The RFSDSF Coat of Arms, scanned directly from the T-shirt:

The Ray Fuller School of Dance and Street Fighting is famous throughout the world for the quality of the C-4 dancers it produced in the 1980's and early 1990's in the San Francisco Bay Area (including the Screaming Thunderbirds Division, who moved to the Boston area). The RFSDSF is legendary not merely for its innovative technique and style, but also for the lasting influence it's had on square dance terminology.

• "Never a Doubt" (in Latin, NUNQUAM DUBIUM), the RFSDSF motto, is the core of the RFSDSF philosophy. Never be intimidated by the prospect of impending failure; just keep dancing, and making any appropriate corrections (to symmetry, genders, facing directions, positions, etc.), and keep having fun.
  • It's called Square Dancing, not Square Standing, and there's no need to waste floor-time by giving up when you could be dancing. In some tape groups, the dancers get in the habit of stopping the tape at the first sign of trouble. This is a very bad habit, because it breaks the flow of the dance, and doesn't allow recovery skills to develop. It only takes a little bit of practice to recover from the most amazing blunders, with a remarkably high success rate. A few plausible guesses, followed by a few minor corrections to fix symmetry problems, and six times out of ten you can get your own partner for the Right and Left Grand. When you don't allow yourself to doubt, you can accomplish a lot. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
  • "They All Work (From Everywhere)": Every sequence can be made to work. Or close enough. The ability to correct mistakes (in yourself, or in others) is priceless. If you do the same sequence twice, and it works differently each time, but you get your partner both times, then the important thing is that you were having fun. Perfection should not get in the way of success, or fun.
• "When in doubt, make an Hourglass": The Hourglass reminds us of our mortality, and that time is too precious to waste. The Hourglass formation is a compromise, the best we can do at times.
  • An Hourglass is within an arm's reach of almost any formation, so at the higher levels it makes a better choice than facing lines for squares that have broken down. An Hourglass formation is very close to being Parallel Diamonds, and it can easily be turned into Lines or Waves by having the Centers Drop In; the Center 6 can Slide In/Out to make a Galaxy, or everyone can Circulate about 1/2 to make Columns. To make a 1/4 Tag, the Points just Face In, while the Centers adjust into a Wave. When you have an Hourglass, you can quickly be in a reasonable starting formation for almost any call!
  • If you've lost track of where you should be (maybe because you missed a call), and the people around you are also lost, you can start hourglassing: Just pick any spot, facing any wall, and start doing the next call. If possible, choose something compatible with the other half of the square, or some other square. Once you've got something, you can incorporate the lost dancers around you, and then start to correct things like handedness, sexes, and symmetry
• The Noose symbolizes consideration of others. If you show up late for tape group, or if you whine or misbehave, the group leader can tug ominously on the noose as a reminder that you can go elsewhere if you aren't having enough fun. The noose can also be used on small stuffed animals, for loss of moose-mentum.
  • "Momentum" is the smooth flow of the uninterrupted dance. Bad flow is often a sign that you're doing something wrong (perhaps just dancing to the wrong callers). The flow of the previous call should be a clue to what's coming next. When momentum is violated, the audible gasps and visible whiplash are a signal to others that they shouldn't be lulled into going in the flowing direction (and a signal to the caller that perhaps a word like "Mirror" or "Reverse" was skipped). Momentum can be lost by stopping the tape, or by the accumulation of small errors and distractions. When the square breaks down completely, it is often best to rewind the tape all the way to the beginning of the sequence and get a running start. At those times, we say that we need momentum (or, in honor of Dave Musso, "moose-mentum").
• The Switchblade reminds you that all is fair in love and C-4. The phrase "Out of my way, hairball" is a newer version of this idea. When the music is playing, you should be trying your hardest to keep dancing. You should dance quickly and decisively, even when you're not sure. If you ARE sure, you should exude confidence, and be willing to insist on getting your spot.
  • "Get to your spot quickly, before someone else does": Note that John Sybalsky's dictum ("If you don't know where you're going, don't go there") is the antithesis of this idea; it may be appropriate for a New Dancer class, but it is not the road to sure-footed high-level Challenge dancing. There is no room for wishy-washy hesitation. Ray Fuller's dancers know how to Ferris Wheel from a 3-and-1 line, and we don't complain (until after the tip).
  • "Honed" means being in peak form; knowing the calls with good reaction time, and being able to work with the square as a team. Rustiness is the opposite of being honed, and rust can start to set in after only a week or two.
  • "Peaked" refers to the timing of being honed, usually in the past tense. It's spelled the same as the word that means pale, sickly, or under-the-weather. After a big dance weekend, you might expect everyone would be honed and in peak form, but usually people are danced out. Don't be surprised if everyone seems to be making more mistakes than usual. Also, before a big weekend, dancing is often bad, and a dance session might quit early (so as not to "peak too soon").

