Circle

Also known as: Circinate, Hands Round, Hands 4, Hands 6.

Bars: depends on the size of the circle, 4 bars for 4 people.

A circle involves joining hands with other people in the set and turning in a big circle.

If you move to your left shoulder (clockwise) you are said to be circling left. Moving to your right shoulder (counter-clockwise) is circling right. If no direction is specified assume you are to circle left.

A full circle will return you to where you began. Circles can be fractionalized, and a half circle will move you half round the minor set.

Often a circle in one direction is followed by a circle in the other direction (Circle left, circle right), in which case you circle until the end of the phrase of music and then change directions and circle back. It doesn’t matter how far you get, but you are expected to end the second circle where you began.

Circles may be of any number of people more than two (a two person circle is usually called a two hand turn).

History

I presume circling is as old as dancing.

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

• Dances for which I have animations
• Dances in (R)SCDS Books

Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.

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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.