No Caller. No Dance. It's That Simple.

Every Great Dance Begins with a Caller. Without Callers, the Music Stops. Our Future Depends on the Next Caller.

Who Will Be Holding the Microphone Tomorrow?

Nobody needs to tell a square or round dancer how important a great caller or cuer is—but too often we don't think about developing the next one until we're facing a retirement, illness, or a club without anyone to call. As International Caller Patty Greene joked, clubs usually start talking about caller recruitment "when their caller gets sick... or starts talking about moving or retiring."

Patty believes recruiting new callers isn't just important—it's essential. "It's fine to have a hundred thousand dancers, but if there's nobody around to call to them, you're losing half of the experience of the whole square dance thing."

The good news? You don't have to wait for someone to volunteer. Patty suggests clubs create an annual Amateur Caller Night where anyone can give calling a try—no experience required. She has seen nervous first-timers discover a passion they never knew they had. One participant was "shaken like a leaf" before taking the microphone. Afterwards? "My gosh, that was so much fun. I want to do it again!"

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Her advice is simple: treat it like a party. Friends come to cheer each other on, experienced callers provide cue sheets and encouragement, and nobody expects perfection. "You don't know who's going to get the bug," Patty says—and that's exactly the point.

Patty also wants to bust one of the biggest myths about calling: you don't have to be a great singer. Song choice, microphone technique, and finding the right key matter far more than having a Broadway voice. As she reminds us, "It's all about song choice."

Most of all, Patty believes callers aren't just entertainers—they're builders of community. Her personal goal is beautifully simple: "If you leave feeling better about yourself... then I've done my job."

Perhaps her most memorable line captures both her humor and her heart: "All God's chillin' got a place in the choir." That's how she approaches caller development. Some people will become outstanding regional callers and more. The sky's the limit! Others may simply become excellent teachers or club callers. We desperately need our local callers! Every one of them has something valuable to contribute.

If your club wants a future, don't wait for a crisis. Host an Amateur Caller Night. Offer scholarships to caller schools. Encourage the people who are curious. You may discover the person who will be inspiring dancers—and keeping your club thriving—for decades to come.

Our full podcast interview with Patty Greene will air this fall.

Navigating Change

Keeping the Tradition, Changing the Expectations

Square and round dancing have wonderful traditions worth preserving: friendship, community, music, movement, and the joy of dancing together. But preserving what we love does not mean every expectation or practice must remain unchanged.

Today's new dancers often arrive with different schedules, priorities, learning styles, backgrounds, and expectations than dancers of previous generations. They may not attend every week, commit to months of lessons, immediately buy traditional clothing, volunteer for a committee, or make dancing the center of their social lives. We should be careful not to judge their commitment, character, or enthusiasm based on expectations that developed in a different time.

When we expect newcomers to adapt completely to the way we have always done things—or assume that our way is the only right way—we may unintentionally push away the very people we hope will become part of our community. Being welcoming means more than greeting someone at the door. It means being curious about different perspectives, listening without judgment, and being willing to consider new ways of thinking and doing things.

Growing clubs are willing to ask a different question: How can we preserve the heart of square and round dancing while becoming more flexible in how people experience it?

That might mean offering shorter learning opportunities, welcoming casual participation, adapting teaching methods, reducing pressure to conform, experimenting with music or events, and giving people time to become part of the community in their own way. It also means recognizing that someone can love dancing without participating exactly as we do.

These changes do not diminish our traditions. They make those traditions more accessible to the people we hope will carry them forward.

The future of dancing does not require choosing between tradition and change.

It requires knowing what is essential to preserve,

what we can be flexible enough to rethink, and

when we need to make room for ideas that are different from our own.

Thank you so much for your great response to our Leadership Training!

Registration starts September 1, and a newsletter will come out that day with course content information and where to register. The online leadership training program begins in October and continues through May. The program will meet every four weeks (except on holidays) for approximately two to three hours and will focus on practical skills to help club and district leaders strengthen their organizations, navigate change, engage volunteers, and build a stronger future for square and round dancing.

The first program will be limited to 15 club and district participants, allowing for meaningful discussion, interaction, and shared problem-solving. The cost for the entire program will be $35. Depending on interest, we may offer more than one session at different times to make participation possible for more leaders.

If more people want to take the training, we'll offer another session during the same time period on a different day.

In addition, Square Dance Revival! is developing a separate leadership training program specifically for the state and national officers, both serving and wannabes, recognizing that leadership challenges and responsibilities differ at each level of our activity. That training will not include the practical information clubs need to attract and retain new people. If you are interested in the state and national leader training but also want this information, you should take the club and district training.

The survey makes one thing clear: dancers recognize the need for change, and many are willing to be part of creating it. Our goal is to give current and emerging leaders the encouragement, practical tools, and support they need to turn that willingness into action.

The future of square and round dancing will not be determined by whether change is needed. Our dancers already recognize that it is. The question is what we choose to do next.

Questions? Email us at: sdr@squaredancerevival.org

We are looking for club success stories!

Please send your club's revival story to sdr@squaredancerevival.org!

National Social Media Campaign Update!

“Busting myths. Welcoming dancers. Reviving the joy of dancing together.”

Due to our talk with Mike Hogan, who emphasized the importance of multiple social media exposures, we switched the campaign to run five ads on Instagram and five on Facebook. Of the 5 ads on each platform, 3 are for square dancing, and 2 are for round dancing.

Facebook may not get as many lesson searchers, but it exposes many more people to the joy of dancing and the friendship of the square and round dance community.

Here are the results over the last two weeks:

You may want to add your lesson campaign to Instagram, especially if you are in an urban area.

While it gets more clicks, Facebook reaches far more people, and the repeated exposure to square and round dancing on Facebook grows interest more than Instagram can.

“When you're marketing, you have to put the right message in front of the right people often enough. ...

Have some faith and never give up…

It takes time, it takes continued effort to make it work.”

— Mike Hogan

Your donation directly increases the reach of this campaign.

A donation of $5 per month from each club would make an astounding difference in how many people we can reach and how quickly we can achieve a Square Dance Revival! 100% of your donation goes to META advertising fees.

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Round Dance Promotional Videos: Ready to Use!

We are finished editing our Round Dance Promotional Interviews; now it's your turn to use them to attract new dancers to Round Dance. There are two similar sets, one with a Square Dance Revival! end card, and one without for you to use to promote your own round dance lessons.

Don't know how to attach an end card? We've got you covered!

Click the button below to access both sets, along with instructions on attaching your own promotional end card in the free version of Canva.

Here are examples of the videos: