Calls I wish had well-defined parts

I attended IAGSDC 2025 a week ago, making it my second square dance convention, after IAGSDC 2024. After my post Redefining Recycle, I’ve been thinking about more redefinitions. I mostly write challenge square dance material, so I enjoy thinking about calls with parts, and how I can apply concepts to some of these parts, to highlight the non-compositionality of square dancing in an interesting way.¹

The thing is, there’s lots of calls that feel like they have parts, but don’t have parts that everyone agrees on.² So here’s some calls whose parts that I wish everyone agreed to.

Thanks to some great discussion in the Tech Squares Discord for inspiring some of this, and thanks to Andy Tockman for reviewing.

What makes a call’s parts good?

Given any call, there’s multiple ways to divide it into parts. Which of these do we choose, if any? This is feelings-based for sure, but here’s some of the criteria I’ve used for judgment.

Neat, well-defined parts. As a baseline, I want parts to be well-defined. That is, each of these parts can stand alone, without referring to the previous parts. Consider this proposed parts division of Turn and Deal:

1. 1/2 Tag.
2. Turn 1/4 toward your original turning direction.

The second part here isn’t well-defined—it relies on the “original turning direction”, which doesn’t exist in general.³ So while I’m fine with this as a definition of Turn and Deal, I don’t like it as its parts.

The other part of the criterion is that the parts should be neat. Parts should have succinct definitions that describe reasonable dance motions. Another thing that makes a part neat is if it can be called from many different formations, or with many different concepts. I also only consider divisions that have an equal number of parts for everyone.

See also the discussion in the chapter Fractions and Parts of Beyond the Basics of C4.

Consistency with existing usage. If callers use Finish [call], then the parts of [call] should be defined so that Finish [call] has the same result. The same thing holds for Like a [call], or fractions like 1/2 [call].

Reasonable intermediate formations. Each part of the call should end in a “reasonable” formation. This has several perks: it makes the call have good fractions; it makes the call play well with parts-based concepts; and coupled with the parts having equal dancer timing, it gives dancers checkpoints within the call, which could make it easier to dance.

Consistency with other calls. Ideally, variations of a call should be the same as the original, but with a modification of a single part. Another goal is to systematize similar calls by breaking them into similar parts.

Equal dancer timing. Each part should take roughly the same amount of time for all of the active dancers. If the call were to be danced part-by-part, then active dancers shouldn’t have to wait too long for other dancers.

This is sometimes referred to as timing out well, mostly in reference to calls that don’t time out well. Peel Chain Thru is notorious for bad timing, as its ends’ part is slower than its centers’ part. This discrepancy is noticeable enough that the callback I often hear is “this call… times out… so well!”

Plus calls

Follow Your Neighbor. I’m torn about this one, but I’ll argue that it should be a two-part call.

1. 1/2 Box Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.

Why use 1/2 Box Circulate, rather than the Extend in the typical definition? If the first part was an Extend, the second part would need to have the ends 1/4 to Handhold,⁴ which makes it ill-defined.

This definition doesn’t work in the case where it starts from a 1/4 tag. I consider this to be an acceptable sacrifice. The choice of ends U-Turn Back over ends Roll twice is kinda arbitrary, but it does add more applications. The reason I’m torn is that Follow Your Neighbor feels like a primitive,⁵ indivisible unit—and yet, Slide Thru has two parts, so why not Follow Your Neighbor?

Note that Cross Your Neighbor is Initially Add⁶ centers Spread, Follow Your Neighbor. Grand Follow Your Neighbor is Initially Use 1/2 Circulate, Follow Your Neighbor.

Swap the Top is Initially Use 1/2 Swap Around, Follow Your Neighbor. Compare this to the Extend version of the call—you would have to say belles Extend, which obscures the relationship to Swap Around.

Finish Follow Your Neighbor can be called from a lot of places. From columns, Initially Tandem Follow Your Neighbor ends in a bone. From two-faced lines, Initially As Couples Follow Your Neighbor breaks the gestalt of the call⁷ in an interesting way.

