The following information is published with ROUNDALAB's permission from the ROUNDALAB Reference Manual compiled by Richard & Jo Ann Lawson, 1987.
How Much Do You Pay Your Caller?
Footnotes (Washington State)
December 1984 issue
Here is an interesting article from Cues N Tips, Mason-Dixon Square Dancers Federation Inc.
Fancy Footwork by Barb McCann — How Much Do you Pay your Caller?
Taboo! Boo! Hiss! Shame on you! Gauche! Unheard of! Not done! I can already hear you exclamations! Talking about money is just not polite in our society. Well, I'm going to break the rule this one time. I've had this conversation with many cuer and various club presidents so many times that I felt I should share it with all of you.
Right now in this area cuers receive 50% to 75% less than the caller when they are working the same dance 2 x 2. Let's examine why that could be so and why it should not be so.
When round dancing started in California many years ago, it was not cued. The caller merely put the record on the turntable and the dancers performed the routine from memory, having learned the dance elsewhere. At the 2x2 the call was already there and owned his own equipment. He may have increased his fee to cover the purchase cost of the additional records.
A few years later, when live cues began, the caller or the caller's spouse often did the cueing. There was still a somewhat limited repertoire at that time, for obvious reasons. There was still just one car, one transportation bill, one set of equipment and so on. In some instances the caller and cuer are still team members.
In the Baltimore area, however, most of the cuers are cuers only, not callers. As cuers they have their own vehicle, transportation fees, equipment, records and other expenses. There are over 200 new dances written and released each year. It takes hours and hours at home to practice a new dance just to be able to cue it. Teaching a dance requires more preparation.
Let's take a look at the requirements for cuers and callers:
| Cuer | Caller |
|---|---|
| Sound Equipment | Sound Equipment |
| Records | Records |
| Microphone | Microphone |
| Clothes/shoes, etc. | Clothes/shoes, etc. |
| Meetings, clinics, workshops, seminars | Meetings, clinics, workshops, seminars |
| Hours of practice to cue | Hours of practice to call |
| Preparation to teach | Preparation to teach |
| Gasoline/car maintenance | Gasoline/car maintenance |
| Transportation | Transportation |
| Many evenings per week | Many evenings per week |
| Correspondence | Correspondence |
| Meals on the road | Meals on the road |
| Hotel/Motel, etc on the road | Hotel/Motel, etc on the road |
| Remote microphone | - - - - - - |
| 2½ to 3 hour dances | 2½ to 3 hour dances |
Why are cuers paid 50% to 75% less than callers? I don't know.
Roundalab Journal, April, 1985