“AccepDance” – “World Dance Calling in English Language Teaching” seminar recap 2025

Editor’s Note: I would like to thank the Liesel Hermes Stiftungsfonds for funding the “World Dance Calling” project in the summer term 2025. The late Liesel Hermes (1945-2021) was Professor of English at the University Koblenz-Landau from 1992 to 2002, and Rector at the University of Education Karlsruhe from 1990 to 1992 and 2002 to 2011.  We worked together in both places for 2 decades and shared many academic interests and good moments. 

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Background and (pedagogical) value
3. Open House World Dance
4. Workshop with Andreas Hennecke
5. School projects
6. Conclusion

 

1. Introduction 

The Master seminar “World Dance Calling for the English Classroom” is an evolving course and the decolonized version of a seminar about Square Dance and English language teaching in the primary classroom that Prof. Isabel Martin offered at the University of Education Karlsruhe between 2012 and 2019 in the context of a larger LTTA aaproach (“Learning Through The Arts”). The pandemic ended it.

The new seminar offers a transdisciplinary approach that combines English language teaching, dance pedagogy, sports, and music and can be integrated into any other school subject. It was open to students of primary education, secondary education, and international students. Half of the seminar participants were international students, who enriched the seminar with their folk dances and global perspectives on teaching and learning. Occasionally the Ghanaian-German ASA Team XV joined the group as well.

The Liesel-Hermes Foundation funded the collaboration between professional dance Caller Andreas Hennecke and Prof. Martin in the summer term 2025. They designed a diverse, informative, and entertaining seminar plan that aimed at teaching students the necessary skills to call and teach dances themselves in their classrooms and then carry out school projects, to be documented and discussed at the end of term.

After two preparatory sessions, our “Open House” World Dance evening was the first opportunity for us students to feel the magic of (line/square) dancing together and seeing how an experienced Caller can get a large group of inexperienced dancers to form a cohesive group, have fun together, and successfully dance the dances. The “Open House” was followed by two full-day “Calling and Teaching” workshops, where Andreas shared his extensive knowledge and experience with us, the students of this seminar. He provided us with the necessary skills and knowledge so we could practise and learn to call dances ourselves. With a few more practice sessions during regular seminar time, this ultimately enabled us to develop and conduct teaching units for five primary and secondary schools in the larger Karlsruhe area. After teaching those lessons, our school projects were documented, presented, and critically discussed in the final seminar sessions.

Besides square and line dance we also experimented with other dances from different parts of the world, and we discussed how those dances could be integrated into the (English) classroom. Everyone was welcome to bring a dance to class, demonstrate it to the seminar group, and make up Calls t0 teach the dance to the fellow-students. Ms Phennapha and Ms Chindavone, who are international students from Laos and co-authors of this post, brought a traditional Lao Dance which they also performed at the “Open House”. Maria and Krystallenia shared a Greek Dance with us. Afterwards, Sara from the ASA Team XV shared a dance with us that she knows from Syria, and she noticed that there were similarities between this dance and the Greek one that Maria and Krystallenia had shared with us before. Furthermore, Eli – also of the ASA Team XV and from Ghana – shared a dance from his region, which he later also performed at the “Open House”. Finally, Maya – another ASA Team XV member – brought a hiphop dance, as she enjoys dancing hiphop. As it turned out, some of these dances (e.g. the Greek and hiphop ones) can also be called, which would be a way of integrating them into English/sports lessons. It was amazing to learn these dances together, try out the new movements and hear about the occasions when the presenters would dance these dances and learn more about their personal history with these dances.

 

2. Background and (pedagogical) value – by Sarah Loehle

Square Dance is usually danced in fours (a square) but it can be expanded by having the whole group dance in one big formation (e.g. a large circle or in two facing lines). The dancers follow the calls of the caller. “Calls” are the names of the figures and steps. Therefore, dancers do not follow a fixed choreography, but are given the next call a moment before they have to react and dance it. Only the caller knows which call comes next. A graduate of a square dance class knows 70 calls, a professional caller knows up to 2,000 calls. The calls are all in English, though some calls are rooted in other languages, like French or German, which hints at the historical development of this dance.