Relay the Deucey. Ceder gives a six-part definition of Relay the Deucey, but does not call it a six-part call. Here’s a succinct restatement⁸ of that definition:

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.
3. Wave of six Trade.
4. Acey Deucey.
5. Wave of six Trade.
6. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

The fourth part here has the ends do a Diamond Circulate on the outside; an unusual use, but I’ve heard it before. The second and sixth parts are what’s known, among Tech Squares circles at least, as Finish It, and it appears in calls like Relay the Top and Tally Ho. Its definition isn’t quite what I wrote here.⁹ But Finish It appears enough times in this post that I’ll always state it as “Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate”, even if it’s inaccurate, and you can mentally correct it in your head.

Spin Chain the Gears, Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears. Ceder also gives a six-part definition¹⁰ of Spin Chain the Gears, and I think it should also be an explicit six-part call. SD agrees in this case. Restating it via diamonds:

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.
3. Very centers Trade.
4. Diamond Circulate thrice.
5. Very centers Trade.
6. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.

For the similar call Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears, Ceder gives an alternate definition using the C1 formation Interlocked Diamonds, and the C2 call Exchange the Diamond. I think this works well as parts:

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.
3. Very centers Trade.
4. Diamond Circulate thrice.
5. Exchange the Diamond 3/4.
6. Interlocked Flip the Diamond.

As justification, Andy reminds me that, at a Plus dance we went to, Ray Brendzy called “Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears, replace the final Flip the Diamond with Cut the Diamond.”

One reason to split this into parts is so you can call it from a tidal wave, via Finally Use Reverse Flip the Diamond, Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears. Why would I want this? Well, the similar call Spin Chain the Gears can be called from tidal waves, though mostly as a gimmick, and it’d be nice if we can do that for Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears too.

Given this division into parts, you could call, from twin diamonds, skip the first half, Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears. Not only can you call it from normal diamonds, but you can also call it from facing diamonds.¹¹

A1 calls

Chain Reaction. Ceder gives a four-part definition of Chain Reaction, and I think it’s good. SD agrees in this case.

1. Very centers and those facing Pass Thru, ends of the center four Counter Rotate.
2. Checkpointers Hinge.
3. Centers Star 1/4, ends Trade.
4. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

I think people agree that Chain Reaction has a kinda well-defined first part and last part, so the question is how many parts the middle should be. Reasonable divisions of Chain Reaction would give a total of either four or three parts, and I’m arguing for four parts.

My main argument is via Relay the Top. Consider that Relay the Top has four parts:

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.
3. Centers Star 1/4, ends Trade.
4. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

Then, this four-part division of Chain Reaction shares its last half with Relay the Top. Similarly, you could argue via The Action, which also shares its last two parts with Chain Reaction.

From a column, you could call 1/2 Circulate; Finish Chain Reaction. From waves, you could call Half and Half, Acey Deucey by Chain Reaction.

Grand Follow Your Neighbor. I have:

1. 1/2 Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.

See comments under Follow Your Neighbor.

Square Chain Thru. Ceder gives a three-part definition of Square Chain Thru, though I don’t believe people consistently agree that this call has parts. His definition also has a different part divsion than what I’d like. He gives the parts as:

1. Right Pull By and 1/4 In.
2. Left Swing Thru.
3. Left Turn Thru.

My preferred parts are instead:

1. Square Thru 2 to a Wave.
2. Any Hand Swing Thru.
3. Any Hand Turn Thru.

I first heard an argument for these parts from V. They gave a four-part definition, with what I have as the second part split in half, arguing against the Lefts in Ceder’s definition. I agree; I think the common definition is unnecessarily directional. But we can be more consistent with Catch [n] by having three parts.

In analogy to Catch [n], which has an extension Catch [any] [n], we can define Square Chain [any] as:

1. Square Thru 2 to a Wave.
2. [any].
3. Any Hand Turn Thru.

Then Square Chain Thru is Square Chain [Any Hand Swing Thru], and Square Chain the Top is Square Chain [Spin the Top.] Square Chain [any] would add some nice variety to openers, complementing Catch [any] [n].¹² For example, you can call Heads Split Square Chain Relay the Top:

Transfer the Column. My proposal for Transfer the Column is:

1. Tandem 1/2 Box Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Counter Rotate.
3. Drop In.

There’s a beautiful symmetry between this definition of Transfer the Column, and a definition of its Rewind, Follow Your Leader:

1. 1/2 Box Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Counter Rotate.
3. Tandem Drop In.

