The Grunions
The Grunions is an English Country Dance. It was devised by George Williams in 2026. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Grunions, Leuresthes tenuis, are a small sardine like fish which come out on the beaches of Southern California between March and August to mate under the light of the full (and new) moons. In the hours after the highest tides they surf the waves to the tideline, the females bury themselves halfway in the sand to lay eggs while the males swarm around them on the beach.
This dance attempts to emulate grunions. At the start, the grunions are swimming in the ocean with occasional scouts coming onto the beach. Then a big wave takes everyone onto the beach. Everyone swarms around W1, eventually leaving in different directions. Then another wave comes, and takes the grunions with it into the ocean where they go back to milling around, seemingly at random.
The dance becomes a 3 couple dance if, in the last 4 bars, it is the 3s who face up (rather than the 1s). However, I like having the multiple waves you get in a triple minor. Another simple change turns it into a triple progression triple minor, which might have the best of both.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dances of George Williams (including this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-8 | 1s cast down, 3s cast up, 2s lead up, morris mirror heys |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s cast below 3s |
| 3-4 | 1s lead up, collecting first the 3s, then the 2s to a line of six facing up (from left to right: M2,M3,M1 W1,W3,W2) | |
| 5-6 | line of six lead up | |
| 7-8 | line of six set, end facing W1 | |
| B1 | 1-8 | W1 sets in place for 8 bars (avoid side to side setting, possibly rotating). W3+2 and M3+2 form a dolphin (acting in tandem, changing leads at ends), M1 pass W1, then W3+2 right to start a hey for three across. Ending with the 1s facing up, others down. |
| B2 | 1-2 | All set, 1s face down on last count to make a line of six. |
| 3-4 | line of six lead down | |
| 5-8 | 2s two hand turn in place and end facing out, as 1s face up, then handy-hand turn 3s once and a quarter (1s end facing out). |
| A1 | 1-8 | 1s cast down, 3s cast up, 2s lead up, morris mirror heys |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s cast below 3s |
| 3-4 | 1s lead up, collecting first the 3s, then the 2s to a line of six facing up (from left to right: M2,M3,M1 W1,W3,W2) | |
| 5-6 | line of six lead up | |
| 7-8 | line of six set, end facing W1 | |
| B1 | 1-8 | W1 sets in place for 8 bars (avoid side to side setting, possibly rotating). W3+2 and M3+2 form a dolphin (acting in tandem, changing leads at ends), M1 pass W1, then W3+2 right to start a hey for three across. Ending with the 1s facing up, others down. |
| B2 | 1-2 | All set, 1s face down on last count to make a line of six. |
| 3-4 | line of six lead down | |
| 5-6 | 2s move in, 1s and 3s face up individually (turning toward neighbor) and 1s gate the 3s a quarter. | |
| 7-8 | 1s gate the 2s below half. |
| A1 | 1-8 | 1s cast down, 3s cast up, 2s lead up, morris mirror heys |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s cast below 3s |
| 3-4 | 1s lead up, collecting first the 3s, then the 2s to a line of six facing up (from left to right: M2,M3,M1 W1,W3,W2) | |
| 5-6 | line of six lead up | |
| 7-8 | line of six set, end facing W1 | |
| B1 | 1-8 | W1 sets in place for 8 bars (avoid side to side setting, possibly rotating). W3+2 and M3+2 form a dolphin (acting in tandem, changing leads at ends), M1 pass W1, then W3+2 right to start a hey for three across. Ending with the 1s facing up, others down. |
| B2 | 1-2 | All set, 1s face down on last count to make a line of six. |
| 3-4 | line of six lead down | |
| 5-8 | 2s two hand turn in place and end facing out, as 3s face up, then handy-hand turn 1s once and a quarters (1s end facing out). |
| A1 | 1-8 | 1s cast down, 2s cross up, full double figure eight |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s cast below 2s |
| 3-4 | 1s lead up, collecting the 2s to a line of four facing up (from left to right: M2,M1 W1,W2) | |
| 5-6 | line of four lead up | |
| 7-8 | line of four set, end facing W1 | |
| B1 | 1-8 | W1 sets in place for 8 bars (avoid side to side setting, possibly rotating). M1 pass W1, then W2 right to start a hey for three across. Ending with the 1s facing up, others down. |
| B2 | 1-2 | All set, 1s face down on last count to make a line of six. |
| 3-4 | line of four lead down | |
| 5-8 | 2s face up, then handy-hand turn 1s once and a quarter (1s end facing out). |
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
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https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheGrunions
The dance is copyright © 2026 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2026 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021-2026 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.