Where Mainstream leads

Once you can dance the 50 Mainstream calls comfortably, the next program is Plus. This short appendix is not a Plus course — it is a look at the doorway, and at exactly what changes when you walk through it.

The programs

Mainstream   →   Plus   →   A1   →   A2   →   C1 …

Each program includes everything below it. A Plus dance contains Mainstream calls, and the caller expects you to know them without thinking.

What Plus actually changes

The Plus manual devotes a section to it, headed "Mainstream Restrictions that are Removed at Plus". It is the most useful thing in the document for a Mainstream dancer, because it says precisely what you are currently not allowed to do.

1. Courtesy Turn, and everything built on it

"In the Mainstream Program, Courtesy Turn can start only from a Normal Couple. At Plus this

restriction is removed. As a result, the Mainstream restrictions on Right and Left Thru and on

Chain Down the Line are also removed."

In other words: the call you have learned as "only from a Normal Couple" becomes general. The courtesy turn restriction is the one that catches Mainstream dancers most often, and Plus removes it.

2. Pass the Ocean

"In the Mainstream Program, Pass the Ocean can start only from Facing Couples. At Plus this

restriction is removed. Therefore, at Plus it is proper to call Pass the Ocean from a Right-Hand

Ocean Wave and from other formations allowed by the Ocean Wave Rule."

3. Swing Thru and Left Swing Thru

"In the Mainstream Program, the starting formation for Swing Thru or Left Swing Thru must be either

a Wave of at least 3 dancers or an Alamo Ring. At Plus it is also proper for the starting formation

to be a Right-Hand or Left-Hand Thar."

4. The Facing Couples Rule is generalised

At Mainstream the Facing Couples Rule applies to specific calls. At Plus it is widened to any formation where dancers can step forward to make a wave:

And it applies to a named list of Plus calls, plus three Mainstream calls you already know — Swing Thru, Left Swing Thru and Spin the Top.

What that tells you about Mainstream

Read the other way round, the same section is a description of what you are learning now:

• your Courtesy Turn is deliberately narrow, and it is meant to be;
• your Pass the Ocean is a facing-couples call, and calling it from a wave is not proper yet;
• your Swing Thru needs a wave of three or an Alamo Ring.

A beginner who knows these three restrictions will avoid most of the avoidable failures of their first year, because these are exactly the calls a caller reaches for when a square is in an unusual shape.

How Mainstream calls reappear

Plus does not throw anything away. The Mainstream calls come back in new combinations:

• the circulate family is the basis of several Plus calls (Ping Pong Circulate, Diamond Circulate, Linear Cycle)
• the trade family reappears as Triple Trade and Trade the Wave
• the ocean wave family grows into Fan the Top, Grand Swing Thru and Relay the Deucey
• concepts like Anything and Split extend rather than change

Which means: dancing Plus well is mostly a matter of knowing Mainstream really well.

Next

• the Plus calls themselves → The Plus program
• one line on each → Plus call index
• the Mainstream restrictions you are learning now → Mainstream restrictions