In 2000, Calvin Campbell initiated a seminar called “Beginner Dance Leader Seminar (BDLS)” to be held on Saturday and Sunday before the annual CALLERLAB convention. This seminar has continued nearly annually. In 2015, the seminar name was changed to “Community Dance Leader Seminar (CDLS)” in an attempt to broaden its scope to include a variety of content useful to leaders of dance parties and community dance leaders. The seminar typically includes relevant topics presented by a variety of contributors who provide great value to our attendees.

Recent conversations between CALLERLAB members have included the importance of Dance Parties to our activity. We generally recognize that the purpose of dance parties is entertain social groups, introduce a variety of students to the art of square dancing, and/or recruit dancers desiring to join the recreational dancer activity.

The skills and material for each purpose are similar. The Committee for Community and Traditional Dance manage the Community Dance Program (CDP) List. In addition, we publish the CD Journal, support the content in the website dances.callerlab.org, sponsor the CDLS to provide CALLERLAB members with a variety of resources to use a limited number of basics to entertain and educate.

Please refer to the links below for content from some of the last few seminars.