While there are many dances in square/line dancing that do not require dancers to have an immediate dance partner, in many other dances two dancers form a couple. In some dances, a couple may sometimes dance with another couple (this makes a “square”). Nevertheless, this does not mean that you only dance with one partner for the entire dance. In Square Dance, configurations and partners usually change multiple times during one dance. However, an experienced Caller has the ability to bring back together the original couple at the end of the dance.

Square Dance has its roots in Europe, for example in the French Quadrille or English Country Dance. The Europeans brought these dances to America in the 17th and 18th century. There, the dance styles merged and new dances emerged. “Calls” were established to organize the dancefloor. After World War II, Square Dance became popular in Europe. Today, Square Dance is still popular in the United States of America (and sometimes part of the school curriculum), but it also spread to other countries, mainly in the global North.

The goal of the “World Dance Calling for the English Classroom” seminar was for the students to become “Young Callers” and to integrate calling dances into school lessons, as this has several benefits for the classroom. Square dancing can easily be integrated into other school subjects (e.g. maths, history, arts & crafts). In maths, for example, it can help clarifying spatial relationships, geometric transformations, and the understanding of patterns through movement and physical experience, making abstract geometrical ideas more tangible and easier to understand. In the English classroom, it can be an action-oriented approach to language learning, especially at primary and lower secondary levels. Through Total Physical Response, children easily learn and remember words and chunks by connecting them to the movement, repeatedly. In general, Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method developed by James Asher that connects language and physical movement to promote natural learning and memory. It emphasizes comprehension through action, low anxiety, and allows students to begin speaking when they feel ready rather than through forced repetition. In this sense, integrating Square and Line Dance in the English classroom can serve as a playful and motivating form of TPR, helping students to internalize language patterns while moving and interacting.

Additionally, calling dances has many benefits for older learning groups as well. In general, dancing together fosters social learning, spatial orientation, memory, collaboration, and (transgenerational) solidarity. In our case, it is a powerful way to improve and deepen classroom relations and solidarity among the pupils as well as between the pupils and the teacher. This is why our cooperation schools welcomed our projects, and asked for a continuation when they ended. Those effects became obvious quickly to us. During our “Open House” dance event, we first realized how calling dances can bring people together.

 

3. Open House World Dance – by Phennapha Xaiyasen

The first Open House “World Dance” was part of the seminar “World Dance Calling for the English classroom” but was open to the public. It took place on the 16^th of May 2025 in the university sports hall. Prof. Isabel Martin was able to hire professional Caller Andreas Hennecke for the evening as she won the support of the Liesel Hermes Foundation. Andreas guided and called the dancers through the evening. Some 60 people attended our “Open House”: pupils with their parents, (PH) students (including former and international students), a “Young Caller” from the first cohort of 2012, English teachers, university lecturers, as well as friends and family. For most of the visitors, it was their first time dancing these kinds of dances.

 

This was also my first time I danced with strangers. Since this event was not only for participating students, but also for outsiders, I was able to meet and get to know people across generations and from other places. Our seminar group had prepared finger food to share in the break, Prof. Martin brought drinks and snacks, and Sarah had made arrow signs that led visitors to the right hall. And since Andreas is a dance instructor, the event was fun and well-organized. While there were a lot of people in attendance, he managed to keep the atmosphere joyful throughout and had everything under control as the dancing progressed smoothly for the most part (with a hall full of mostly inexperienced square dancers, some constructive chaos and uncertainty cannot be prevented for a whole evening and is part of the fun).

Almost nobody knew what to expect. We were told it does not matter if you have no prior skills or experience. Andreas guided us through the dances step by step, gradually increasing the level of difficulty and complexity. The more complicated calls and steps he would either demonstrate himself, let experienced dancers demonstrate or show us by walking a voluntary couple through the individual steps. Some calls we would practise once or twice before he would start calling, but mostly he would just join us on the dance floor and start calling, slowly and without music, and we would figure out the steps by listening to his precise calls and watching what he and a few experienced dancers would do. This inevitably caused some constructive chaos and much, much laughter and joy. If you did not know what to do or temporarily forgot what a certain call meant, your partner or the rest of the group would just pull you along. Everyone was very cooperative, considerate, open, and nice. However, when we did not get something right away or it was too fast, Andreas would take a step back without us even noticing and start again in a way that would help us grasp what was going to happen more easily.

