DANCE FORMATIONS
Longways Set
A dance formation with couples arranged in two lines down the hall. When facing the band, men usually stand in the left hand line and women opposite them in the right hand line. The top couple is the couple nearest the band. Some dances require some couples to be ‘improper’, which means that each member stands on the opposite to the normal or ‘proper’ side.
Becket Formation
A Longways Set in which partners stand alongside each other facing another couple in the opposite line.
Quadrilles
Dances that use a square formation, usually for four couples, with each couple forming one side of the square. The top couple have their backs to the band. The top and bottom couples often do the movements first, so if a dance is new to you it’s best to be a side couple so you can observe and copy them.
Sicilian Circle
A circle made up of multiple sets of four people, with each couple facing another couple to create one big circle of couples around the hall. Typically during the course of the dance each couple will progress around the hall in the direction they originally face (i.e. clockwise or anti-clockwise).
SOME DANCE TERMS
This is a list of terms that dance callers need to use to be able to quickly communicate their instructions. The best way to learn the movements described below is to dance them! Do not be put off by the complexity of some of these descriptions. That is just further evidence that it’s better (and easier) to learn the movements by doing them! In other words, this is a list to consult after you’ve been dancing. It is condensed and adapted from one at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_country_dance_terms. (Accessed September 2019)
| Back to back | When facing another person, each moves forward passing right shoulders and walks backwards to place passing left shoulders (unless otherwise directed). |
| Cast off | The active couple turn away from each other and go behind their line of dancers and move one or more positions down the set as directed. |
| Corners | In a two-couple set, the dancer diagonally opposite. i.e. the first man and the second woman (first corners), first woman and second man (second corners). |
| Cross over / pass | Change places with another dancer by moving forward and passing by the right shoulder, unless otherwise directed. |
| Do-si-do | An Anglicised version of the French dos–à-dos. – see Back to back. |
| Hands across | – see Star |
| Grand chain | In a circle formation, partners face each other. They take right hands and walk past each other to take the left hand of the next dancer, the right hand of the next and so on for a certain number of times as directed. |
| Gypsy | Two dancers circle around each other while looking into each other’s eyes. The call will be to Gypsy right or Gypsy left. |
| Hey (straight) for four | Four dancers face alternately in the line, the two in the middle facing the ends. Dancers pass right shoulders on either end and weave to the end opposite. If the last pass at the end is by the right, the dancer turns right and re-enters the line by the same shoulder; vice versa if the last pass was to the left. Dancers end in their original places. Alternatively, the two in the middle can start the Hey and pass by the right or left shoulder, as directed. |
| Hey (straight) for three | The first dancer in the line faces the other two and passes right shoulders with the second dancer, left shoulders with the third – the other dancers moving and passing the indicated shoulder. On making the last pass, each dancer makes a whole turn on the end, bearing right if the last pass was by the right shoulder or left if last pass was by the left, and re-enters the figure returning to place. (Each dancer has made a figure of eight pattern.) |
| Ladies chain | With couples facing each other, the two women join their right hands, pull past each other and give their left hands to the opposite man. As they do that the women put their right hands on their hips, so that the men can put their right hands there, and turn as a couple to face the other couple again. (This movement is called a ‘courtesy turn’.) ‘Half a ladies chain’ takes a woman to the opposite side. A ‘full ladies chain’ means she chains a second time to return to where she started. |
| Lead up / down | Couples join inside hands and travel up or down the set. |
| Neighbour | The person you are standing beside who is not your partner. |
| Opposite | The person you are facing. (In some dance formations your opposite can also be your neighbour. E.g. In a longways set when you are facing your partner across the set but then turn to face up or down the set to form groups of four with your partner by your side.) |
| Rights and lefts (with hands) | In a two couple set, pull past your opposite with the right hand, then your (progressed) partner with the left hand, and make two more changes of position to return to where you started. (You will have travelled around the sides of a square.) If the call is ‘without hands’ pass by right and left shoulders. If the call is ‘two changes of rights and lefts’ OR ‘half rights and lefts’ you only make two changes of position. |
| Star | Dancers (usually four) join right or left hands in the middle of their circle and walk in the direction they face. A handshake hold with your opposite is preferable to grasping the wrist of the person in front of you. |
| Swing ** | A turn with two hands, but moving faster and making more than one revolution. |
| Turn | Give both hands to someone and make a complete circular clockwise turn to place. |
| Turn by right / left | Dancers join right or left hands and make a complete circular turn to place. |
| Turn single | Individual dancers turn around in four steps. ‘Turn single right shoulder’ is a clockwise turn; ‘turn single left shoulder’ is an anti-clockwise turn. |
| Up a double and back | A movement in which dancers (usually having linked hands in a line facing the band) take 3 steps forward, closing the feet on the 4th step, and then do the same movement backwards. |
** There are many types of swings. A common one is a pivot swing using a ballroom hold, with partners’ right feet placed alongside each other and the left feet used to push off (as when riding a scooter). In Irish dances a ceili / ceilidh hold may be used for a pivot swing, with partners taking left hands in a handshake hold and slipping their right arms inside the left arms to put their hands on their partner’s hip.
