July 20-27, 2024 // Plymouth, MA

Take your calling to the next level!

During American Dance & Music Week at Pinewoods

Join us for a hands-on intensive course led by Will Mentor designed for callers who want to add squares to their repertoire.

As of July 29, this session is over-subscribed. If you register, we’ll add you to the waitlist and let you know when space becomes available for you.

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Program Description

This course is for callers who have at least some experience calling squares and/or contras.  Participants will focus on calling squares for one or more of the contexts listed below:

  1. Contra dances
  2. Old time square dances
  3. One-off dances
  4. Family dances

At camp, during the 1st and 3rd class periods, participants will walk through and prompt squares followed by friendly constructive feedback. During 5th period, there will be an optional Square Dance Party session for participants to practice calling squares for the wider camp community. Outside of these live-calling sessions, there will be optional meetings to talk about square dance calling. During the rest of day and evening, participants have full access to the American Dance & Music Week at Pinewoods program.

Course Details and Participation Requirements

Participation is limited to 10.

Before camp, each participant will meet with Will to identify their interest and choose a handful of appropriate squares to prepare for camp. Participants are expected to attend the required sessions to make sure each participant has 8 dancers to call to. In addition to walk-throughs and prompting, all aspects of calling squares will be addressed:

  • Types of squares and music
  • Breaks – including pairing them with squares
  • Role terms
  • Arranging squares on the dance floor
  • Working with the band – including how to end a square
  • Voice and microphone technique
  • Gigs
Course Leader

Will Mentor has been calling all kinds of squares in all kinds of contexts for 29 years. He has led many square dance calling workshops and is looking forward to facilitating an all-things squares lab for motivated callers.

Registration and Fees

This year we are using a sliding scale model for this course to make it accessible to more people. The sliding scale fee you choose will not affect your chance of getting into the course.

Full fee $1,080 Covers all tuition, room, and board costs, so that we can pay our program staff and the wonderful facility we use. If you can afford to pay the full price, thanks for helping us make camp sustainable.
Low-income rates $810-$945 For those who can’t afford full price. If these scaled down options still leave camp out of reach for you, we want to help you get to camp with additional supporting funds.
Supporter rates $1,350-$1,620 For those who can easily afford full price, and more. Your generosity makes this flexible pricing structure work and makes camp more accessible to more people. Thanks for supporting this community!

If the course is oversubscribed on March 18, there will be a lottery with some preference given to applicants supported by their local community. Strong indicators of that support are our Affiliate priority and matching scholarship processes, where a CDSS Affiliate vouches for a participant and may offer some scholarship, asking CDSS to match that amount. This is a statement by people who know the individual, that the person is deserving of assistance and would benefit the local community by attending the course.

To learn more about available scholarships, visit our scholarships page.

To register, please log into the CDSS Commons, or visit our registration page for more information.

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