Introduction
It is well recognized that many Challenge dancers do not understand basic square dancing positions and movements. This paper is written to clarify dancer positions for Challenge dancers.
This paper provides a discussion of Circulates in general. It is not the place to look for the definitions for these calls. The calls are defined by Callerlab up through C2. The Ceder Chests, published by Vic and Debbie Ceder, provide definitions for C1 through C3B calls and concepts. Vic Ceder's web site provides online definitions with lots of diagrams and commentary. This web site is highly recommended.
Click below to reach these sites:
Basic Positions
When you square up the formation looks like this:
 | The dancers are actually standing inside of a 4x4 grid which makes the squared up set look like this. |  |
The Grid
Notice that the 8 dancers are standing in a grid made up of 16 spaces, 4 on a side. This is a 4x4 grid, also called a 4x4 matrix or 16 matrix. Also notice that 8 of the spaces are not occupied by dancers. Those 8 spaces are still there.
The purpose of the grid is to show the relationship of the dancers to one another and the grid within the current formation setup.
A call may be generally done by 2, 4 or 8 dancers. Pass Thru is a 2 dancer call and uses a 2 dancer grid. If all 8 dancers in the square do a Pass Thru at the same time, each dancer only works with 1 other dancer even though all 8 dancers are moving. Likewise, Square Thru is a 4 dancer call. All 8 dancers in the square may do a Square Thru at the same time but the dancers work in 2 groups of 4 dancers.
The grid may change shape during the call. For example, the grid for a Pass Thru is 1 dancer wide and 2 dancers high. Halfway through the call the grid changes to 1 dancer high by 2 dancers wide. Likewise, Pass the Ocean starts is a 4 dancer call that uses a grid that is 2 dancers high by 2 dancers wide but changes to a grid that is 1 dancer high by 4 dancers wide at the end of the call.
You must always remember that you are always dancing in some kind of a grid setup. Sometimes it is a 4x4, sometimes 3x4, sometimes 2x4. There are many other grid setups you will encounter in Challenge dancing.
The Formations
The five basic formations described below always work within the framework of the basic 4x4 grid.
The basic position in square dancing is the squared up set which looks like this:
The next elementary position is the parallel line situation which looks like this:
This formation may have any of these formations:
The next basic formation is columns which look like this:
Like parallel lines, the dancers may be in a variety of combinations of facing directions in the column.
The next basic formation is diamonds which look like this:
The position of the points of the diamonds are not well-defined but may safely be assumed to be the ends of parallel lines. The centers are very often in an ocean wave but may be in some other line-type formation in some cases.
The next formation is the hourglass which looks like this:
This formation is like a diamond for the points but the center four are in a diamond.
There are many more formations available but this paper is limited to these six formations:
If the caller says "sides lead right" from a Squared Up Set, the formation will look like this:
|  |
The 8 dancers are now in a column that is 2 dancers wide by four dancers high. This is a 2x4 matrix. There are still 8 spaces in the original 4x4 grid that are not occupied by dancers. Those 8 spaces are still there.
If the caller then calls "step to a wave", the formation will look like this:
The dancers are then in parallel ocean waves and have adjusted their 2x4 formation from the spots in the 4x4 grid that they occupied after the previous call. The 8 empty spots are still there.
The dancers probably won't occupy the exact spots shown in the 4x4 grid after they have stepped to a wave. Dancers tend to keep columns closer together and lines/waves farther apart. Nevertheless, the correct alignment for the dancers is as shown in the diagram.
From a Beginning 8 Chain Thru formation
If the caller then calls "Pass Thru" the ending formation looks like this:
How many steps did it take do the Pass Thru? Probably 2 steps. Yet the dancers only moved one spot in the 4x4 grid. So a single step is not necessarily the same thing as circulating on spots in the 4x4 grid. And if the lines are far apart, as they often are on the dance floor, then more than 2 physical steps may be required to do the Pass Thru.
"So what?", you ask.
Let's take a momentary timeout to look at formation sizes and how big steps are. Depending on how big the steps are that dancers really take and how comfortable dancers are standing next to one another, a formation may actually have different sizes. For example, parallel lines may look like any of these:
These diagrams show dancers in facing lines and where they are positioned in the 4x4 grid. If the caller says, "Pass Thru.", the dancers must Circulate 1 spot forward even though the spots in the 4x4 grid are not the same distance apart in each example above. Your movement must relate to the spots in the 4x4 grid, not to any arbitrary step size or number of steps. This is critical. You must understand this and execute your movements based on spots in the grid, not physical steps. Dancer spacing is seldom uniform. Parallel line formations tend to be loosely spaced. In the 1st diagram above, Pass Thru should take 2 steps. In the 2nd diagram maybe only 1 step is required. In the 3rd diagram more than 2 steps might be required. Each situation is different because of the line-to-line spacing.
Let's also look for a moment at step size as steps relate to calls like Pass Thru.
Various sources in square dance documentation define a Pass Thru as a two step call. The first step brings you alongside the facing dancer and the second step brings you back-to-back with your original facing dancer.
Pass Thru starts from a 1x2 grid - only two spots. One step generally relates to only a halfway movement from one spot in the grid to the next spot. At the halfway point the grid changes to a 2x2 grid to accomodate the space required by the dancers. At the end of the call the grid resizes to 1x2. This is called "breathing".
Now that we have related steps to spots in the grid let's look at this example:
The caller calls "leads step ahead."
Where are the leads if they make 1 physical step? Did they move into the outside box in the 4x4 grid or are they standing on a line in the grid?
Remember, when they did a Pass Thru in a previous example, they had to take 2, or more, steps to do the Pass Thru. So where did they end up when they did the step ahead?
In all likelihood, the caller will probably call a Block or Stagger or Big Block or Split Phantom call from this formation at Challenge levels.
But wait a minute. Any of these 4 concepts above use a 4x4 grid that looks like this:
All the dancers are supposed to be standing in one of the spots in the 4x4 grid. Therefore the caller meant Circulate one spot or Press Ahead when he said step ahead. The dancer can't really be sure what the caller had in mind. The dancer has to be ready to adjust to the formation the caller really wanted. Remember, you cannot depend on a step being the same size in all situations.
Let's look at another situation:
The caller says "All Extend."
The ending formation should look like this:
The ending formation has 12 positions, 3 high by 4 wide. This is a 3x4 grid setup also called a 12 matrix because it contains 12 spots. In order get into this 3x4 grid when the extenders were only taking steps, everyone has to adjust or "breathe" the formation to get into the 3x4 grid. This same thing happens on a 1/4 tag and a 3/4 tag.
This diagram shows the 3x4 grid overlaid on the original 4x4 grid.
Incidentally, the 2 dancers in the outside line are supposed to snuggle up to one another so that the final formation looks like this:
So we see that Extend is involved in the step controversy, too.
The name "Extend" is a shortened version of "Extend the Tag". There are certain specified places where dancers should be while executing tags. Unfortunately "Extend" has also come to be equivalent to Press Ahead or sometimes only a 1/2 Circulate, depending on how the caller uses Extend in any particular formation.