In my experience the best callers have done a lot of dancing, understand how tunes are constructed as well as how musicians treat tunes, have some experience at learning new things (so they understand how easy it can be to make mistakes and misunderstand) and can simplify complexities and give clear, unambiguous instructions with enough time for dancers to comprehend and act in time with the music. Good voice projection is essential. Lots of those can be difficult just by themselves. let alone in combination. And a good dance band understands that the dancers have priority; many good concert bands find it difficult to keep their collective (and necessary) egos in check

I find the different traditions of naming interesting. Most dances of Australia's colonial era came from Britain (however defined) but many came from other parts of Europe as well as from America as a result of the gold rushes. Because many dances were done where there were no women available there was a tradition of "buck sets", where those men taking the women's parts would slip a scarf or large hanky through their belt at the hip. Several have argued that their wearing of heavy boots hindered the ability to do much of the more intricate stepping such that the footwork slowed down, requiring the music to speed up a bit to keep the 'up tempo' character of the dances 'up tempo'.

Long sets here usually have 'gent' on the caller's right and 'ladies' on the caller's left although, when I was doing such dances with lots of kids who seem to believe that they can pick up gender germs, I'd ask for 'kangaroos' on my right and 'wallabies' on my left; it worked well. When the Galopede was collected from Nariel the long sets went the full length of the hall and might have 20 or more couples and the Nariel band only ever played the one tune for the whole dance. When the folk revival brought its traditions to Nariel festivals the notion of changing tunes took on, although not with the same interest in regularity.

Quadrille sets here have couples numbered "1" or named "Top" (backs to the band), "2" or "bottom" (facing the band) and "sides", with "3" on the caller's right and "4" on the caller's left. Some older callers will call "from the floor" while dancing but most call from the stage. Formations with couples facing couples (eg Soldiers' Joy" are, here, termed "Sicilian Progressive" with multiples used colloquially such that "The Dashing White Sergeant" (a line of three facing a line of three) may be termed a "one and a half Sicilian progressive" and a "Siege of Ennis" (a line of two couples facing a similar line) may be termed a "double Sicilian progressive". These can be done in lines of sets down the hall but will require some dancers to stand and wait a turn when they reach the ends. To avoid this, all except the last are usually formed up as circles around the floor so that progression is around the hall, leading to a great shout as the original members of the sets meet up. The band then knows it can finish on that tune it regards as the best high note of the bracket.

In my experience "The Waves of Tory" is most easily learned when the set has an odd number of couples and seven couples doing the waves fits the original tune well. The usual tune (32 bars played twice through) usually leads to bands playing brackets of three tunes (the original plus two others) twice through and fininshing with the original tune. Dancers seem to like this 'reassurance in repetition' and it allows bands with limited repertoires or scratch bands with few tunes in common to get a good dance going.

A caller who is familiar with such trivia can be most helpful.

Cheers, Rowan