 

I learned so many things from this event such as unity, friendship, and new dance styles. It was not just any dance, because you have to use your body, whether it is jumping, swinging, walking forward and backward, which I think is very unique and it gave me a lot of confidence as someone who had never done anything like this before. I am so glad I made the right decision to take this class. Even though I am an IT student, I decided to take this “World Dance Calling in English Classroom” seminar because I wanted to try something new – and it was so worth it to be a part of it. Because I can now use it to teach children, and I am doing it now as an English tutor assistant (back home in Laos), starting with simple Action Songs like “Hokey Pokey”, which Prof. Martin taught us and I could have never imagined when I first tried this kind of dancing at the “Open House”.

Additionally, my colleague Chindavone Sisoulath and I had been asked to contribute a traditional Lao dance to the “World Dance” night. I mustered up my courage and prepared for a while, afraid that I would make a mistake. But in the end, the result was good, the visitors all praised our dancing, saying that it was really cool because we danced and twirled our hands to the rhythm, which they said was beautiful but very difficult for them. But almost everyone tried to follow along and enjoyed it very much. For this performance, we wore our traditional attire, which is called “Sinh” and “Pabiaeng”.

My classmate Eli Attipoe also performed his traditional Ghanaian dance, which was very energetic, fun, and fast. The dance consisted of a fast song and quick movements, but I thought it was easy to follow the movements after a while because they repeated themselves. However, you have to make these movements fast, catch the rhythm, and stay on time.

Another highlight and surprise for us that evening was seeing and hearing Nicole Namyslo-Wegmann, a “Young Caller” of the very first Square Dance seminar in 2012, call. She called her “Pippi Langstrumpf” (Pippi Longstocking) dance to the typical “Pippi song” (German version: here), which was much fun. Nicole teaches primary education, so the dance fitted primary pupils, but that does not mean that it was too childish for us. The whole group joined enthusiastically and had a lot of fun. For us seminar participants, at the beginning of our journey to becoming “Young Callers” ourselves, it was fascinating to see someone who was in our position once confidently calling a dance at a public event.

Besides lots of dance practice, we also had a very extensive and delicious buffet. Everyone in our seminar group prepared different finger food and some of our guests also contributed mouth-watering snacks. Andreas incorporated two larger breaks so everyone could recharge their energy and taste the food. These breaks were a wonderful opportunity to talk to many different people and make new connections or catch up with old friends and acquaintances. The camaraderie and good spirits from the dancing spilled over into the breaks, making the whole evening a very pleasant and very, very successful event.

Finally, we are very happy to have been a part of this event. We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin, who is our professor, for accepting us as students and giving us this opportunity to show our traditional dance to the audience. We are glad that we could contribute to the great mood that evening with only happy faces and much laughter to be seen and heard throughout the whole evening.

 

4. Workshop with Andreas Hennecke – by Luisa Fritz

Have you ever experienced such a Square Dance get-together? For those who are willing to give it a try: the first time is in fact quite chaotic and challenging but also a whole lot of fun. Our seminar was up for this challenge, not only to bring in some understanding of what is going on as a dancer, but also to learn how to “call” a group on the dance floor and make them experience the joy of communal dancing.

Our seminar had the pleasure of meeting Andreas Hennecke, our Caller-Teacher, on several occasions this semester. Two of those occasions were the workshops that he led for us on two Saturdays directly after the Open House. Let me tell you about those 6-hour workshops.

“Now that you have experienced a Square Dance get-together, on a scale of 0 to 10, how confident do you think you will be in calling yourself?” This was one of the first lines Andreas said to us when the first day of the workshop started. With more and less shy characters in our group, different cultures, and students who basically did not know each other, it was not a surprise that we ranked ourselves at around 5 and lower. I can already let you know that the number kept on rising, reaching 10 for almost everybody in our group at the end of the workshop. This was not and is not a surprise because Andreas kept his workshop practical with sessions of dancing, teaching, and calling, and some theoretical input (e.g. about musical phrasing) for us to think about.

