Welcome

This Dance Resource is a compilation of Beginner Party Dances, Community Dances, Contra Dances, and Traditional Square Dances. Dances are grouped by type and listed in HTML code for easy viewing. Many dances are also available to be downloaded as a Rich Text File. It is also easy to copy and paste as desired.

The “Dance Categories” links at right or below sort the dances by type.

The “Tag Cloud” links at lower right or below sort the dances by their tags.

Dance Resource Table of Dances is a “sortable” table of the dances with columns for Dance Name, Choreographer, Dance Type, and Difficulty.

CD Journal Links is a “sortable” table of the contents in the CDP Journals and CD Journals with links to pdf downloads of the Journals.

If you would like to receive new issues of the CD Journal by e-mail, contact the CALLERLAB Home Office (e-mail: CALLERLAB@aol.com) and request to be added to the subscriber list.

Supporting Documents (pdf downloads)
Dance Party Entertainment – Bob Riggs – 2017
Music – What to Use – Betsy Gotta – 2017
Community Dance Program Plan
Contra Formations
Learning to Prompt a Contra

The Callers In Schools Handbook is available from the CALLERLAB website at the following link. Use your back arrow to return here.
Callers-In-Schools Handbook (CISH) – 2006

Teaching Information
Additional teaching information about the square dance calls along with appropriate singing call figures can be found in the CALLERLAB Online Teaching Resource. Also there are some contras and traditional squares listed in the “Other” section for each call.
http://teaching.callerlab.org

Beginner Dance Party
We use the name “Beginner Dance Party” for events where many of those in attendance are new dancers. Experienced leaders of such events usually use dances from several of the types included in this Treasury. (BDP) is used to indicate dances appropriate for use at a Beginner Dance Party. These dances use minimal special vocabulary and have simple dance sequences.

Community Dance
We use the name “Community Dance” for events that occur periodically and have some dancers who attend regularly. When a core group of dancers with some experience is present, it is usually possible to present some dances that are slightly more complex than those used at a Beginner Dance Party.

Dance Types:

  • Circle Dances all begin in one large circle. They include No Partner Dances, Sitting Dances, Couple Dances, and Mixers.
  • Contras generally begin in two long facing lines with partner pairs arranged in various ways. This collection includes Proper Lines, Proper Duple Lines, Alternate Duple Lines, Triples, Triplets, and Becket Lines. There are also contras that begin in other formations such as the Sicilian Circle and Mescolanza formations.
  • Lines, Trios and Groups includes dances that begin in loose lines of solo dancers and dances that begin with groups of 3 or more dancers arranged in various ways.
  • Square Dances all begin in groups of eight dancers arranged in a square. This collection includes Traditional Square Dance figures of various types, Quadrilles, Singing Call figures, and Miscellaneous Ideas related to Square Dancing.

    • Contact Us: Dottie Welch, email: dwelch@eastlink.ca

    This resource is being developed. If you find errors in text, links, or choreography, please send an email indicating where and what kind of problem you have found.


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