Circle Rule

A caller is not restricted to calling out of lines and waves. The Circle Rule covers the case where the dancers are circling, and the caller names four of them and gives a call that wants Facing Couples.

"From an Infacing Circle of 8, if the caller names two adjacent dancers and their opposites and

gives a call that starts from Facing Couples, the dancers dance the call **as if the Circle has

been changed into a Static Square**, and follow the Squared Set Convention."

— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.

What it means in practice

The circle stops being a circle for the purposes of that call. The named four dancers step in and dance the call from where they are, treating the circle exactly as though it were a squared set.

The manual's own examples:

"From a Squared Set: 'Join Hands, Circle Left; **Heads Up to the Middle and Back; Heads Square Thru

4**.'"

"From a Squared Set: 'Heads Half Sashay; All Circle Left; Four Boys Spin the Top.' (After the

Heads Half Sashay the Circle will be BBGGBBGG. For Four Boys Spin the Top the four Boys begin by

stepping forward to make a Wave in the Center while the Girls form Couples perpendicular to that

Wave.)"

That second example is worth reading twice, because it shows how much the rule is doing: the circle has an unusual gender arrangement (BBGGBBGG, not the usual alternating), the caller names four dancers who are not a standard pair of couples, and it still works — because the Circle Rule turns the circle into a squared set for the purpose of the call.

Why it exists

Because a caller often wants to start a figure from a circle rather than stopping the music to rebuild a square. Without the rule, the same call would be improper from a circle, and the caller would have to spend a phrase getting everyone into lines first.

What you need to know as a dancer

  1. If you are not named, keep circling — or, more often, the caller has already stopped the circle and you hold your position.
  2. If you are named, step in and dance it exactly as if you were in a squared set.
  3. Follow the Squared Set Convention for where you finish.

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