For those unacquainted with them, English barn dances are social occasions where, frequently, many of those present have little experience of this type of dancing. Easy dances are therefore a must.
This site gives the notation for a basic repertoire for a beginning caller (mostly, it must be said, for my own purposes). No claims to be comprehensive. It's just a list of some that as a beginning caller I use myself, mainly chestnuts plus a few that took my fancy. There are lots more around, but there's enough here to make a basic repertoire.
Being a beginning caller myself, I could use lots of help. Please mail me if there are mistakes, or better versions that I don't know about; also if you have suggestions for clearer explanations or points for callers to think about.
Is there other material that should form part of a basic repertoire? Should some of these be avoided or replaced? Anybody got any suggestions for Barn Dances Volume 2?
Most of these dances can be danced to either jigs or reels; likewise most of them expect 32-bar tunes. So if nothing else is specified, use any 32-bar jig or reel.
Some of these dances are traditional, others were recently composed and published. I've included authors and book titles where known. (Again please mail me with further information.) Not many have been taken from any one source; if I have done anyone wrong I apologise and will be glad to change or delete the entry. Dances taken from here should not be published for profit.
Last updated 10 June, 2002