And here are a few more bits of RFSDSF slang:

• "When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's time to add more tunnel." In order to build reaction speed, we can dance faster than normal, using a variable-speed tape player. This makes ordinary dances seem mellow and sedate. Similarly, to make hard dances seem easy, we can practice to tapes of even harder dances.
• "Blood" or "Blood on the floor" is the accumulation of dancers who are lost or confused. If half of the square is still going, but the other half is broken down, the dancers who are still working must keep doing their part (with phantoms, if necessary) for as long as they can, until the other dancers can join in. Unfortunately, this can be like wading through a sea of blood when the floor is cluttered with bodies.
  • Also, "First Blood" at a dance is the first time the caller calls something hard enough to break down some or most of the dancers.
• "Upper Body Strength" is the ability to establish formations from chaos, by reaching for real people instead of phantoms. When dancing in a bloodied square, if you are about to do something with a phantom that you should be doing with a real person, it is usually best to reach for the nearest available live body, to get them dancing again. Two dancers, with two hands each, should be enough to get most of the square going. Three good dancers with enough Upper Body Strength should be able to handle 112% of a square.
• "Take No Prisoners": Challenge dancing is supposed to be challenging. Sometimes the caller needs to just let the squares break down, rather than helping the slowest or weakest squares. This is similar to the modern "Wind in the Face" idea, that the dancers should be moving all the time, not waiting around for the next call.
• "Bone": Sometimes the caller will give an easy sequence, not necessarily short like an Opening Biggie, but easy enough that none of the squares have any trouble. This is like throwing a bone to a dog. It's not really nourishing, but the dog will be happy gnawing on it for a while. The easy sequence lets the dancers build confidence, and catch their breath, by restoring momentum.
• "Chunkying": Knees bent, feet apart, ready to move quickly in any direction -- the traditional stance for C-4 dancing and other martial arts.
• "Thrashing": Put on a tape that's a little bit too hard, turn up the speed so it's a little bit too hard, and dance to it anyway. Ideally, your recovery skills will be properly honed, and you'll just barely be able to cope with the number of errors in your square. "Dancing On The Edge" (always on the verge of breaking down, but still managing to succeed) is the ideal of Thrashing. Today this would be called something like Xtreme C-4.

And finally, here are a few simple ground rules for tape groups:

• Keep quiet while the music is playing. Sound effects are marginally acceptable, as are urgent cues (for example, "I need a man!" or "We're traded" or "'Split,' not 'Cross'!"). Chatting, even whispering while sitting out, can make it difficult to hear the calls.
• If you don't see something, ask at the end of the sequence. Between sequences, whether you came out right or not, it's OK to ask to stop the tape and either walk through the hard part, or do the sequence over. If the problem was "Just Calls" (doing the wrong call, or just being too slow remembering a definition), then there's probably no point in doing it over.
• If you get lost, make every effort to recover. Either try to figure out where you belong, or try to find a hole to fill. It only counts as breaking down if you're not in a position for the Right and Left Grand or Allemande Left; it only counts as a mistake if you don't get the correct partner or corner. You can always ask to do the sequence over, but the first try is the most important. Remember, Never a Doubt!

In recent years (~2001), Ray Fuller has been living in the San Diego area. It's rumored that Ray and Robin have been spotted occasionally at local dances.