Editing Square dance (section)

==Numbering of couples==
[[File:Quadrille set five person set colonial ball at the Albert Hall.jpg|thumb|Quadrille variation involving five couples dancing at a Colonial Ball in the [[Albert Hall, Canberra|Albert Hall]], Canberra September 2016 ([[sepia tone|sepia]])]]

The four couples arranged in a square are called a set,<ref>Callerlab (2020-02-22). "Appendix B: Descriptive Terminology." ''Basic Dance Program Definitions. Callerlab.org,'' http://www.callerlab.org/Dance-Programs, p. 65. Accessed 2020-10-12.</ref> and each couple is numbered. Couple numbering in a square dance set usually begins with the couple nearest the head of the hall (the side of the room containing the musicians and caller, or, in the pre-caller era, the royal presence or other hosts or important guests). This couple is the ''first'' or ''number one'' couple.

If most figures are danced around the set, with one or more couples visiting the others in turn, the couples are likewise numbered around the set. In most surviving American square dance traditions, the couples are numbered counterclockwise: the second couple is to the first couple's right, the third couple is across from the first, and the fourth couple is to the left of the first. The first and third are ''head couples'' or ''heads'' (or, in older parlance, the ''first four''); the second and fourth are ''side couples'' or ''sides'' (formerly ''side four'' or ''second four'').

If most of the figures are danced between facing couples across the set, as in the 19th century quadrille and dances derived from it, the couple opposite the first is the ''second couple''. The first and second couples constitute the ''head'' or ''top'' couples (or the ''head and foot'' couples); the third and fourth couples are the ''side'' couples. In Irish set dances, the third couple (sometimes termed the ''first side couple'') is to the left of the ''first top couple''. The couples facing the first top and first side are the ''second top couple'' and the ''second side couple'' respectively.