This symmetry is why I describe the first part of Transfer the Column as Tandem 1/2 Box Circulate, as opposed to #1 and #2 Split Counter Rotate, #3 and #4 Circulate, which appears in the definition of Quick Wrap.

Not only can you Rewind each part of the definition, but these two definitions differ only in the placement of the word Tandem: whether it’s applied Initially or Finally. This also makes the definition of Split Transfer evident, and the fact that it is its own Rewind:

1. 1/2 Box Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Split Counter Rotate.
3. Drop In.

There’s a sacrifice made here, however. Contrast this alternate division of Transfer the Column into parts:

1. Tandem 1/2 Box Circulate.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Counter Rotate and Roll.
3. Extend.

The advantage of this is that Transfer and [any] would then be 2/3 Transfer the Column But¹³ [any]. With our division into parts, we don’t have a succinct way of describing Transfer and [any]. Another sacrifice is that Open Up the Column can no longer be described analogously to Transfer the Column.¹⁴

A2 calls

Checkmate. My preferred division for Checkmate is:

1. Circulate twice.
2. #1 and #2 1/4 In and Circulate, while the others Circulate twice and 1/4 In.

The main reason I want this is to call Finish Checkmate, which is a neat call. You could instead say Tandem Twosome Split Counter Rotate,¹⁵ but that gives the new leaders a Roll direction, when Checkmate doesn’t. And I wouldn’t want to give up Checkmate and Roll.

Spin the Windmill [dir]. People agree that, in Spin the Windmill, the centers have three parts. We can also give the ends three parts, if we sacrifice equal dancer timing:

1. Ends turn 1/4 [dir], centers Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Ends Circulate, centers Slip.
3. Ends Circulate, centers Cast Off 3/4.

For example, from a quarter tag, you could call Spin the Windmill Right, interrupt between each part with Diamond Circulate, which I think is cute. From a quarter tag, you can also kinda call 1/2 Spin the Windmill, which ends in concentric diamonds.

The timing of Spin the Windmill made me realize why several calls have the ends Circulate twice. From a 2×4, if the ends Circulate once, then they travel different distances, but if they Circulate twice, they all walk the same distance. I’m fine sacrificing equal dancer timing, though; it’s the last in my criteria because it doesn’t make a difference in the unmodified case.

Split Transfer. See comments under Transfer the Column.

C1 calls

Cross Your Neighbor. I have:

1. 1/2 Box Circulate and Centers Spread.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.

See comments under Follow Your Neighbor.

Linear Action, Tally Ho. Both of these calls have a well-defined first part and a well-defined last part, so we might as well make the middle thing a single part. Thus, for Linear Action:

1. Hinge.
2. Ends Trade, centers Box Circulate 1 and 1/2.
3. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

And for Tally Ho:¹⁶

1. 1/2 Circulate.
2. Ends Trade, centers Hinge and 1/2 Box Circulate.
3. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

As to why there’s only one middle part, it’s mostly because there aren’t any reasonable subdivisions. From columns, you can call Last 2/3 Reverse Order Tally Ho to end in an hourglass.¹⁷

From a quarter tag, you can call Finally Stable 2/3 Linear Action, to end in triple single quarter tags.

Regroup. I want Regroup to have two parts. This disagrees with SD, and maybe other dancers, who want the ends to have three parts.

1. Ends 1/4 Out, centers Trade.
2. Ends Trade and Press Out, centers Roll.

My main reasoning is its kinda Rewind, Trip the Set, also has two parts:

1. Ends Cross Fold, centers 1/4 Out.
2. Ends Roll, centers Trade.

The Rewinds are technically ambiguous; you can’t rewind Regroup because you don’t know whether the centers were facing in or out. But from their most common starting position, lines facing out, they satisfy the Rewind property of being related by U-Turn Back.

Andy tells me that the ends’ second part of Regroup can also be described as O Circulate Twice. It’s a neat observation! I think that the Trade and Press Out better captures the Rewind, but O Circulate Twice is shorter.

