Right And Left Through
An online definition may be found here.
Bars: 4.
Right and Left Through is a figure for two facing couples. You pull-by right hands with the person you face, then give left hand to the person beside you (in front), and right hand behind the back, and then turn half to face in, with the man backing up, and the woman going forward.
Variants
In Becket Reel, 1957 there is a diagonal right and left through.
History
The first definition of Right and Left Through that I can find is in Lloyd Shaw's Cowboy Dances, first published 1939. He does not claim to be the author of this figure, saying that it comes form the New England Square Dance tradition, however, Henry Ford's (Benjamin Lovett's) Good Morning, 1925, does not define "right and left through", and does define the old right and left, and the same is true of Ralph Page's The Country Dance Book, 1937.
Lloyd says:
In the right and left through two couples advance to each other, each lady, of course, being on the right of her gentleman. Each dancer gives his right hand to the opposite (who, of course, is of the opposite sex as well) and passes beyond — the two couples passing through each other. Each gentleman then takes his lady's left hand in his left, and putting his right hand behind her waist, turns her around him to the left while he stands as a pivot. The the two couples pass through each other again, giving opposites right hands as they do so. Then giving left hands to partners, the gentlemen again turn the ladies to place. Right hands to opposites and left hands to partners give it the name right and left through. Experts usually leave out the handshake, but beginners find it a help.
In Sept 1949 Sets in Order published a short list of standardized calls:
RIGHT AND LEFT THRU—Touch hands as you go. Do not return unless called.
So (at least in Southern California) Right and Left Thru had become half of the original figure from 10 years before.
CALLERLAB's definition from the 1970s, and unchanged since, is basically the same as the 1949 version.
But in the January 1950 issue there is another list of class (this time for Texas), and there "Right and left thru" is still over and back.
Some dances which (probably) use this figure
- Dances for which I have animations
Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.
See Also
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