One of My Favorite Resources

One of my favorite caller (and dancer!) resources these days is a website called Taminations. It is a site run by the Tam Twirlers Square Dance Club in San Rafael, California. Located at http://www.tamtwirlers.org/index.html, it is directory of square dance calls from Basic through C3. In addition to the definition, each of the calls are animated. You can press play and have the call danced through in its entirety or you can use the slide bar to move the "dancers" through the call bit by bit. I love it.

For dancers, it is a great way to get a bird's eye view of how the call actually works. A dancer can see the definition and watch as the call plays out. Also, they can pick and track a particular dancer to learn each of the various positions.I think it is a great learning tool for dancers to learn the definitions and get a feel for how all the calls work. I recommend it to all the new dancers who want a more thorough understanding of the calls.

For callers, it is a great way to learn the flow of each of the calls. Watching each of the dancers move is a quick way to determine potential issues with calls delivered both before and after the call. It is also a wonderful way to explore the multiple applications of each call. Taminations has animated each call from various formations- both standard and DBD. These animated formations allow callers to explore options  that they may not have previously considered.

I have learned a lot from this site. In the past, I was told that you should be able to dance a level higher than what you call. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to take Challenge classes so the Taminations site has given me an opportunity to explore and play around with some of the C1-C3 calls that I would not otherwise have.

Through the generosity of Tam Twirlers, this entire resources is also available for download so that you can use it offline. Just follow the instructions for downloading and then you can view it through your browser even when you are not connected to the internet. Originally, the package did not work well with Internet Explorer,  but it worked perfectly with Firefox (a free downloadable browser). I am not sure if that has been remedied, but it is well worth the trouble to install Firefox if necessary (now I use Firefox almost exclusively!)

If you have not had the pleasure of visiting this site, take the time now to do so. You might learn something new too!