The motivation here is consistency, rather than choreography. I’ve never heard a caller modify the parts of Trip the Set,¹⁸ so I’m doubtful anyone would modify these parts of Regroup. Then again, I haven’t danced much C3A or C3B, so maybe there is choreographic potential.

Relay the Shadow. For Relay the Shadow, I’m proposing:

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Center six Cast Off 3/4, very ends Counter Rotate.
3. Centers Hinge and Spread, others do the centers’ part of Cast a Shadow.

This is a case where the first part is well-defined, and people kinda agree the next thing is a part. This second part appears in other calls, like Along. But there’s no well-defined last part. I don’t think there’s reasonable subdivisions of the last part here, so I’ve made it a three-part call.

My main reason for wanting this division is so I can call Like a Relay the Shadow, which is a fun and quick way to turn generalized quarter tags to lines. You can also call it from an I.¹⁹

I’ve been staring at this trying to figure out how I can call Reverse Order Relay the Shadow from an I, but I can’t come up with anything. Exercise for the reader.

Shakedown. Clark Baker has written about defining Shakedown, and I will flaunt every single point made in that document to give this definition:

1. As one movement: Chase the 1/2 Tag.
2. Roll.

The “as one movement” in the first part is to give dancers Roll directions. They otherwise technically don’t have a Roll direction, because the last part of any tagging call has people walk forward. This sidesteps the “turn 1/4 toward your original turning direction” that appears in the definition of, say, Turn and Deal.

I think most dancers, if asked to split Shakedown into parts, would pick 1/4 Right, Box Counter Rotate, and Roll. But this is so similar to Split Sidetrack, and rather than consistency, I want choreography. In fact, I’m proposing that Shakedown be an instance of a general tagging call, say, [tag]down.²⁰

1. As one movement: [tag] 1/2.
2. Roll.

Shakedown would be Chasedown. Also, note that Recycle is equivalent to Flipdown,²¹ and Turn and Deal would be Tagdown. You could also call Trackdown:

and Invertdown:

and Loopdown:

It’s kinda exciting how different these all are. Also, [tag]down is a cool suffix—I might write about it independently.

Square Chain the Top. I want:

1. Square Thru 2 to a Wave.
2. Spin the Top.
3. Any Hand Turn Thru.

See comments under Square Chain Thru.

C2 calls

Along. Along can be a two-part call:

1. Center six Hinge, very ends Counter Rotate.
2. Center six Grand Peel and Trail, others Extend.

Similar to Like a Relay the Shadow, this lets us call Like an Along, which is a neat way to turn certain quarter tags to certain lines. Unlike Like a Relay the Shadow, Like an Along can end in parallelograms.²²

Grand Chain Eight. Here’s a folklore definition for Grand Chain Eight:

1. Funny Right Pull By.
2. Mirror 1/2 Circulate.
3. Hinge. Like a Couple Up.

I would support dividing it into parts this way too. The third part has two nested parts, giving it a similar structure to the C4 call Hot Foot Spin.²³ From a starting double pass thru, you can call Finally Initially Tandem, Grand Chain Eight.

Perk Up. Similar to Relay the Shadow, Perk Up a call that has a well-defined first part and a well-defined second part, and the last part doesn’t have any natural divisions, so we might as well say:

1. Circulate.
2. 1/2 Split Circulate.
3. Ends Circulate twice, centers Hinge, Box Circulate, Trade.

I mostly want this for the sake of Central Like a Perk Up, which is a nice call, along the lines of Recycle or Linear Cycle. Note that while the third part isn’t the same number of parts for everyone, you can halve it, so you can call something like Finally 1/2 Perk Up; from waves, it ends in an hourglass.

C3A calls

This is going to be the longest section—so many calls in this level that I wish had parts but didn’t. It’s kind of a shame, given that C3A is the level that introduces Initially and Finally.²⁴

Breaker. I’ll give what I want the parts of Breaker 3 to be, and the other uses of Breaker are analogous:

1. Ends Hinge, centers Box Counter Rotate.
2. Ends Trade, centers 1/2 Box Circulate.
3. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

This differs from the usual definition of Breaker, in that I’m allowing the ends to start facing the same direction, like they do in Linear Action. That’s not something I’ve heard before,²⁵ but because the call’s a lot like Linear Action,²⁶ I’m fine with this.

