Dancers who are side-by-side and facing the same direction (i.e., a Couple)
work together as a single dancer to do the given call.
As Couples means that two side-by-side dancers act as if they were one person.
of the Couple acts as the left hand of the person, and the
of the Couple acts as the right hand of the person.
When interacting with other couples,
the Beau uses only the left hand,
and the Belle uses only the right hand.
Do not allow any other dancers to physically come between you and the other dancer in your Couple.
Keep your inside hands joined together so that no other dancers can come between you.
As Couples is like a 'sack race'. The two dancers in the Couple work together as a single dancer.
Teamwork and cooperation are required.
Doing calls As Couples takes longer than doing the call normally.
Don't rush it!
For calls that normally involve couples
(e.g., Couples Hinge; Wheel & Deal), remember that
each couple must still work as one individual dancer.
Hence the 'dance units' in such calls become 4-dancer units.
As Couples is a CONCEPT, not a call. A CONCEPT
works like the child's game "Simon Says". If the caller wants you to work
As Couples, (s)he must say 'As Couples' before each command. The
caller may give a series of calls preceded by 'As Couples', but then,
without warning, may give a call without saying 'As Couples'.
You must listen carefully to know
when to stop working 'As Couples' and do the call normally. For example,
starting from Facing Lines,
the caller could say "As Couples Pass The Ocean; As Couples Swing Thru;
As Couples Centers Run; Bend The Line". In this case, the Bend The Line
is done normally, not As Couples.
As Couples is probably the first square dance CONCEPT
to which you will be introduced. As such, you need to understand how to
apply the concept to the command delivered by the caller.
- If the prefix part of a square dance command is a concept,
the concept applies to the entire command,
even if the command contains multiple calls and/or other concepts.
For example, if the caller uses one phrase to say
'As Couples Recycle, Sweep 1/4', then
the As Couples CONCEPT applies to both the Recycle
and the Sweep 1/4.
- Mathematically, a concept is distributive. That is,
concept anything1 anything2 ... anythingN
is equivalent to
concept (anything1 anything2 ... anythingN)
which is equivalent to
- Square Dance terminology does not have a precise way to include
parentheses in a command. As such, the caller must use delivery techniques
to differentiate between calls such as
'As Couples (Recycle & Roll)' versus '(As Couples Recycle) & Roll'.
The caller may accomplish this via intonation, pauses, and/or helper words.
- If, as one phrase, the caller says As Couples Recycle & Roll,
then the Roll is done As Couples.
- If the caller says As Couples Recycle, then pauses,
and later says Roll, then the Roll is done normally.
- In most cases, however, it is preferable for the caller to add extra
helper words. For example, in the first case (As Couples Roll),
the caller could say Working As Couples (pause, then said
quickly) Recycle & Roll or alternatively the caller could
say As Couples Recycle As Couples Roll. For the second case
(normal Roll), the caller could say
As Couples Recycle, Individually Roll.
Tandem CONCEPT [C1]:
A Tandem unit consists of one dancer immediately behind another.
Both dancers must be facing the same direction. The two dancers work together
as if they were a single dancer to do the given call. Tandem is similar
to As Couples, but instead of being side-by-side, the dancers are
Siamese CONCEPT [C1] :
Siamese means 'As Couples or
That is, the Couple dancers work As Couples, and the others work In Tandem to do the given call.
Solid CONCEPT [C2]:
Designated dancers or dancers within a designated formation work as a unit
(similar to As Couples or Tandem) to perform the given call.
Couple Of 3 [NOL]:
A one-faced Line of 3 dancers work as a unit.
Single Concept [C3A,C3B,C4]:
In the Single version of a call, each dancer
executes the movement that would normally be done by a set of two dancers
within the normal version of the call. For a call to have a Single version,
it must be possible to group all dancers into sets of two,
in which the dancers in each set are always facing the same direction thoughout the
given call. The dancers in each set are usually dancing their portion of the call
Once Removed, or
(or some combination of these concepts).
You can think of Single as replacing each set of two dancers with a single dancer located exactly
half-way between the two dancers. This single dancer then executes the given call
always staying on a path located exactly half-way
between where the two dancers would be in the normal version of the call.
See also Single Wheel [A2].