Modern western square dance dance, like traditional square dance, is directed by a "caller". In modern western square dance the caller strings together a sequence of individual "square dance calls" to make a figure or sequence. These calls are the building blocks of the choreography that is danced by the individuals – square dancers – in the squares. There are eight people (four pairs of males and females, traditionally) in each square; at a dance there may be many squares. Generally speaking, each of these squares dances independently of each other, with the exception of specialty or "gimmick" dances, where there might be some
Traditional square dance tradition, descended from the 18th-century cotillion and the 19th-century quadrille, comprises primarily figures in which the action is initiated by a facing pair of couples, either the heads or sides. Many of the basic movements (such as "ladies chain" and "right and left") that make up the figures are common to the entire Northeastern repertoire. As in its ancestors the cotillion and quadrille, the movements in this style of square dance are synchronized with the phrases of the music. If the dancers know a particular dance by heart, they can execute it without calls, and indeed some communities that dance