From a rigger²⁷ with right-hand miniwaves, you can call Finish Breaker 3.²⁸

Delight, Dilemma. Here’s my parts for Delight; Dilemma is analogous.

1. Ends turn 1/4 Right, centers Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Ends Circulate, centers Slip twice.
3. Ends Circulate, centers Cast Off 3/4.

The parts are chosen for consistency with my parts for Spin the Windmill, so see my comments under that entry.

Follow Your Leader. See comments under Transfer the Column.

Peel Chain Thru. Several trade-offs here, but I’m settling with:

1. Ends Concentric Leads U-Turn Back outward and Touch, centers Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Ends Arm Turn 1/2, centers Slip.
3. Fan the Top.

I was torn about how to define the first part for the ends. I considered, as alternatives, Cast Back and Touch, 1/2 Zoom, and Outward Roll to a Wave. The first is the CALLERLAB definition, but it felt unnecessarily limited. The second is improper; you can’t call 1/2 Zoom from dancers back-to-back.²⁹ The third has precedent in the description of Rally, where the final part has an Inward Roll to a Wave, but I’ve found no examples of Rally being called where those who do the Inward Roll start as back-to-back. I settled with this, even if it’s wordy.

Which leads to another question: should the ends Touch at the end of the first part, or the start of the second part? The timing works better in the latter. But I chose the former because it ends in a tidal wave, which is more useful. It makes 1/3 Peel Chain Thru an okay way to go from a quarter tag to a tidal wave.

Rally. Everyone agrees the centers have two parts, but what about the ends? I think they also have two parts, which makes these the parts of Rally:

1. Little.
2. Centers Peel and Trail, ends Inward Roll to a Wave.

The alternative is the ends having three parts: 1/4 Right, Counter Rotate, Inward Roll to a Wave. But I think this obscures the relationship to Little. As a consequence, Rally becomes more versatile; you can call things like Finally Central Rally.

Spin Chain the Line. Spin Chain the Line is another case where there’s a well-defined first part, and people will agree on the last part, so let’s take the middle as a second part.

1. Arm Turn 1/2.
2. Checkpointers Cast Off 3/4 and Spread, very centers Trade.
3. Centers Cast Off 3/4.

From lines facing out, have the center beaus U-Turn Back, then all 1/2 Circulate. You can then call Like a 2/3 Spin Chain the Line³⁰ to end in an hourglass.

From point-to-point diamonds, Stingy Like a 2/3 Spin Chain the Line also ends in an hourglass.

Swap the Top. I want:

1. 1/2 Swap Around.
2. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends U-Turn Back.

See comments under Follow Your Neighbor.

The Gamut. Another with ends Circulate twice, which I’ll split across a part boundary. It’s fine; The Gamut has bad timing anyway.³¹

1. Ends Circulate, centers Any Hand 3/4 Thru.
2. Ends Circulate, centers Trade the Wave.
3. Cut the Diamond.

All the choreographic ideas I have are similar to the ones I have for Spin the Windmill. You can interrupt between each part with a Diamond Circulate, I guess?

Triple Play. These parts for Triple Play are gonna look weird until I explain them, but trust me:

1. 1/2 Circulate. Center six Trade, very ends Counter Rotate.
2. Center six 1/2 Circulate. Centers Hinge, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.
3. Drop In.

The first part ends in a quarter tag, with a wave between two parallel mini-waves. The second part ends in diamonds, and the third part ends in waves. The main application I’m thinking of is Finish Triple Play, which I can only think of that position to call from, but it’s such a good dance motion.

Why three parts, rather than subdividing into more? Because it matches the CALLERLAB definition, which is:

1. #1 Transfer, others 1/2 Circulate and Trade.
2. In the center column: #1 Transfer, others 1/2 Circulate and Hinge.
3. Extend.

The main difference³² is that, in this definition, those doing the transfer Roll after their parts, and the call ends with an Extend; I chose to omit the Rolls and end with a Drop In; for reasoning, see my comments under Transfer the Column.