What we all learned during the seminar is that calling a dance is not easy on one’s mind. Andreas drew a parallel picture to teaching: you basically have to juggle about 20 things at the same time, people, dance moves, timing, music, volume, the room, a fun element for entertainment, chaos…

During the workshop we looked at all those elements a Caller has to think about. This includes the room, the acoustics, the floor, the setting, the cohesiveness of the group, and the regular challenge of having three different timings to consider (e.g. dance time, command time, and response time). Furthermore, the theoretical input also consisted of the preparation a caller needs to do, e.g. how to choose music that fits the dancers and dancing, and practical tips which ease the teaching of a particular group, e.g. which music for which age, which dances to start with, how to introduce calls implicitly, what parts of calls are difficult for young students. For example, combining a call with the rhythm produced by hands or feet is one way of chunking information together and can build up to “body flow”.

As we were a group of future teachers, one perspective struck me in particular: the gap between theory and practice. It is astonishing that we often think we can put our theoretical knowledge into practice just like that – and then of course it does not work how we want it to work. In my perspective, the workshop reflected exactly what learning is all about: it is about trying out your knowledge, receiving feedback on it, putting this feedback into practice repeatedly until the whole process forms a working unit. Andreas’ workshop reflected exactly this: over the course of these two workshop days, each one of us had the chance to improve our acquired knowledge, applying it to different songs and dances, and grow more confident in calling a dance.

In my opinion, the workshop was a success. By the end of it, the course participants were able to choose a dance out of Andreas’ workbook, dance it and teach and call it to the group. Not only the theoretical and practical input made a lasting effect on us – also the positive social aspects of dancing had an impact on our group. It was noticeable that our group dynamics developed from being almost strangers to a group that trusted each other, learned from one another and together. As far as I can say, dance improves not only mental and physical health, it also brings together people – a practice that is worthwhile and needs to be shared.

A big thank you goes to Andreas Hennecke for hosting this fun and effective workshop and for sharing his expertise in Square Dancing.

 

5. School projects – by Chindavone Sisoulath

As part of our seminar, we had the opportunity to bring the idea of “World Dance Calling” into the real classroom. After acquiring the necessary teaching skills in the workshop, we planned engaging and interactive lessons lasting 45 to 120 minutes in small groups. Prof. Martin secured interest, permission, and contact teachers in several schools nearby, so we were able to try out our lesson plans in grades 1, 3, 5, and 9 at the Albert-Schweitzer Grundschule in Muggensturm (primary school), the Sebastianschule in Neuthard (primary school), the Wimsheim Grundschule School (primary school), the Sophie-Scholl Realschule in Karlsruhe (secondary school) and the Schule am Stromberg Gemeinschaftsschule Illingen-Maulbronn (secondary school). Thank you to all the principals, cooperation teachers, and pupils that helped us realise our projects.

Our seminar group split up into three smaller groups to prepare the lessons. My group taught in two schools: at the Albert-Schweitzer-Schule Muggensturm in 1st and 3rd grades and Sebastianschule in Neuthard in 3rd grade. In my group all of us were international students at PH University: Phennapha and I (Chindavone) from Laos, Carmen Mussner from Italy, and Maria Kallou and Thomai Krystallenia Katse from Greece. It was exciting to work in such a multicultural team because everyone contributed different ideas and teaching styles.

Before going to the schools, we carefully prepared and designed our teaching plans and practiced our dances together. We prepared a teaching plan that included dances like the Hokey Pokey, Maine Mixer, Bingo, and Grumpy March. We also practiced giving calls in English and to manage the timing and rhythm. Our first project took place at Sebastianschule Neuthard with two 3^rd grades.  The first class took 90 minutes with 16 students and the second class took 45 minutes also with 16 students in the music room.

To make the lesson more fun, Prof. Martin lent us some petticoats and hats as a surprise, to let the children guess ”what is in our big bag”. Some pupils said “hats”, “candies”, and “skirts”, which surprised us. During the lesson we took turns calling, demonstrating, like a starting and stopping the music at the right moment, match the activities and adjusting the volume and supporting students, which allowed everyone to practice in different roles (which a professional Caller performs all by him-/herself). It surprised us that the children learned how to dance so quickly and could understand English very well already. In the beginning, they were shy or unsure what to expect. Some of them were excited to join but some of them remained a bit shy. But at the end of the lesson, the whole class had joined and was enjoying the dances and even asked to dance more Hokey Pokey. This made us very proud and appreciated as Callers.

