Sources and attribution
Every definition, timing and styling note in this book comes from CALLERLAB — the international association of square dance callers — and nothing else.
The two documents
Both are published by CALLERLAB Inc., The International Association of Square Dance Callers.
| Document | Revision | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Mainstream Dance Program Definitions | 29 March 2026 | what is in the program, the order it is taught in, and each call's starting formation, dance action, ending formation, timing, styling and restrictions |
| Plus Program Definitions | 25 August 2026 | the Plus appendix, and what Plus changes about Mainstream |
The Mainstream document is the one that matters most: it decides what this book teaches. It is the document that replaced the old Basic, Mainstream and SSD lists with 50 calls or call families following the 2025 membership vote, and it carries the teaching order — the collection M1 … M50, effective 1 September 2026.
Where an older habit, or a phrase you have heard in a hall, disagrees with the document, the document wins. Usually the call page tells you both.
Where the quotations come from
Passages in quotation marks, attributed to CALLERLAB, are the words of those two documents. They are reproduced here under the permission below, and they are the only text in this book that is not written for it. Everything else — the explanations, the faults, the drills, the course — is written for a dancer starting out.
The notices
© 1994, 2000-2026 by CALLERLAB Inc., The International Association of Square Dance Callers.
Permission to reprint, republish, and create derivative works without royalty is hereby granted,
provided this notice appears. Publication on the Internet of derivative works without royalty is
hereby granted provided this notice appears. Permission to quote parts or all of this document
without royalty is hereby granted, provided this notice is included. Information contained herein
shall not be changed nor revised in any derivation or publication.
© Copyright 1997, 2001-2026 by CALLERLAB Inc., The International Association of Square Dance
Callers. Permission to reprint, republish, and create derivative works without royalty is hereby
granted, provided this notice appears. Publication on the Internet of derivative works without
royalty is hereby granted provided this notice appears. Permission to quote parts or all of this
document without royalty is hereby granted, provided this notice is included. Information contained
herein shall not be changed nor revised in any derivation or publication.
The animations
The animations and the small formation diagrams show where each dancer goes, worked out from the positions and facings the calls are defined with. They are a picture of the definition — useful for checking where you should be standing and which way you should end up facing — and they are not a substitute for a caller, a teacher, or the styling notes on each call page.
If an animation and a definition ever appear to disagree, believe the definition. The few calls with no animation are listed in the animations index.
A caution about names
The definitions are CALLERLAB's, but the names you hear in a hall are the dancers'. Where a call has older or regional names, the call page lists them under Also called / formerly, so that the word someone sings out at you and the word in this book can be recognised as the same thing.