Wind the Bobbin. I’ve heard Finish Wind the Bobbin called before, and I don’t see a reason to divide the rest of the call into parts, so I present:

1. 1/2 Zoom.
2. Ends Circulate twice, centers Cast Off 3/4, Slip, Cast Off 3/4.

From columns, you could call 3/4 Wind the Bobbin, which ends in an hourglass.

I would prefer if the parts were Peel to a Diamond; Spin the Windmill Forward. It’s succinct, and gives Wind the Bobbin nested parts via Spin the Windmill. But it goes against the existing use of Finish Wind the Bobbin, so whatever.

C3B calls

Divide the Ocean [any], Divide the Sea [any]. I’m surprised Divide the Ocean doesn’t have parts. To me, it seems clear that the ends have two parts, and the centers have four parts, so it’s a two part call with nested parts for the centers. Here’s Divide the Ocean Right; variations are split analogously.

1. Ends Cast Off 3/4, centers Hinge and Partner Tag.
2. Ends Cross Concentric Vertical 1/2 Tag, centers Press Ahead and 1/4 Right.

Then, 1/2 Divide the Ocean would be a versatile call. You could call it from quarter tags with the ends in mini-waves.

While thinking of other places you could call 1/2 Divide the Ocean, I thought of concentric diamonds. But then I realized that you can already call Divide the Ocean Right from concentric diamonds.³³

Reactivate. I’m also surprised Reactivate doesn’t have parts. It starts like a Chain Reaction and ends like a Coordinate, so:

1. Very centers and those facing Pass Thru, ends of the center four Counter Rotate.
2. Center six Trade.
3. Very centers and very ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

I want this for consistency with the definitions for Chain Reaction and Coordinate. The thing is, I’m not sure what you can do with the parts of Reactivate that you can’t already do with Chain Reaction or Coordinate. I guess you can call Secondly Omit Reactivate pretty much everywhere you can call Reactivate.

Stimulate. I’m somewhat surprised Stimulate doesn’t have parts, but not too surprised. A lot of people think of the centers as ending with a Grand Hinge the Top. I think of the call as ending with a Finish It:

1. Circulate.
2. 1/2 Circulate.
3. Center six Hinge, very ends Counter Rotate.
4. Centers Cast Off 3/4, ends Phantom Hourglass Circulate.

From a column, you can call Secondly Split³⁴ 3/4 Stimulate.

From a quarter tag, you can call Finish Finish Stimulate. From lines facing out, you can call 3/4 Stimulate.

1. ¹

   This paragraph links to every directly-related-to-square-dancing blog post I’ve made so far. It’s good SEO, I’m told.

2. ²

   For my purposes, I consider everything in Vic Ceder’s list to have uncontroversial parts. If Ceder’s definition says “call is an n-part call”, then I also consider it to have uncontroversial parts. Finally, if SD splits a call into parts (i.e., it has the visible_fractions tag), then I almost always consider it uncontroversial.

3. ³

   This is fuzzy, though. Hubs Trade Back refers to the “original centers” in its definition, but many C2 dancers will say that it has well-defined parts. Andy gives more examples: Patch [des], Bounce [des], [des] Tie, and Reverse the Pass.

4. ⁴

   See C4 Calls, under Terminology → Other Terminology → Quarter to Handhold.

5. ⁵

   Andy agrees: “Follow Your Neighbor is Scoot Back but more, and so my brain doesn’t like 1/2 Follow Your Neighbor being 1/2 Scoot Back but less.”

6. ⁶

   Through this post, I’ll be using the concise modifiers Add, Omit, and Use, as described in C4 Calls, under Concise Modifiers → Meta-Concept Method.

7. ⁷

   The gestalt of a call is its essence; some calls have a stronger gestalt than others. See Musings on Definitions, starting with “I call the essence of a call its gestalt…”

8. ⁸

   I first heard this from Andy, who maintains several of these alternate definitions.

9. ⁹

   I’ll probably have to write another post about this, but briefly: the two big issues are that the the centers and ends division isn’t quite correct, and the Phantom Hourglass Circulate doesn’t quite end on the right spots. If you consider all the places Finish Tally Ho gets called from you’ll see why. See also Andy’s page on Systemizations.

