The Mainstream Committee is doing its biennial survey to determine if any calls should be added or removed from the Mainstream list. Given that CALLERLAB as a whole is trying to shorten the MS list, it seems silly to ask for additions to the list. So even though I really miss Fan the Top, I didn’t suggest putting it back on the MS list.

I did suggest dropping Circle to a Line. Here are the reasons I gave on the form:

It’s a Catch 22 call: if you teach it “right” (by the book), dancers have to learn “slide to a line” when they start to dance in public. If you teach “slide to a line”, (a) you?re teaching it “wrong” and (b) your dancers might run up against a group where they do it “right”. It’s not an easy teach, it doesn’t add much variety (at least in the U.S.) and there are plenty of other ways to get into facing lines. Callers have different ways of wording the call (“circle up four, head gents break to a line of four vs. “circle to a line”, etc.)

I’ve gotten to the point where I dread teaching this call (except at the Wilde Bunch, where we long ago gave up any pretense of doing it the “right” way, and unabashedly teach the way virtually everybody dances it).

First, it’s not an easy call to teach, assuming one’s teaching the “right” way. At the Texas Callers School last summer, one of the students talked for about 20 minutes, motivating and explaining the call before starting to teach it. Sure, there are ways to explain it and get dancers through it, including the silly twirl (I like the circle halfway, veer left while the outfacers California Twirl approach). But it always feels like a kluge to me.

Second, there’s the issue of how it’s defined vs. how it’s danced in real life. Recently, at a beginners’ class, I explained the issue to the students and taught them the way it’s danced by the local dancers. Immediately, the angels decided to start dancing it by-the-book, thereby proving me wrong. (Of course, if I had taught it by-the-book, the dancers would have done their usual slide to a line…like I said, it’s a Catch 22.)

I hardly ever use it; when I do, it’s a conscious decision…”oops, I haven’t called Circle to a Line in a while, better throw it in.” I prefer Lead Right, Veer Left, Bend the Line for getting from a squared set to facing lines with partners; if I really need them in sequence, I can add a Right and Left Thru or some equivalent.

In the US, it’s almost never called except after a Heads or Sides Lead Right. Occasionally, it’ll be called after a Centers Pass Thru, although with Plus floors, some squares will inevitably Single Circle to a Wave instead. In the US, it’s never called from any arrangement except normal couples. So it adds little choreographic variety, and it’s an awkward call for the end girl who’s supposed to twirl under (except that she doesn’t, because dancers hardly ever dance it by definition).

So I say, dump it. Some modular callers, who like to start everything from L1P/1P2P/Zero Lines, would need to learn some equivalents…let ’em. My guess is we could just stop calling it and the dancers would never miss it.