Description
Date: September 12, 2026
Time: 9am – noon
Skill Level: all experience levels welcome, including those with no experience!
Class Registration Fee: $45
Find your voice in this introduction to calling traditional American dances. Calling dances is not as mysterious as it might seem: all participants will learn how to teach dances and call them. In addition, they will walk away with a packet of material to jump-start their own dance collection. We will focus on longways sets, reels, and circles – dances appropriate for barn dances, family dances, community dances, weddings, and homeschool gatherings. Class time will be spent dancing and calling: trial runs in a safe environment! All experience levels are welcome, including no-experience. The sole pre-requisite: a willingness to tell people what to do!
As a bonus, students in this class will be invited to try out their new skills by calling some dances at that night’s community barn dance!
Students need to bring: No supplies required. Students may want to bring a notebook and pen/pencil.
Since 2003, Sue Hulsether has traveled from coast to coast to lead dances in dance halls, schools, barns, and community centers. Her influence is wide, with dancers ranging from preschoolers to octogenarians, and in venues as diverse as the sidewalks of downtown Berkeley, school gyms in suburban St. Paul, street dances in rural Wisconsin, and summer camps in the mountains of Maryland. Her calling repertoire includes squares, contras, circle dances, longways whole-set dances, and play parties. And she dances with groups of all types, all ages, and all abilities.
