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Making Lines

How to recover when your Hexagon "breaks down"

Let's face it. Squares break down. Hexagons do too -- probably more often. Besides the normal reasons why a square may break down, additional reasons conspire against a Hex. Square dance muscle memory can mislead. Dancers don't have the comfort of aligning themselves to walls. The changed angles and the extra dancers can make formations harder to see. Fifty percent more dancers in a Hex greatly increase odds that somebody will make some kind of mistake.

CALLERLAB adopted a method for dancers to make lines when Squares break down during patter calls. Unfortunately most dancers don't know this procedure. When a Square (or Hex) breaks down, somebody needs to take charge and declare, "Let's all go home and then make lines!"

  1. All dancers calmly return home.
  2. Heads smoothly Face Left while Boy backs into Partner's Home spot.
  3. Side couples adjust to face the head couple turning towards them.

If the caller happens to resolve instead of creating lines, the dancers who made lines with this method can very easily and quickly readjust to a Squared (or Hex) set.

Steps #2 and #3 above describe what's happening in the graphic animation.

Here are some square dance calls that precisely give the final position of the lines.

  1. Sides Lead Right
  2. Circle Four Right 1/4
  3. Lines, Forward and Back