Sooke Squares
Square Dancing in Sooke
Programme List and Definitions
Here are the Basic and Mainstream list of calls and their definitions from CALLERLAB. Note: this is the “classic Mainstream” list our club uses, not the stripped down version that CALLERLAB will be using in September 2026.
Sites that help with learning calls
Taminations - Animations of calls
Taminations is a wonderful site that has the official CALLERLAB definitions of the calls and animations to actually show the calls.
Visit https://www.tamtwirlers.org/taminations/
The squares represent boys, the circles girls. Unlike Saddlebrooke Squares (below), Taminations shows calls from a variety of different starting positions, and allows you to control the speed. You can download taminations to a Mac or Windows computer or to a phone.
North Shore Squares - Videos of demonstrations of calls
This site https://www.northshoresquares.com/alphabetical-social-square-dance-videos has many short videos where real people perform a single call. While they are mainly done just from standard positions, they typically do the call several times. For those that prefer watching “real people” rather than animations this is a great site.
Saddlebrooke Squares - Videos of demonstrations of calls
Saddlebrooke Squares has real people showing the calls.
To visit them go to https://videosquaredancelessons.com/lessons/
Square Dance Tutorials - Simple Definitions with animations
There’s a lot on this site; I recommend starting with the Quick Tutorial Series which has nice very simple definitions of calls as well as some simple animations. Their explanations are much easier to understand than the official CALLERLAB defitions (see below). Visit the Quick Tutorial Series at https://www.dehnbase.org/sd/tutorial/#quick
CALLERLAB - The official definitions
CALLERLAB ( http://www.callerlab.org ) is an organization setup to standardize Square Dance calls. This enables one to dance anywhere in the world! (Square dancing calling is always in English.)
The official definitions can be downloaded from there. They are large PDF files, and can be a bit intimidating for newcomers.
Square Dancing Clubs and Associations:
CSRDS - The Canadian Square and Round Dance Society promotes Square Dancing and handles liability insurance for Square and Round Dancing events in Canada.
BCSRDF - The BC Square and Round Dance Federation promotes dancing in BC.
LVIWSRDA - The Lower Vancouver Island Western Square & Round Dance Association has information dancing on the southern end of Vancouver Island.