be a better caller, I hope you'll find something useful here.

• Basic Notes — this is what I would use if I were just asked to run a Callers' Workshop without any further information.
• Specialised Topics, mostly those requested by callers who already knew the basics but wanted more in-depth knowledge of certain topics.  There's a [Print] button at the start of each section of notes, so you can print out just the sections you're interested in.
• Training Sessions — eight sessions I wrote originally for The Round in Cambridge where I go into more detail about how to teach people to dance better, with instructions or links to many dances which are useful when teaching the various steps and figures.  Please have a look — I worked very hard to produce all this!
• Round Reminders — also written for The Round and appearing on their website too — lots of well-known dances, mainly in the Playford style, particularly those which have been on The Round's Playford Ball programme over the years.
• Bits of cardboard — I really recommend these unless you're far better at visualising dances than I am!

You might also want to read my essay on Why am I a Caller? and decide whether your reasons are good enough!

There are lots of books and on-line articles about being a caller.  I highly recommend Jim Mayo's book Calling for Modern Square Dancing — some of it won't interest you unless you call MWSD but most of it applies to calling any kind of dance.

In July 2020 I led a Zoom Callers' Workshop for Scissortail in Oklahoma, in which I had been asked to talk mainly about websites — should callers have one, what should they put in it, and so on.  There were also a lot of questions about my Dance Organiser program which I did my best to answer by demonstration.  Click the image on the left to see the whole thing.