Sequence and relationship

Two squares can look identical from above and still be different. The dancers might be in the right positions but the wrong order — and that is the difference between a square that can finish and one that cannot.

The circle order

In a squared set, everyone is standing in a ring. That ring has an order: each dancer has a neighbour on their left and a neighbour on their right.

When the ring is arranged as it was when you squared up — everyone has the same left and right neighbour they started with — the square is in sequence.

When it is not, it is out of sequence. The positions may all be filled and the shapes may all be right, but the dancers are in each other's places, and calls will start behaving strangely.

Why it matters

A caller who wants to finish the tip neatly has to end with the square in sequence, because the standard finish assumes it. That is what a get-out is for.

For a dancer, the practical consequences are:

• If you are out of sequence, you may be the odd one out in a call. Calls that name "the #1 Boy" or "your corner" assume the standard order.
• You can often fix it by finishing the figure. Most figures are zeroes; dance them out and the square comes back.
• Do not panic about it. Your caller can see it and will call something that fixes it.

Relationship

Relationship is the local version of the same idea: who is beside you, who is opposite you, who is your partner and corner right now.

A dancer's relationship to the others can change many times in a tip, especially through Allemande Left, Swing and Promenade, each of which establishes a new partner. That is why the manual has the phrase "current partner" — to distinguish it from your original one.

In sequence, at home

Put the two together and you get the resting state, the one a tip begins and ends in:

• everyone in their own position;
• everyone in sequence;
• every couple Normal.

Dancers call this "home, in sequence", and the manual names the arrangement a Squared Set (specifically in sequence) as distinct from a Static Square (just the arrangement).

The formal name for all this

Callers and teaching material sometimes refer to the four things that describe a square — the Formation, the Arrangement, the Sequence, and the Relationship — by their initials, FASR.

You do not need the formal framework to dance at Mainstream, and this book does not use it outside this page. But you will hear "FASR" from a teacher or a caller, and now you know what the four letters stand for.

Next

• the arrangement of a couple → Arrangements and gender
• coming home on purpose → Zeroes, get-outs and modules