 Some scholars think that the chorus was divided in two halves, who would each have their own leader; at the beginning and close of their performance, the two halves performed as a single group, but during most of the performance, each half would compete with the other, claiming that their leader or favorite was the best of all the girls in Sparta.There is, however, little evidence that the chorus was in fact divided.The role of the other woman of Alcman's first partheneion, Aenesimbrota, is contested; some consider her indeed a competing chorus-leader, others think that she was some sort of witch, who would supply the girls in love with magic love-elixirs like the "pharmakeutria" of Theocritus's Second Idyll, and others again argue that she was the trainer of the chorus like Andaesistrota of Pindar's Second Partheneion

Alcman could have composed songs for Spartan boys as well.