10. ¹⁰

    From Andy: “There’s an Osamu [Miyabe] tape I have dance to where the first words out of his mouth are ‘bow to your partner, bow to your corner, Spin Chain the Gears has six parts.’ Very ominous; it was great.”

11. ¹¹

    This would be more interesting if Two-Faced didn’t exist. But Two-Faced Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears already has facing diamonds in it.

12. ¹²

    From waves or inverted lines, you can call either Step and Fold or Any Hand Turn Thru. Step and Fold can be called from normal diamonds, and Any Hand Turn Thru can be called from facing lines or an eight chain.

13. ¹³

    This is the C1 modifier But; see C4 Calls, section Concise Modifiers → “But” Modifier for more info.

14. ¹⁴

    A reasonable attempt is to do Tandem 1/2 Box Circulate, and then the original #2 U-Turn Back, but this swaps the positions of the ends.

15. ¹⁵

    Which makes the definition of Single Checkmate evident as well: Circulate and Split Counter Rotate. Except the new leaders can’t roll.

16. ¹⁶

    SD agrees with me in this part division, which surprises me because I think it’s controversial. It’s one case where SD is more permissive than most dancers.

17. ¹⁷

    Warning: Awkward for the ends.

18. ¹⁸

    And if you’re a C3A caller reading this, well, I don’t want to give anyone any ideas.

19. ¹⁹

    There’s more or less tasteful ways to call it from an I. Ends facing out want to Cloverleaf into the center, so they can bump into the centers if they’re not careful. In the below diagram, dancer 2 and dancer 3 are turning toward the same direction, so they don’t bump into each other. But if dancer 1 was facing out, they’d bump into dancer 4 doing the Spread.

20. ²⁰

    Compare the tagging suffix discussed in Redefining Recycle, which is Reflected 1/2 [tag] and Roll, equivalent to a Reflected [tag]down. That gives everyone a roll direction, but [tag]down doesn’t always do so.

21. ²¹

    See Ceder’s Tagging Calls page to reference which tagging calls these are.

22. ²²

    Well, a normal Along can end in parallelograms already, but it’s still cool that it can do that.

23. ²³

    As a non-C4 dancer, this is the only reason I know Hot Foot Spin. It has nested parts! Oh wow! I think C3A and C3B dancers should get to have fun with nested parts too.

24. ²⁴

    Not that this ever stopped me from saying “do the first part Tandem…” in C1.

25. ²⁵

    SD allows it with a warning, so someone must’ve wanted it.

26. ²⁶

    In particular, Breaker 3 is Centers Work (Initially Add Box Circulate, Initially Tandem), Linear Action.

27. ²⁷

    From a column, call ends Hinge; the resulting spots on the floor form a rigger. See C4 Calls, Terminology → Formation Names → Bat or Rigger.

28. ²⁸

    SD gives this a different result, because SD has a different division of parts. It believes that the first part of the ends is Cast Off 3/4, and that the ends do nothing in the second part.

29. ²⁹

    Kind of. Note that Plenty from an hourglass ends with the centers back-to-back before doing a Right Roll to a Wave. If we believe the CALLERLAB definition, where the last part of the centers is 1/2 Zoom, this should be illegal. But Sandie called it last weekend and people danced it. There’s a longer discussion here…

30. ³⁰

    I wish there was a shorter way to say this. It’s “do the middle part” in English. But the language of square dancing isn’t English, despite appearances; you can call Square Thru 4, but you can’t call Square Thru 5.

31. ³¹

    I don’t know why Peel Chain Thru has such a reputation for bad timing, when The Gamut’s timing is worse. I think the Trade the Wave shouldn’t exist. Sorry Lee Kopman.

32. ³²

    A subtler difference is the position of the original #1 dancer. If we divided according to the CALLERLAB definition, then 1/3 Triple Play doesn’t end in quarter tag spots; the very outside dancers would be a half-matrix-spot out. This is silly, and we should end in a nice formation, because we can.

33. ³³

    I’m surprised I haven’t seen this before. Not in Ceder’s notes, not in Taminations, not in discussion, not from a caller. SD lets you do it though.

34. ³⁴

    If you disagree with my use of Split as a concept, you can pronounce this as Secondly Use 1/2 Split Circulate, and use three more words to do so.