 

Our second project took place at the Albert-Schweitzer-Schule Muggensturm in 1^st and 3^rd grade. The first class took 45 minutes with 16 3^rd graders and the second class took 45 minutes with 19 students of a 1^st grade in the sports hall. In this school we also planned the same dances but we implemented changes and adapted our lessons according to our experiences from the last school. We dealt with the pupils who do not like dancing (or think they do not), motivate them to dance and enjoy the experience together with us.  For this school it was quite challenging for us because most of us cannot speak German as we are international students, but one of our group members, Carmen, speaks German very well. She could translate and communicate with the pupils while we spoke English, used gestures and demonstrated the calls and steps. The 3^rd grade understood us well and enjoyed the dances. The 1^st grade needed more reminders to stay focused. Another challenge was the location, it took place in the big sports hall, where it was very challenging to control the sound. We realized that for the future a microphone would be useful in such a large space. Despite the challenges, the children enjoyed the dances and were excited about our surprise, the skirts and hats. While they were dancing, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoyed dancing together.

 

 

The feedback from the schools was very positive. The children said the sessions were fun and exciting. Many of them asked to repeat their favorite dances such as the Hokey Pokey. Furthermore, the teachers noted how naturally English was integrated into the activity and how even shy students became active and cooperative. At the same time, we also saw what we should improve in the future, but these challenges gave us wonderful experiences. It was worth it and gave us confidence for our future teaching. The school projects showed that dance calling is much more than a playful activity, it is a new technique for learning English through dancing and movement. It also makes the school lesson fun and welcoming. I very much appreciate to have been part of this project. It was the best experience ever!

 

In our final seminar sessions, every group presented their projects and learnings. Surprisingly, the experiences were very similar, no matter the school form or grade. From first grade to 9th grade, every group faced similar challenges, and drew similar conclusions.

For example, all groups could have benefitted from using a microphone as the voices get easily lost in large rooms. Another challenge was how to deal with pupils who absolutely do not want to participate in this unfamiliar activity, distract the other students or refuse to follow the calls and therefore sabotage their group. In these cases, a close collaboration between the student teachers and the teachers is key, and ideally, the student teachers consult the teachers before the lesson even starts. In every group there were some pupils who did not want to participate and sat at the side for a while. However, they saw how much fun everyone was having and sooner or later they would join again.

The feedback at the end of the lessons was similar in all groups as well, high-lighting that the pupils had a lot of fun, even those who were sceptical at first, and that they enjoyed doing something together with all of their classmates. Additionally, it turned out that even for the youngest learners, the fact that the calls were given in English was not a problem, as they were directly contextualised by the movements that followed the musical phrasing – and some students even started calling along with us Young Callers. The longer the lesson lasted, the less apprehensive the students became, and they began to motivate and carry each other along. At the end, the same effects that could already be seen at the “Open House” also showed here, at every single lesson, with most students leaving with a smile and a sense of accomplishment.

 

6. Conclusion

All in all, the seminar demonstrated how theoretical knowledge, unconventional teaching techniques, English language learning, and practical, hands-on learning can be effectively combined, and how linguistic, cultural, motor, and social learning processes can be integrated (“embodied learning”).
From the beginning, the shared dancing, calling, and teaching fostered a friendly and cooperative atmosphere within our seminar group. During the semester, we not only developed subject-specific skills and further ideas for school projects, but also gained more self-confidence, authority, and a stronger presence as teachers. But the effects of the seminar go beyond our personal growth. Two schools have already decided to integrate the PHKA (Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe) project into their programmes as part of their “AccepDance” and “Hold-Together” initiatives, and a first workshop on the topic for in-service teachers was booked for October 2025 already, with another one planned for next year.

We had a blast this whole semester and can only recommend joining a Square or Line Dance party called by a professional at least once. If you want to experience this yourself and live close to Karlsruhe, we gladly invite you to join our next “Open House” in the sports hall of the University of Education Karlsruhe, on 7 November 2025, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. We would be happy to see you there, in Moltkestraße 10, and call for you!

 

Text by Sarah Loehle, Luisa Fritz, Phennapha Xaiyasen & Chindavone Sisoulath

Photos & videos by Isabel Martin, Miaoxing Ye & Sandra Stock